1. The BlackJack isn't better than the BlackBerry by a long shot. It is, after all, running Windows Mobile, however, that $10 million campaign from Cheil Communications is working. The BlackJack has the coolest commercial for a smartphone to date and people are asking about it in the Cinuglar stores, especially since Cingular doesn't have the BlackBerry Peary yet.

http://www.rimarkable.com/archives/1017

Posted at 10:49AM on Nov 27th 2006 by Robb Dunewood (RIMarkable)

2. There are lots of reviews for both the BB Pearl and the Blackjack, and I won't repeat them here. Seems to me that the deciding factor for a lot of people will be Blackjack's 3G support. People who want a phone that will last 2 years and can get access to 3G speeds seem to have a pretty clear choice. Those who don't have access to 3G yet and don't mind the prospect of needing to get a new phone once it is available in their area have a tougher choice.

Posted at 11:02AM on Nov 27th 2006 by Jack

3. The battery life sucks on the blackjack. But it is a damn nice phone!

Posted at 11:35AM on Nov 27th 2006 by Tim

4. The sad part is RIM is such an easy target in a lot of ways. It barely supports IMAP and that poorly. It won't let you separate your personal e-mail from BIS from your work e-mail. It doesn't support foreign text. It doesn't have nearly as many apps as the Treo did (Vindigo where are you?, and those it does tend to be quite expensive.

Yet I still use my BB because there isn't anything better right now.

Posted at 11:16PM on Nov 27th 2006 by akatsuki

5. I actually tried the Blackjack. The 3G is its big selling factor. The size is good (though a bit wider than the BB 7130 and certainly than the Pearl), though it makes the keyboard marginal (usable but not great). I didn't have it long enough to assess the stability of this WM5 (it does indeed vary by device a lot). What it does NOT have is voice dialing, which to me is an important reason to get the Pearl (so it is much easier to dial when driving). My advice would be to consider seriously the Blackjack if you do lots of surfing or tethering to PC's in areas of 3G coverage. If it had voice dialing, I would have kept it at least long enough to make sure the OS was stable, and maybe instead of the Pearl. The concern over battery life is one I can't speak to, but it does matter a lot.

Posted at 1:14PM on Nov 27th 2006 by Bristol

6. I came -this- close to buying the blackjack until I realized its $10/month more for the same service as BIS... and I was unclear as to whether tethering was included in that $10. Cingular is insane for charging so much... at the cost, I'd rather pay $10 per shot for the wireless access on my laptop and use skype. I was fed up with the wait for the pearl, and the readability of the blackjack is much higher plus 3G seemed quite appealing. However one big thing I didn't like how wide it was, kinda making a funny crease in my pants.

Posted at 1:13PM on Nov 27th 2006 by Steve

7. I've owned a Blackjack for a few days now and thought I would post my thoughts in hopes it might help those on the fence or those that recently purchased and wanted to hear that they weren't the only ones thinking these things..

I have been a blackberry user for over 6 years and this phone is replacing an 8700 that got in a fight with my kitchen floor and lost.

POSITIVE IMPRESSION ON:

Size - Perfect size. Anything smaller would definitely prohibit a full QWERTY keyboard. The slimness is welcome -- I'd say it's half as thick as the 8700.

Great screen - nice, bright and high resolution. Feels sharper and 'better' than my 8700's screen.

QWERTY keyboard is great. Despite the small size, with a little adjustment easily as good as 8700. I read they even licensed some of the RIM keyboard patents and it shows with the ease of typing.
"Push" email (POP3 -- gmail in my case) is very adequate

Application variety - I'm a BIG fan of the simplicity of Blackberry products- - they seem VERY smartly organized around professional use. I have to admit (although early) I like the option of having a Windows Media Player that can stream internet radio and a phone and video recorder. Who know how much use I will get of them but, for now, they are a positive novelty.

NEGATIVE IMPRESSIONS ON:

Weight - Far from 'too heavy' but it feels to me to be about the same weight as the 8700. Totally acceptable (not really a con -- it's just feather light)

No 'missed calls / email' indicator light - the blackberry features an indicator light which can be set to blink if you miss a call or email. This is great if you have your phone sitting on a coffee table while you are watching tv and don't want if vibrating or ringing. As far as I can tell the only option on the Blackjack is to scroll down on the home screen and see if it says you have missed calls or new email.

Inconsistent soft keys - below the screen are two 'soft keys' that can't seem to make up their mind about what they are. A perfect example is that sometimes when looking at a list the left one is a 'more' option that takes you to the next set of items -- and other times you need to scroll down to the last item in a list that is called 'more' and use the soft key to 'select' that item. Thinking about the one a bit I think it's more an issue of Windows Mobile being a platform that works across many different phones -- but annoying nevertheless.

