Samsung BlackJack SGH-i607
Average Ratings
Not the Greatest Hand in the World to be Dealt
Long time AT&T user in Northeast Louisiana (5 years and counting. Lots of traveling through Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Texas). This was my 1st smart phone, ALL of my prior stints with Motorola flip phones beforehand.
I played around with this one night and really liked the texting capability on it and thought "cool, an all in 1 solution for everything."
Unfortunately, it didn't play out that way at all the longer I kept it.
PROS: - QUERTY keyboard is nicely laid out, though typos are very common. A+ for the idea, C- on execution.
-The organizer is VERY user friendly and helps for us "organized chaos" fans halfway keep out lives in check.
-Ringtones are nice and EXTREMELY loud.
CONS:- Signal was absolutely DISMAL. Areas where my V3xx neared perfection barely had any affect with the BlackJack. I was EXTREMELY disappointed.
-Battery life is ATROCIOUS. Almost everyday, I either was near dead; or already was before 24 hours passed. And unfortunately, mine was before the extended battery was released.
-The phone seemed to lag quite often. I do realize this is due to me not going into the task manager and closing out excess tasks; which is also a factor in battery life from what I'm told.
-The phone felt a little heavy when holding it to the ear. Would almost feel like I was talking on a brick, lol.
Overall, I was quite disappointed after using the phone for a good number of months. I moved onto a Palm Treo 650(GSM) which has my input on elsewhere.
Mainly, this phone was good for texting, and not a whole lot else.
If you're looking for clear signal, shop elsewhere; especially if looking towards smartphone/PDA territory.
Motorola Q9h review coming soon, so stay tuned!
AT&T ruined this phone...
Shame on me, I should be smart enough to know anytime a phone comes with two batteries, there has to be a reason!
This review is probably more of an indictment on AT&T and their âWalled Gardenâ marketing strategy than it is Samsung, but itâs the way the phone is sold. The phone it's self is a good phone, and deserves a higher rating. Again, itâs AT&Tâs shortsightedness as well as the OS that justifies this review in my opinion. It would be a MUCH better phone with Symbian. Symbian is SO easy to use I donât know why itâs not more popular in the US. Come on Nokia, it would help you improve your 4% market share it the US.
Pros:
1. Perfect size, Iâve heard others complain about the key mat, but to me itâs an acceptable tradeoff for the size
2. Stereo Bluetooth
3. Great call quality
Cons:
1. Windows Mobile
2. AT&T crippled the phoneâs features and capabilities
3. Pathetic battery life, extended battery or slim battery it doesnât matter
4. WiFi not in the US version, by AT&Tâs choice no doubt
5. No built in GPS
6. Have to app unlock the phone to get at the 4 most useful features
a. âBand Selectâ (turn off HSDPA to save battery)
b. âInternet Sharingâ (allow you to tether without the $60 tethering plan)
c. Remove SUPER annoying power cycling sounds and graphics
d. Don't know if you need the app hack to install this, but "J9" (IBM's MIDP 2.0 Emulator) is awesome, great if you like Opera Mini, no more clicking yes when Opera tries to access the web.
7. The one thing I didnât like about the phone itself was the funky way the keys work when trying to look up contacts. I got around this by purchasing Agenda One, awesome app.
8. Oh yeah⦠did I mention I donât like Windows Mobile?
Note to AT&T: QUIT CRIPPLING HANDSETS!!!!! When will you learn that handset manufacturers know what they are doing, let them do their jobs!!
My 1.5 rating is based on how the phone comes out of the box. After you hack the heck out of it, it would be higher.
air ball....
I have had this phone for 4 months its decent but theres major cons I sell phones for sprint,cingular(at&t),us cellular, verizon, virgin mobile and a few others
pros:
2 batterys
computer data cable
mp3s as ringtones
stereo bluetooth
durable
great for texting
cons:
horrible battery life
horrible camera and software
no flash(makes the pictures horrible)
bulky... like I carry a brick around
hard to dial numbers fast
navigation pad is hard 2 use
I will stay with my sony ericssons and sell this...I am all about business and I cannot edit documents or search the web easy....at&t...your better than this
pretty amazing.
