Video First Look of Cingular Blackjack

[Rocco Augusto]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.mobilitysite.com/2006/11/cingular_blackjack_video_1st_look.php' target='_blank'>http://www.mobilitysite.com/2006/11/cingular_blackjack_video_1st_look.php</a><br /><br /></div><i>"With the announcement of the Cingular Blackjack (Samsung SGH-i607) Monday via webcast, Cingular completed it's 1st Windows Mobile sweep of HSDPA devices. One Smartphone and One Pocket PC phone. I am happy now. I had the chance to do some 3G speeding in Birmingham Alabama when I was visiting my parents, but no 3G here yet..."</i><br /><br />A very cool and very long video showing off the Samsung Blackjack. While the video is pretty neat, I don't think it shows off just how truly cool this device is. I traded in my Cingular 3125 earlier today and picked one of these up for myself! After using HTC products for the last few years, it feels really good to use a device made by a different manufacturer! 8)

[Pete Paxton]

[iAfter using HTC products for the last few years, it feels really good to use a device made by a different manufacturer! 8)

How does this one differ from a HTC device? How does it compare to the Dash? I'm anxious to go in and check this one out!

[Pete Paxton]

Looking around the web, CNET thinks the BJ is OK, PCmag likes it and Infosyncworld gave it a 79% just like the Dash. The reviews are really starting to come in.

[Rocco Augusto]

How does this one differ from a HTC device? How does it compare to the Dash? I'm anxious to go in and check this one out!

i haven't had much face time with the dash, but i can tell you that this is the first time in a good couple months that i have been happy with my phone.

while i ragged on the cingular 3125, it was still a good phone. i wasn't looking for a phone though, i was just looking for more. the keyboard was a huge sell for me with the blackjack. ever since the whole 2125-sticky-key-upgrade mishap, i have just grown annoyed with T9. i needed something quicker and more responsive.

unlike all htc devices i have owned, this phone is feature PACKED. from the moment you start it up the phone screems "entertainment". there are some cool original homescreens provided by samsung as well as a cool windows media player skin. the camcorder records in 320x240 and the camera itself provides images that appear crisp and colorful... for a camera phone.

i still haven't been able to get cingular video to work, the system keeps telling em to get a data plan even though i have one. :(

there is the same im program that you have on the sda (upgraded i believe) for using aim/yahoo!/msn messenger, which i promptly tested out by bragging to mike about my new phone ;)

samsung gives you the ability to set a million different alarms as well as packing a notepad application and a program called "d-day".... which im too afraid to open up. ;)

all in all, this phone is just incredible. samsung did a great job of taking all the bland boring elements of windows mobile and sprucing them up into something that makes me excited again and makes me want to play with it constantly.

i haven't really had that much of a chance to test out the speed difference of 3G. i had to do a complete reinstall the HTPC so i haven't had a chance to setup orb yet for some streaming TV but once i do, ill report back! :)

[Pete Paxton]

Wow, sounds like a great phone. You sound as excited as I was two weeks ago when I upgraded my sda to my Dash. It does so much more than I thought it would. Since my area doesn't have 3g, and since I have wifi at work and home, the Dash is the one for me. I like it waaaaay more than I thought I would. Glad you like the BJ so much.

[ricoks]

I can't imagine the wet mess i'd be standing in if the BlackJack had Wifi as well. I know it has 3G - but wifi allows for an easy upgrade for streaming video from the home network, and why not use that instead of 'hoggin' Cingular's network. Heck, they should look at Wifi as a 'help' to their network overhead............. :lol:
This will be my next phone as well, unless the Q Pro comes out for HSDPA and has Wifi - that may very well sway me, altho i'm not much of a motorola fan. The looks of the BlackJack are SOO much nicer - no extra space around the edges that make it look big. In fact, it makes it seem smaller. The pics I saw of the Q Pro, however, seemed to resemble the Samsung more than the Samsung resembled the Q - anyone have comments???

[Jerry Raia]

Rocco have you seen the little application strip you can call up on the right side of the screen?