Scroll wheel an afterthought - Unlike the Blackberry, this device was definitely not BUILT around the scroll wheel and it shows. The scroll wheel is nice for scrolling up and down email and webpages but, for example, you cant scroll around the links on a page -- rather you need to scroll down near them and then use the direction pad to select specific links.. speaking of the direction pad..

VERY BAD direction navigation pad - for much of your navigation you are forced to use the up/down/left/right/select direction navigation pad. The pad itself is QUITE nice but it's location (and the location of my fingers) FREQUENTLY (like 10% of clicks) seem to brush over/on the "CALL START' or "CALL CANCEL" buttons. Pressing either of these either sends you to the phone mode for phone number entry or cancels you out of the application. Usually selecting the 'back' button gets you back where you were but this issue is actually quite bad. I am not sure if I am nitpicking here (anyone else have reactions?) but if I don't find myself adjusting away from accidentally hitting those buttons I might return the phone -- it's that bad.

Crap Extra Applications - Ahh.. yes.. Microsoft bloatware. A ton of stuff here that isn't of interest with very limited options to 'get it out of the way'. Blackberry does a nice job of letting you easily remove and hide anything that isn't important to you.

Home Screen - Just plain kludgey. For me, none of the 'start screen' templates 'feel right'. The blackberry gives you a pretty concise and targeted set of things to do from the 'home screen'. While there are like four or five options included with my Cingular Blackjack none of them feel right. None of them give me an overview of everything important to me on a single screen. All require additional interaction.

Application and File navigation - Wow. Talk about too many ways to skin a cat. I have found at least 5 ways to navigate around the applications and the files. While some might like the chance to find one that suites them 95% well --- I'd just prefer a single option that works 85% and not be exposed to all the confusion around options... and even if you find one that works best there really isn't a simple way to get back to it.

New Date and Contact Entry - While not totally broken it doesn't seem nearly as thoughtful and streamlined as the blackberry counterpart. Seems like the interface skims on phone entry and likely assumes and relies upon majority of management happening on a PC client and then getting sync'd up. Not a bad assumption -- just not how I work. (I enter almost everything on the phone and sync it back to desktop). An example of something that actually is a little broken is adding a contact while in an application -- if you see and highlight a phone number or are in an email message and select 'add to contact list' unlike the blackberry that intelligently populates your new entry with some information the blackjack always seems to bring up a clean and empty new contact.. I could be doing something wrong but it feels buggy.

Google Maps doesn't work - Might be a small or non-issue for most but I became quite reliant upon Google Maps to get around and look up phone numbers for local businesses etc. Even though there is a version of Google Maps designed for the phone it seems that Cingular's or Samsung's implementation of Java prohibits it from working. Major bummer. Hopefully there is a workaround in the works about postings on this board indicate nothing is in the works.

OVERALL

Well -- I could go on and on. Clearly I spend more time with the negatives than the positives because the issues seems to be dumb oversights. MANY times I am using the Blackjack and thinking that someone on the Windows Mobile team should have just said "umm.. let's just copy Blackberry". Maybe much of how Blackberry phones work is patented but it just seems much more intelligently designed and presented.

I will say that while my experience is limited in the world of Windows Mobile Devices I am impressed with the phone. It's definitely a lean and mean machine technically -- I just think the Blackberry OS is firmly superior to the experience of using a blackjack. An obvious caveat is that I am very used to the blackberry -- but that aside -- doing simple and obvious things on the blackjack just take longer. More navigation needed, more clicks, more button presses, more attention required -- and getting quick and more familiar with the device won't reduce the clicks or limit the amount of button presses.

So what am I going to do? I'm definitely going to give it a shot. I'm going to keep it for my full 30 days and see if I get more familiar with the device, the operating system and the either find workarounds for my issues or just get less critical of them..

... And if I don't like it them I will perhaps give the Blackberry Pearl a spin (although the non-full QWERTY keyboard freaks me out) or perhaps fall back on replacing my broken 8700 with another (now swollen feeling) 8700. It all depends on how well I get along with the Blackjack and what Cingular's timing is with the Pearl.

Does anyone else have any thoughts or questions? I would love to know if anyone agrees or disagrees. Hopefully I am not stirring up and rabid Windows Mobile fan base -- just my own personal thoughts and impressions.. your mileage (and thought) may vary.

- Chris

Posted at 6:15PM on Nov 27th 2006 by Chris

8. I actually played with the BlackJack for a little while at a Cingular store this is merely off of first impressions.

Keyboard

I built a great disdain for the keyboard during the brief time I spent with it. The curved surface has no traction. Your fingers slip off way too easily. The keys are too closed together and are longer rather than wider making you hit keys next to the one you inteded to hit way too many times. And I have small fingers!