So I got this phone last Friday and I'm pretty impressed with it. I was nervous about moving to a smart phone coming from a SE w810.. learning how to use this phone was a breeze I never even opened the user manual. so heres the pros and cons.
+great form factor, thin but still feels good in the hand.
+Screen is small for a smart phone but it is still a decent size and everything looks great on it. crisp and bright.
+query key pad is a major plus to have. It may look small and impossible to use but I got used to it very fast. query is awesome for typing out texts and emails and IM's
+phone does everything. I can easily access myspace and all other important websites.
+Internet is fast and im only on edge.
+PDA functions are great
+I havnt used cingular video or music but its nice to know its there
+camera is decent although se w810 was a lot better
cons:
+not that it really matters but the menu looks well.. boring.
+its not samsungs fault..more cingulars but the instant messenger uses texts rather than internet data. This is easily fixed by downloading OCTRO talk. its a free program and uses internet data rather than texts.
+some programs/settings are hard to find in the phone
+when importing contacts from sim card..all my contacts names got messed up and I had to rename everyone.
+on the phone the menu/ toggle center button can be hard to use and I often press the wrong button by accident.
+ring tones and backgrounds SUCK. easily fixed by downloading your own mp3's and pics from the computer
+no memory card included. Sony Ericsson provides a memory stick.
+I havnt been able to set up hotmail email..I just get a error message.
battery life. I'm not sure what everyone is doing with there blackjack's but I havnt had any issues with battery life. I charge it every night and i have no problems. I'm on the internet quite allot as well as aol IM. and at the end of the day the battery is still 50% full.
Hats off to the Blackjack
Have had my Blackjack now for about one month and being that it is my first smartphone ever, I think it is fantastic.
Pros:
-Overall functionality (as a phone and organizer)
-customizability
-camera quality
-screen resolution
-call quality
-battery life (about 4 days on a single charge with standard battery)
-can be tweaked to perfection
Cons:
-Have to watch how many apps you open since they don't close automatically. No big deal, just go into task manager and end them.
-Have to be careful how you hold the phone during a call, if you accidentally hit even the edge of the call button it puts the call on hold, can't figure out how to unhold the call without hanging up on the other person.
Again, this is a great phone and worth the money ($175 Cingular without data plan)if you're a phonaholic like myself.
Great Idea... Poor Implementation
At first, I gave this a 2.5 rating... but as I thought about the phone, I had to decrease it. It's a great idea, but they just did an AWFUL job designing it. It works - it just feels like it lacks in virtually every area. The one possible exception being the camera (though it's only a 1.3 MP). I forgot my regular camera on a trip a couple months ago and used this instead - pictures weren't bad considering there's no flash and I was often in low-light areas.
Pros:
*Camera works nicely.
Undecided:
*Keyboard - I have big hands and it's just never felt quite right... works ok though.
*Can use any mp3 file for custom ring tones but will use up space in available RAM even if you have an SDCard
*Internet Connection Sharing utility is buried and you have to find it by exploring folders with MANY files. A shortcut in the menu would have been nice.
Cons:
*Proprietary jack for connecting headphones severely limits your choices. And you want to use an FM transmitter or Tape adapter to listen in the car? Forget it.
*Ever call your credit card company or see a phone number like 1-800-CALL-ME? Good luck guessing what numbers correspond to letters.
*Battery life is really bad. (though mine did come with an extra battery).
*Spontaneously (though not during a call -- yet) turns off bluetooth.
*Can record audio but not phone calls (far as I can tell) and when recording audio, can only to it to the phone's memory, not the SD card (pictures can default to the SD Card, so why not audio?)
*No apparent setting to keep the backlight on for x minutes/seconds - when browsing a web page, this can be annoying to having to keep pressing buttons to see what you're reading.
*Need to be gentle with it or the screen could get scratched (especially if you keep it in your pocket). Likewise I worry about the camera lens.
