Should I Get a Samsung Jack or a Motorola Q9h?

[Jason Dunn]

<p><img style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/spt/auto/1215809561.usr1.jpg" alt="" /></p><p>In light of <a href="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/news/show/89882/confirmed-rogers-canada-offering-6-gb-monthly-data-plans-for-30-month-for-windows-mobile-smartphones-until-august-31st.html" target="_blank">my previous post</a>, I'm going to be switching from Fido to Rogers sometime in the next few days, and in order to get the $30/6 GB data plan I'm going to have to be locked in on a three year contract and get new hardware as well. That's not terribly surprising, and I don't really mind being on a three year contract - Rogers/Fido is the only GSM provider in this part of the country, so it's not like there's any other option any way.</p><p>The question for me then becomes, which model of phone should I go with? It looks like with a three year contract I can get the Motorola Q9h for $149 or the Samsung Jack for $49. I've never reviewed either one, and never even touched a Samsung Jack, so I'm not sure which one is the better phone. Any opinions, given&nbsp; my feeling that the T-Mobile Dash is the best Windows Mobile Standard device ever made? This question is somewhat academic of course, because it's not like this will be the only phone I'll be using in the next three years...but I'd still like to get a 3G phone that's a worthy successor to my Dash (since HTC seems to have largely given up on this form factor).</p>

[subzerohf]

I'll pick the Sammy. The Moto is $100 more expensive, but I don't think it is $100 better than the Sammy. Besides, it's unlikely you will be stuck with any of these phones for long anyway. All you wanted is the juicy data plan ;)

[Rocco Augusto]

I would go with the Q, the keyboard on it is fantastic!

[DeanAXIM]

I would go with the Motorola Q9h. As an owner of the original BlackJack, it is a great device, but you really notice the lack of ram. If memory serves, I believe the Motorola Q9h has double the ram.

[cortez]

the Jack looks like the BlackJack II; if so, it has more RAM/ROM than the Q9h. it was also my experience that the BJII had better battery life. the BJII has a 1700 mAh battery vs. an 1100 mAh on the Q9h. i'd suggest the BJII (or Jack)...

[Cattle-Dog]

I've never had a BJ... Errr, a Black Jack.

Anyway, I can Tell you what I like about my Q9H and you can see if anything resonates. The keyboard is really nice for a mobile. The speaker on this thing is incredible. Whether for watching videos or for speaker phone, I've not heard such a loud and rich speaker in such a small device. It also makes for a nice loud ringer. It's made me an Opera believer. The GPS and Live work great together (just be patient enough for it to get its initial fix!). I get about 3 days out of it with 3G on and syncing every 15 minutes during the day and every 1 hour late night. Real time blows on ATT because they refuse to provision their network correctly, so the WM phones sync every 5 minutes. I'd imagine push working correctly will do even better with the battery. Oh, I should note that I have the extended battery. I've not used the standard battery since I got the phone, because it doesn't affect the footprint in a bad way, IMO. It has an extneded battery. :) I get good reception with this phone. It's been very stable.

Things I consider negatives are, it utilizes a multipurpose mini-usb port. So no headphones and charging without a splitter. You wouldn't think it'd matter that much until you realize that you can stream your favorite radio station while you are at work. Despite having a standard port, it only charges with Motorola chargers. I've had a hard time finding a case I like, but I haven't looked in the past 6 months either...

Hopefully they will release 6.1 soon!

Chad

[heov]

my impressions w/ both devices on ATT. i picked the bj2 cause of cost.

battery-
q9h standard battery sucks. it comes w/ a extended battery, but it sticks out. the extended battery lasts a bit longer than the bj2's standard battery, but the bj2's standard battery doesn't stick out...
winner: BJ2

design-
i like the q better. more polished. the bj2 looks like a cheap toy cause it's all shiny. go w/ the red one if you can, it has a different, non-smooth texture on the back. the black bj2 is just shiny, crappy plastic. it also shows every fingerprint. the scroll wheel on the bj2 is cool and all, but in reality you'll probably just use it as a dpad more...

also, wtf was samsung thinking putting a f-ing cover over the charge port? it's the msot annoying thing ever.