Screen

Bright and vibrant and more pixels than 7130c. No complaints

Connectivity

3G is huge! Bluetooth is included as well but missing wifi

Size

Very close to being perfect. Felt really good in my hand.

Speed

Sluggish, like all WinMo 5 machines that use the 200mhz cpu. I really dislike WinMo 5

I generally prefer my blackberry better due to the better keyboard and email support. My last phone was a Treo 650 and that had a better screen and keyboard than the blackjack.

Posted at 12:08AM on Nov 28th 2006 by Q

9. give me a 3G Pearl and I am happy!

Posted at 4:48PM on Dec 4th 2006 by SC

10. give me a 3G Pearl and I am happy!

Posted at 3:35PM on Dec 4th 2006 by SC

11. Let me first say I am new to this and I am sure that most other people have much more expertise but this is my impression of the Blackjack after having it for a few days. In addition to repeating what everyone else said (and I agree a 3G Pearl would be perfect) I wanted to add a few things. I agree wholeheartedly with everything that was said about Windows os (compared to only using the Pearl in the T-mobile store for a while), and the general oversights in the device. It is true that the button layout is not so great and oddly my finger at first looked for the little “pearl” to navigate since there was no touch screen. Personally, I would have liked to see a no camera model (of either device). I could be crazy but I was hoping for a device that would be an all around communication tool. Obviously you can access your email (which was one of my primary reasons for looking for such a device), yes there is internet that is not so bad, although there were a bunch of pages that just don’t load, like skype.com (I have not tried to use it tethered, but the software for that was included) however I was not able to use any applications not directly loaded from Cingular in the device. I tried to load a messager (so I would be using data and not Cingular texts) it wouldn’t load, I tried to use Slingbox mobile no good, and what hurt me most was I tried to load skype mobile and that too did not work. I’m not sure if these services are blocked by Cingular or are somehow not compatible yet since the device is fairly new. I’m not sure if anyone has figured this out, but please let me know if you do. A bunch of my friends and coworkers use bb and from my limited experience it wasn’t so bad. I fell like the Blackjack has so much potential and it falls completely flat. I too am holding out for my 30 day period and if it doesn’t somehow pan out it’s going back.

Posted at 9:34AM on Dec 9th 2006 by Tyson

12. Let me first say I am new to this and I am sure that most other people have much more expertise but this is my impression of the Blackjack after having it for a few days. In addition to repeating what everyone else said (and I agree a 3G Pearl would be perfect) I wanted to add a few things. I agree wholeheartedly with everything that was said about Windows os (compared to only using the Pearl in the T-mobile store for a while), and the general oversights in the device. It is true that the button layout is not so great and oddly my finger at first looked for the little “pearl” to navigate since there was no touch screen. Personally, I would have liked to see a no camera model (of either device). I could be crazy but I was hoping for a device that would be an all around communication tool. Obviously you can access your email (which was one of my primary reasons for looking for such a device), yes there is internet that is not so bad, although there were a bunch of pages that just don’t load, like skype.com (I have not tried to use it tethered, but the software for that was included) however I was not able to use any applications not directly loaded from Cingular in the device. I tried to load a messager (so I would be using data and not Cingular texts) it wouldn’t load, I tried to use Slingbox mobile no good, and what hurt me most was I tried to load skype mobile and that too did not work. I’m not sure if these services are blocked by Cingular or are somehow not compatible yet since the device is fairly new. I’m not sure if anyone has figured this out, but please let me know if you do. A bunch of my friends and coworkers use bb and from my limited experience it wasn’t so bad. I fell like the Blackjack has so much potential and it falls completely flat. I too am holding out for my 30 day period and if it doesn’t somehow pan out it’s going back. Further now that I was readinging that the bb8800 will ship in Jab for tmobile with wifi, this Blackjack days may be very limited.

Posted at 3:30AM on Dec 9th 2006 by Tyson

13. Let me say that I've had the BlackJack for just over 30 days (bummer), and the WinMO is coming apart at the seams. I live in a non-3G market, and the I cannot consistently get a data connnection. Cingular data support is scratching their head, new SIM, no help. Agree that battery life is awful. Beware the phone that ships with two batteries and a nice charger in the box! With bluetooth on, the battery life is about 4 hours! Screen res. is amazing, keyboard is not bad when you get accustomed to it. Using direct push with Microsoft Exchange server works great, when the data connection is working. Overall, I miss my 7130, but won't by a Pearl (or anything else) without 3G.

Posted at 9:48AM on Dec 30th 2006 by Todd

14. Can you access the internet to get your email and surf in europe with the cingular blackjack?

Posted at 1:30PM on Jan 10th 2007 by Craig