*Doesn't play MPG videos (at least that I've tried)
*Mine (at least) did not come with PocketWord, PocketExcel, etc.
Best Ever
This phone is great it has everything one can ask for. It has:
1.3 megapixel camera
video of the lenght of memory card
windows media player
cingular video( wich by the was is sweet)
comes with two batteries
full qwery keyboard
very loud and super clear speakerphone
large screen
windows base with the click wheel on the side for ease of use
etc.
Its a great phone,ive worked in the wireless bussiness for 5 years now and i havent seen a phone as complete as this one i would recomend it to anyone and everyone. Oh and i forgot to mention it has music id meaning you can put your phone up to whatever song you hear even on the radio and it will tell you the name and artist who sings it, plus you can put full songs as ringtones. Im telling you the good things about this phone never end.
I didn't want this phone, but now I'm glad I got it...
I didn't really want this phone. I wanted an 8525, and I really needed a phone, but with all the other stuff I had to do, I just couldn't justify the cost of an 8525, so I settled for a Blackjack. I was just going to use for a few weeks, and then send it back and upgrade to the 8525, but the more I use it, the better I feel about this phone. This phone is marvelous! It does absolutely everything I want a phone/PDA hybrid to do. I can browse the Internet, tether it to my PC Internet access anywhere I have a signal. I can read Office attachments, send Yahoo!IMs, take movies and pics, and send them, send and receive email, watch movies amd listen to MP3s ripped to the 1GB miniSD I got on sale for 49.99 at Target, watch frigg'in HBO and listen to XM satellite. All I need now is the GPS attachments and I have everything I need in one neat easy to pocket gadget. I could go on, but the conveniences are too numerous for my lazy self to list.
the only things I've had a problem with is the keyboard. Its sized ok, but there's a lot of info painted onto the keyboard so until you get REALLY used to it, theres no quick glancing and seeing what you want, you have to kind of hunt through all the info to find what you want, and the number keys aren't clustered like on the Treos, so I was miskeying alot at forst. also, even with the bigger battery, the life isn't that great. Yesterday AM I started the day with a full battery, this AM it was drained. I do use Bluetooth and 3G, so it might last longer with those off, but I don't want to have to turn them off. I thought not having WiFi would be bad, but realistically the only time I'm in a hot spot is when I'm home. Between 2 master's Programs and a full time job, I don't have the time to sit around sipping beverages in Starbucks, and when I do visit the 2 little Internet cafes I go, I have work to do so I'm in my laptop, not my phone. I don't miss not having WiFi at all. Good Phone here. Buy BlackJack!
Blackjack tips!!!
Just a heads up on battrey management; a few great tips I got was to lower your screen lighting down to 10 seconds; also turn the brightness of the screen down to 1 in power management.
My New Blackjack
now no phone is perfect but the only problem i have had with this phone is you cant copy and paste, which is helpful on the internet. but i did see a download online which i didnt get. And i urge you not to pay for XM radio, you can use windows media player to stream internet radio and then you have more choices of stations. its easier to look them up on a computer then add it to your playlist. and i am a college student so these pros and cons are coming from my point of view.
Pros
-great phone
-very functional
-mp3 player
-surf any website(email, facebook, homework)
-3G network
-Great display screen
-the volume is almost too loud i never have it turned all the way up.
-bluetooth cap.
-Great external speaker, can listen to music on it
-good camera
-Loud speaker phone with great quality
-keyboard
-plenty of free downloads online but i cant find games
-external memory card!!!!
-very customizable
-great for texting
-its slim size
-reception/service
-I Love It
Cons
-doesnt include earbuds/headset(i bought them off ebay for 9 dollars)
-bettery life isnt as bad as people say im in a long distance relationship so i talk alot and with the extended battery im going on my third night and had 2 full days. with atleast 4 hours of talk time on my cell. i have the brightness turned down and an early back light and time out setting.
-when hitting end it doesnt close the program you have to go to the task manager under the applications folder.
thats really about all i got so i hope this informations is helpful i love the phone and if you buy it i hope you do too.
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