Samsung Blackjack First Look - Part 2

I have had about a full month and then some to get used to the Samsung Blackjack, and wanted to follow up with some observations and specifics.

Based on my initial First Look I was impressed by the functionality and phone capabilities of the Blackjack up front.

But, over time, some of the things I had become used to started to pop up. First, there is no "headset" profile in the Bluetooth stack, so there is no audio gateway for the standard BT headset (unlike the Motorola Q and the T-Mobile Dash.) Second, there is no standard jack for an audio headset - just the same proprietary Samsung jack used for charging, syncing, and the proprietary headsets available. Third, no matter how hard I have tried, I cannot get the Blackjack to sync to any PC via Bluetooth. I have tried using BT USB adapters and embedded BT on laptops and PCs, but the Blackjack will not see the ActiveSync service on any machine, and therefore not let me sync wirelessly. I had no troubles with previous Motorola Q's or other Windows Mobile devices, so this is a problem I can only attribute to the Blackjack and its bluetooth implementation. I also don't like the way headsets have to connect to the Blackjack through the BT Headset applet.

I have used the Blackjack with 3 different Bluetooth headsets - the Jabra JX10, the Motorola HT820 Stereo Headset, and recently, with the Jawbone headset. All work well, and in fact the audio is so loud that I have to turn down the volume using each of these headsets. Both the JX10 and the Jawbone have some signal processing that limits ambient noise, and I have had no complaints about my call quality using each of those headsets.

Also, over time, I found that battery life started to increase. I have been using Novell GroupWise 7 Mobile with SMS push and my daily usage is pretty consistent. But my battery life has been creeping upwards as I have used the device more and more.

One of my favorite "to do's" has been to press and hold the home key to bring up the Task Manager. I am fairly OCD about killing off any process that may be slowing my Blackjack down and recommend this tool to everyone. One of the other cool things is the Battery meter (from the Task Manager, select menu and then Battery) which is a great indicator of battery life remaining and is more detailed than the typical 10% or 25% increments found on most Windows Mobile devices.

I have a 2GB SanDisk microSD card installed in my Blackjack that has my CoPilot GPS app and maps, my music, and my photos. I install as many apps to the microSD card as I can, with the major exception being VoiceCommand 1.6 which won't let you install to anything but the device memory. With typical use, I find that I have between 21 and 27MB of program memory available during the day, which fluctuates as certain apps are opened and as I close apps using the Task Manager. But performance-wise, the Blackjack rocks!

One other annoyance that I discovered was no Pocket MSN. There is a registry entry for it, and if you try to install the app using the downloaded Pocket MSN installer it will tell you that the app is already installed. So users have to remove the registry entry and then the installation program can install the program as designed. Why Pocket MSN is not included is anyone's guess, but at least the registry entry should have been cleaned before going to production. I did manage to install it and have used the MSN Messenger app quite a bit. Hotmail is another story, as Microsoft is pushing their new Windows Live services, of which Live Mail is the next generation of Hotmail. For some reason, the two services don't behave the same with the Pocket MSN client, so I stick to the browser view of my Live Mail.

I have found that most apps that will run on the Q will also run on the Blackjack. Apps that I have installed include:

ALK CoPilot 5 for Motorola Q (w/CoPilot BT GPS Mouse)
eWallet for Smartphone
PHM Registry Editor
Resco Explorer
Resco TaskManager
Resco PowerToys
GA Ringtone Manager
Pocket MSN
MS OneNote 2007 Beta
MS Live Search
Sprite Backup 5.2 for Smartphone
MS Voice Command 1.6 for Smartphone
Vieka WordPad
No Limit Aces Texas Hold 'Em
Momentum Games Pocket Mini Golf
Smoresoft Sudoku

I have customized Home screens and have edited the registry to prevent the startup and shutdown sounds. I have also application unlocked the Blackjack so my registry edits will "stick" and unsigned apps can run without warnings.

I also have enjoyed the crystal clear photos that the camera has taken. The camera on my Q (and on almost every other PDA I have owned) was bad, but this is the first usable camera I have been happy to use when I don't have my 6.0 megapixel Nikon digital camera with me.

In summary, the Blackjack is a keeper despite its shortcomings. It does what I want it to do - phone calls, messaging, web browsing - reliably. I am notoriously hard on PDAs and PDAphones in particular. The Blackjack has held up well.

My wish list would include an updated Bluetooth stack that includes the headset audio profile and a better ActiveSync bluetooth profile. I can use the sync cable to do what needs to be done, but I prefer to be wireless (especially while traveling) because I am supposed to be able to be, on general principle. I have seen some Samsung adapters showing up on ebay and other online cell stores that will provide a wired headset connection to a standard 3.5mm audio headset, so that may be a moot point. But I haven't seen any car kits nor do I figure we will, since the proprietary sync/charge/headset port is on the upper left side of the Blackjack, meaning that we will not be able to recharge the unit and listen to music or phone calls at the same time through the existing port. I guess that means my wish list should also include a Bluetooth car stereo like the Pioneer DEH-P9800BT so I can really be wireless.