[stevew]

I ordered one from Cingular online Thursday morning. I'm really looking forward to a device that I can feel the love again. :D

[stevew]

grrrrr Got email today saying it is backordered. How can that be? I ordered it the morning it was posted on there website, 6am. :roll:

[Jerry Raia]

Maybe you can grab one in a store.

[HalM]

Rocco have you seen the little application strip you can call up on the right side of the screen?
I missed that. How do I enable it? Thanks!

[Jerry Raia]

Hold down the jog wheel. You're gonna love this. :)

[Nelson]

Hi, I'm also looking forward to getting a hold of this device when it comes out in Australia later in the year. Though I would prefer it to also have wifi though.

Does anyone know the specs for the Aust. version?

Nelson

[HalM]

Hold down the jog wheel. You're gonna love this. :)
Very cool. Thanks!!!

[cortez]

guys - i'm really interested to hear your battery life experiences... does the phone come with 2 batteries?

thx

[HalM]

guys - i'm really interested to hear your battery life experiences... does the phone come with 2 batteries?

thx
Yes it comes with 2 batteries and a "charger" for the second one. In a day of light to normal use yesterday it was fine, less than 30% used. And we are in a marginal 3G / EDGE area so it is frequently switching between them.

[amg212]

guys - i'm really interested to hear your battery life experiences... does the phone come with 2 batteries?

thx
Yes it comes with 2 batteries and a "charger" for the second one. In a day of light to normal use yesterday it was fine, less than 30% used. And we are in a marginal 3G / EDGE area so it is frequently switching between them.

Samsung has a history of shipping 2 batteries with quite a few of their devices - I wouldn't read anything into it as an indication of an unusual problem.

Yesterday (day 1 with the phone) battery life was awful - BUT I was dealing with a battery that was probably not charged properly the first time and was doing everything I could to put the phone through the paces - screen was on quite a bit, active downloading with 3G, bluetooth running (live connections), etc. If there was a way to suck battery, I was doing it. So going dead in half a day didn't shock me.

Of course, that was not representative of how I usually use a phone.

Today has been much more normal. The phone came off the charger 5 hours ago - I've had about 20 minutes of voice calls (using bluetooth), approximately 1.5MB of 3G data transfers, not including direct push of my work email (15 messages received over the course of the day, 7 sent) and polling of my personal email via IMAP every 30 minutes. Bluetooth is on full time, although had an active connection for only about an hour.

Battery icon is at full, and the battery bar in the power management screen is only one pixel off of 100%.

I don't expect that the battery meter is calibrated perfectly, but this is certainly a good sign of how the rest of the day should play out.

[webini]

"With the announcement of the Cingular Blackjack (Samsung SGH-i607) Monday via webcast, Cingular completed it's 1st Windows Mobile sweep of HSDPA devices. One Smartphone and One Pocket PC phone. I am happy now. I had the chance to do some 3G speeding in Birmingham Alabama when I was visiting my parents, but no 3G here yet..."

A very cool and very long video showing off the Samsung Blackjack. While the video is pretty neat, I don't think it shows off just how truly cool this device is. I traded in my Cingular 3125 earlier today and picked one of these up for myself! After using HTC products for the last few years, it feels really good to use a device made by a different manufacturer! 8)

How did you "trade in" your 3125? I have a 3125 and am not pleased with it and would like to upgrade to the Blackjack. My plan was to buy the Blackjack retail and eBay the 45 day old 3125 (perfect condition, screen protectors used). Is there another alternative?

[cortez]

Samsung has a history of shipping 2 batteries with quite a few of their devices - I wouldn't read anything into it as an indication of an unusual problem.

Yesterday (day 1 with the phone) battery life was awful - BUT I was dealing with a battery that was probably not charged properly the first time and was doing everything I could to put the phone through the paces - screen was on quite a bit, active downloading with 3G, bluetooth running (live connections), etc. If there was a way to suck battery, I was doing it. So going dead in half a day didn't shock me.

