Samsung BlackJack

The Samsung BlackJack I own was a gift from my husband just before Christmas 2006. Upon changing cell phone service it was time to upgrade and replace my old flip top phone that had been dropped in the water more than once and still functioned somewhat.

We watched the commercials and read the articles about the new BlackJack and wanted to see it first hand.

The pros would be the nice screen is very clear and colors are vivid. It is very slim and small when you use the lower life battery(get to this in the cons)meaning you can slip it nearly anywhere. Battery life for either seems very good. Buttons are very easy to push and if you miss and hit one over when dialing a number it usually picks it up anyways. Calls are usually crystal clear unless you are in a dead zone. Large memory capability. You can download lots of ring tones, songs, & games. Active Sync is easy to learn how to use with the BlackJack. Great organizer/task system. Bluetooth couldn't be easier to set up and use. And the ability to link to the net for your laptop is great too.

The cons on the other hand are not so impressive. If you use the extended life battery it takes up much more space and the cover extends the entire phone in length and width. If you don't use the extended life then good luck getting the cover off without breaking the PDA. It took us forever to get it off and we thought it would get easier but never did. I stick with the extended battery all the time. My first one dropped calls every time I got one and we had to send it back after two days. Now this one is beginning to do the same thing if I am on the call more than 2 or 3 minutes it might drop it but seems to stay connected the second time I call them. This is a smart phone system which if you know anything about PDA's says it all in my experience. But in case you don't that means limited capabilities in the PDA area. It is like the difference between works and office. One is ok and one is much better. Number lock is not always easy to use.

Overall this is a great PDA to learn on or if you don't have as much to do online. For example to log into my bank requires a password with upper and lower case plus a number which is hard to get right when you can't see if it switches to number mode. Because passwords come up * you can't see if you get it right and mess up a couple times and you are locked out. I use Ebay and for that my options are very limited on that site. I believe this will improve as websites strive to improve their sites to include better scripting for mobile users. But if you are using a PDA the way my husband does then it wouldn't be such a practical choice he needs to be able to do pretty much anything he could do on his pc from anywhere for his job.

I enjoy my BlackJack very much and I would recommend it highly as long as you aren't using it for major tasks that may be too large or take an extra long time.