Samsung BlackJack i607 Smartphone

Reviews: Electronics

Digital Cameras | PDAs | Communications

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Anthony Fiti
Kurtis
Samsung
May. 7, 2007

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Email, IM and Internet

The phone supports HSDPA (high speed downstream packet access) which provides for faster download speeds than the EDGE that Cingular/AT&T. Using the BroadbandReports.com Mobile Test page from the phone to check my speed, I ran three tests and averaged 785kb/s with an average latency of 0.48 seconds. The latency is a little high for my liking, but the throughput was very good, more than I had expected HSDPA to provide and is comparable to EVDO rev. A.

The e-mail setup process was simple, but it was somewhat tedious to enter all that information onto the device directly. During the setup processes I was disappointed to find there was no option to leave the e-mail message on the server for my POP3 account. I discovered though that the mail application will leave it on the server by default, and there is no option to force it to delete read messages from the server. Reading emails was easy and I was able to send replies flawlessly. I was very impressed with my ability to get and send e-mail on the go. While this isn't push email (I don't have an Exchange server at my beck and call to test with), it's still useful for personal email where you aren't expected to send a reply within five or ten minutes. Even better is the built-in ability to read Word and other MS Office attachments. Of course since this is a Windows Mobile-based phone it should come as no surprise.

I found instant messaging addictive. Once I managed to setup the IM client provided with the phone, I found that I could IM from anywhere. This turned out to be a problem as I could IM from places I normally wouldn't - standing in line for lunch and Panda Express and walking to and from my car at work (a four or five minute walk). The IM client was a little awkward at first to get used to, but it didn't take too long for me to get the hang of it. It was annoying to have to switch between conversations and the icon indicator showing you who has unread IMs was difficult to distinguish in all but perfect lighting conditions.

One problem I had with the built-in Internet Explorer application is that it would stop displaying web pages occasionally. Even going to the task manager applet and killing IE wouldn't fix the problem, restarting the phone was the only solution to make it work again. Otherwise, IE does a fine job in rendering simple web pages.

That brings me to my next point, which isn't really the phone's fault, but something you should consider when using the built-in IE is that while large sites like ESPN and CNN are ready for smartphone browsers and will present content in a way that is readable on the device, many small websites aren't ready and just turn out the normal content they would give to a normal PC. (Ed: Hey bub, you calling us small potatoes? I kid... If you want to see a mobile-friendly version of TheTechLounge, send an email to Brian and ask nicely. Maybe he'll get around to it.)

Finally, after a little Googling I discovered how to enable tethering, which is connecting my laptop to the internet via the phone. I disabled wireless LAN on my Mac and hooked it up to the phone via Bluetooth. I browsed around to some of my favorite websites and was pleased with the performance. There was a bit of lag because of the high latencies present in the cellular data network, however I had no problems with the speed. The Speakeasy.Net test indicated that my download speeds over the HSDPA network were 450kb/s down and 160kb/s up, which is slower than from within the phone, but still fairly fast.

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Page 4 of 5

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Page 1: Introduction, What's Inside & Advertised Capabilities
Page 2: First Looks
Page 3: Phone, Contacts and Calendar
Page 4: Email, IM and Internet
Page 5: Camera, Music and Conclusion

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7 User Comments

1 - Posted by Max Slowik on May 7, 2007 - 8:48 pm

"When you dial numbers, they are shown on the screen at a large size, which is good for older folks who may not have the best vision (my parents always complain about this fact – how the cellphones have small numbers displayed when you’re dialing)."

It's amazing that our parents were ever able to use phones /without/ displays /at all/ ;P

2 - Posted by aireiq on May 9, 2007 - 2:06 pm

Aren't all data plans spendy? Or are you saying that the one you reviewed is worse than many/most/all others?

3 - Posted by handrail on May 9, 2007 - 3:06 pm

i think most data plans are rather spendy. let's hope the iPhone's (presumed) popularity will spawn other similar products that jumpstart the popularity of EDGE and HSDPA and bring the cost down.

4 - Posted by Kurtis on May 9, 2007 - 3:49 pm

He was referring to all data plans. It's a problem with all smartphones. The data plans are ridiculously expensive for the casual user. Certainly a small and worthwhile investment for business but for the average Joe it's just a bit on the expensive side.

5 - Posted by aireiq on May 9, 2007 - 10:07 pm

@Kurtis

Thanks for clarification. I thought for a second there it was specific to the smartphone TTL reviewed (What? The BlackJakc plans are even more expensive?).

Thought it was "[TTL's] biggest complaint" as mentioned in the intro.

Thanks again.

6 - Posted by Kurtis on May 9, 2007 - 10:19 pm

Anthony's biggest complaints were battery life (with the standard battery, he didn't have an extended one to test), and the expensive data plans for smart phones.

7 - Posted by Max Slowik on May 10, 2007 - 2:12 am

Oh, I totally get that impression too:

I thought the complaint was the cost of the plan, too, since the battery life thing would seem to have been solved by the mfg.

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