Of course, that was not representative of how I usually use a phone.

Today has been much more normal. The phone came off the charger 5 hours ago - I've had about 20 minutes of voice calls (using bluetooth), approximately 1.5MB of 3G data transfers, not including direct push of my work email (15 messages received over the course of the day, 7 sent) and polling of my personal email via IMAP every 30 minutes. Bluetooth is on full time, although had an active connection for only about an hour.

Battery icon is at full, and the battery bar in the power management screen is only one pixel off of 100%.

I don't expect that the battery meter is calibrated perfectly, but this is certainly a good sign of how the rest of the day should play out.

i had the Samsung i320n which didn't have 3G access and i could not get through the day without switching batteries. i believe the battery on the i320n is 1000 mAh vs a 1200 mAh on the i607. i'm expecting that the extra 200 mAh will improve battery life.

my spouse (who works for AT&amp;T/Cingular) likes this device but she is concerned about battery life. she spends 1-3 hrs on the phone and receives about 75-125 emails daily. she's not the type to swap batteries during the day.

thanks in advance all the responses...

[Rocco Augusto]

Rocco have you seen the little application strip you can call up on the right side of the screen?

that is just awesome... im so happy :D

[Rocco Augusto]

How did you "trade in" your 3125? I have a 3125 and am not pleased with it and would like to upgrade to the Blackjack. My plan was to buy the Blackjack retail and eBay the 45 day old 3125 (perfect condition, screen protectors used). Is there another alternative?

i worked for cingular for a number of years so i know who to talk to when i need a favor in bending the rules a bit. also, i have a business account with cingular and through business care they are a lot more relaxed than regular customer care.

you can easily get a business account if you work for one of the thousands of companies that cingular has partnerships with... or if you're a college student, thats how my girlfriend got hers.

[Rocco Augusto]

quick side note, using the phone to listen to some music over stereo BT used about a 1/4 of my battery life in less than 40 minutes. while thats not cool, i sit in front of a pc all day so i can easily charge the phone or swap the battery out with my already charged battery that i was carrying around just in case ;)

[Pete Paxton]

Rocco, your using a BT headphone set? If so, which one. I'm looking for a good BT headphone set.

[Pete Paxton]

I was able to watch a 1 1/2 movie on my Dash with wifi and BT on (but not using either of them) and after the movie I had 75% left. Not too shabby.

[amg212]

Battery life still going pretty strong but I can see the meter dropping a bit now. Still, I'm 8 hours into pretty solid use and appear to be at 75-80% battery. I can live with that...

On a separate note -

I have my Blackjack paired up with several different handsfree devices (headsets and my car kit). One thing I've noticed is that in the BT setup screens when one device is set to Handsfree, the other devices are unchecked. That means I can't switch between handsfree BT devices without delving into the setup screens every time. Earler WM5 devices I've tried would work with only one handsfree at a time but did not require any intervention on the device to stop using one and start using another (assuming they were already paired). Is there a fix for this? If not, is there a way to create a quick shortcut or put some sort of utility on the device to allow for fast switching??

One more unrelated point -

In a couple of programs that I've tried (notably the contact browser of Agenda One, but others as well) keyboard input produces odd results. In particular, pressing any of the keys that double as the numeric keypad results in the number being sent; pressing any other key results in the letter. No combination of monkeying around with Fn, Caps or Num Lock seemed to make a difference. It is only in a handful of programs but it seems that there is a system quirk that could render certain apps 100% useless. Thoughts??

[Pete Paxton]

Does the BJ have the type of keyboard that if you hold a key for more than a second it will choose the alternative key?

[amg212]

Does the BJ have the type of keyboard that if you hold a key for more than a second it will choose the alternative key?

Yes!

[Rocco Augusto]

Rocco, your using a BT headphone set? If so, which one. I'm looking for a good BT headphone set.

