New Phone: Samsung BlackJack 2

Well folks, I did it. I was back and forth for a while on getting a smart phone.... My 2 year contract was up and all the other non-smart phones were pretty much horseshit, so I took the plunge. Above you can see my new toy, the Samsung Blackjack 2. It runs windows mobile 6, has unlimited 3G data usage, and has a GPS and what not.

First impressions: Hated the keyboard for about 15 minutes... Now I love it :) Yes its a bit bigger than my old Motorola SLVR, but its only a tad thicker and feels good in the pocket still. I LOVE the 2 MP camera. Goodbye 640x480. I am sure you will be seeing some pics from it soon on this here blog, so keep an eye out.

Cool stuff about it: I have it checking my work outlook email and syncing the calendar, which is super useful for marathon meeting days, since I don't have to run back to my desk to check where the next meeting is. MSN Messenger works great, the data speeds are amazing (you still have ~ 1 second of network latency), and the IE mobile browser works pretty well with most sites. Its super fast, just navigation and things of this nature, a lot snappier feeling than my old SLVR.


Pros:

• Size

• Battery life (went all weekend without charging, light usage only but still)

• 3G data is pretty damn fast

• Streaming video is real good quality, but debatable if its really that useful

• Camera is actually usable

• Volume - it gets REAL loud at loudest setting... loud enough to hear in a moderately noisy bar
• Micro-SD card - I reused my 512mb card from my old phone
  

• Solitaire :)

Cons:

• Using GPS = dead battery in an hour or two MAX

• Poor battery life until you turn off ActiveSync's constant sync of outlook... I set mine to 15 minutes during peak hours (you can define this) and an hour off peak.

• I had to modify the registry to allow me to set ringtones > 300k

• No Wi-Fi.... I don't know if I would even use this that often, but the network latency makes the 3g feel slower than it actually is - during downloads it screams, but normal surfing 75% of the time is spent waiting for the transfer to start.
• I have yet to figure out how to turn it to vibrate with one key - there is one for silent and I can do it in like 3 or 4 key presses from the home screen.