I'm using the "Logitech Wireless Bluetooth Headphone for MP3" which you might be able to still purchase from Amazon for about $20-$30USD. I originally ordered the Jabra stereo BT headset, but I was sent this instead. All in all, its a nice pair of headphones and the sound quality is pretty good... though im just waiting for mine to crack down the middle like everyone elses :lol:

EDIT: just wanted to update everyone that i am already on my second battery... i barely made it through half of my work day before i had to switch out. i didn't really do much, i probably talked for about 40 minutes and listened to less than an hour of music. i have all of my emails being pushed to the phone and thats about it. if this was my 3125, i would still have about 80% battery life left if not more. :(

[stevew]

Called Cingular today and now they said it is ready to ship. :D

[mar2k]

Anyone know the No Contract price on Cingular??

[Pete Paxton]

Well, on the one hand that isn't very good battery life but on the other hand they were responsible enough to send two.

[encece]

Other than the less than stellar battery life (but not terrible), and the flush D-Pad....this is the coolest device I have ever owned.

Thanks for the hold jog wheel trick...that is cool (I should read the manual eventually!)

Lots of nice litlle software additions out of the box. Nice homescreen plugins. This is a well thought out device made by someone who has actually used smartphones before. ;)

[acharn]

I am considering the i607, but one thing holding me back is which data plan Cingular makes you have with this device. I currently have medianet at $19.99/month, but from what I have seen on the website the only available data plan is the $39.99. Anybody using Medianet on this device and since I already have it, can I continue to use it or will I have to go with the $39.99 plan?

[Rocco Augusto]

I'm using the MediaMax 200 $19.99 plan which includes unlimited MediaNET and 200 messages. I haven't had any problems with it so far :)

[JohnJohn]

I just took my new Cingular 8525 back and picked this thing up. I'm happier than a 13 year boy with a Playboy.

This thing really is cool...look for my 3125 on eBay tonight.

[Pete Paxton]

Too bad I don't have 3g in my area. I suppose my Dash will just have to do even this is the one that's selling like hotcakes. I can still fall back on my wifi. Got 1019 kbs here at home so it's good speed but only 52 kbs with edge away from hotspots. I just went past my return date so now I'm stuck with the Dash. I really like it but it sounds like the BJ may just be better.

[dstrauss]

I just took my new Cingular 8525 back and picked this thing up. I'm happier than a 13 year boy with a Playboy.

This thing really is cool...look for my 3125 on eBay tonight.

I thought I was the only one this enthused about the Blackjack. The 8125 and 3125 go to eBay heaven today as well.

I don't live in a 3G area (yet - they say 1st quarter next year) but battery is nearly as good as the 3125 here even with push email. This is just the best form factor Blackberry killer yet (I've had them all including several Treos; 3125, 8125, 2125, and this one hands down is the best one-handed device yet with a full keyboard.

Kudos to Samsung for a first rate device.

[davidwsica]

I just took my new Cingular 8525 back and picked this thing up. I'm happier than a 13 year boy with a Playboy.

This thing really is cool...look for my 3125 on eBay tonight.

I second that! 3125 on eBay tonight!

[foolio75]

Somewhere on this forum someone had reported that Voice Commander 1.6 didn't work at all to solve voice dial via bluetooth with the BlackJack -- that still the case? Anyone got it to work or another solution for voice dial from the BT headset? Any updates?

Got a few issues with this phone but so far I've been loving it. The battery life will be interesting but it's a really sharp and great screen. Google maps looks awesome on it and the Cingular video is super watchable.

[ifonline]

Google maps looks awesome on it and the Cingular video is super watchable.

Does Google Maps constantly ask you for permission to connect, and how do you stop it from asking?

[foolio75]

Google maps looks awesome on it and the Cingular video is super watchable.

Does Google Maps constantly ask you for permission to connect, and how do you stop it from asking?

Yeah, it's screwed up...apparently lots of people are having this problem, there is discussion about it over on the cingular forums as well.

http://forums.cingular.com/cng/board/message?board.id=samsung&amp;message.id=15281&amp;query.id=31254#M15281

[dlevine]

check this out:

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1055665