winner: q, easily

kb-
the q FEELS better, yes, but the BJ2 doesn't suck. BUT the bj2 has it's own backspace button! there's also a "back"/backspace button next to the END key, just like every other winmo device, but the bj2 has a dedicated backspace key. it also has a carriage return key (so does the q). so take that into consideration... cause sometimes when you hit hte "Back" button, it exits the proram/goes home/last screen, whereas the backspace button works as backspace only.
also, the BJ2 has the shift key under the FN key on the left side where IT SHOULD BE.
winner: tie

sound-
they're both good enough on talking. the q could get louder than teh bj. the q was better at playing music out the speaker too. but who does that anyway?
winner: q (but who cares)

speed-
moto q was slightly faster at some things, but they were both basically the same. i don't remember how much free mem the q had, but my bj2 uses 30mb of 108 availabe ram at startup. never had memory/ram issues..
winner: tie

gps-
moto was faster. both still take forever to get a signal...

camera-
they both suck, but the q does have a LED flash on the back

VERDICT:
get the cheaper one, like i did. your dash is better than the q anyway... but if they were the same price, i probably would have gotten gotten the q.

oh yeah, the BJ2 has an LED, but calls/texts/emails only flash for about 10s and then go off. A program such as LEDAlerts, though, will flash the LED with ANY COLOR for as long as you want for reminders. I hear it's buggy though.

also, i didn't have the q for too long, but in the settings, you can change the "USB" mode from Activesync to mass storage to modem, which is nice. i used to have to use a program to do that on my last device. transfering files on the q are usb2 speeds. whereas my old wm5 phone was just as slow as my original ipaq back in the day...

[Anando]

SNIP...and get new hardware as well...SNIP

Thats not quite true. If you read Howardforums, many users have successfully added teh $30/6GB plans on their existing non-Robbers (unlocked) phones. You can see the posts here:

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1395635

[ajwalker]

If cost isn't a factor, and you can't, or don't want to wait for the BlackBerry Bold (why?), I say go with the Q9h.;)

I won't belabour what others have said of the great features but the deciding factor for me after looking at everything AT&T had to offer in October/November of '07 (with the BJ II already out or coming very soon) was the keyboard. It is the best.

I've got average size hands for someone over six feet and personally hate how everyone is in a rush to make phones smaller.

The keyboard is generous and wonderful to use to type e-mails and text. Good battery life, feels good in the hand (especially with the extended battery installed), a very solid and dependable Windows Mobile phone.

Even with the extended battery case attached, it slips easily into a pocket.

I have yet to have to do a hard reset, call quality is great as is reception. Several third party apps haven't slowed it down.

It is a very solid performer day in and out going on 10 months.:D

I'm currently on the fence about trading in for the Bold when released with AT&T.

However, if I ultimately do jump ship for RIM, I would still greatly praise and highly recommend the Q9h.:D

P.S. I was also a fomer Dash owner and think the Q9h eats the Dash for lunch. Wait till you get to you get that nice keyboard of the Q9h, you'll wonder why you ever thought the Dash was a nice phone.;)

[ajwalker]

I've had a hard time finding a case I like, but I haven't looked in the past 6 months either...

Chad

I picked up a nice generic case for a BlackBerry from Target for less than $10 USD that I use with my Q9h.

I think it was only $6.99 or something.:cool:

[heliod]

This is what I have from my work with Cellular operators here in Israel and my experience with these phones:

1. The Motorola's keyboard is much more comfortable than the Samsung's - however it makes the device a lot bigger.

2. The Motorola doesn't have WiFi.

3. The Samsung is a little slower than the Motorola.

4. Most important: the Motorola has a high rate of hardware failures. At least here, the phone is considered unfixable by the operators, and at the moment it is gone, it is just gone, you have to buy a new one. You'd better check where you stand there in this issue.

Best regards,

Helio

[jfreiman]

Well, I had the Dash and LOVED it, but I really craved 3G speeds (I purchased it from TMo unlocked on ATT).

I first tried the Q and thoght that it was too large for me. Also, the ATT version didn't come with Word, Excel, etc - it came with another application.

I couldnt' get used the the rather large size in my pocket and coming from the Dash, the phone just didn't seem as friendly.

I swapped the Q for the BJII and never looked back. Was it the Dash? No, but it's a great phone, pretty responsive and has 3G speeds.

Going to any brand after owning an HTC is tough, the communities just don't exist for the Motos or the Samsungs like they do for the HTCs - cooked ROMS are nearly impossible to find and they just aren't as supported and loved by the community.

Get the Blackjack II and don't look back.

-John
PS. I had the opportunity the other day to hold and use my old Dash when my friend came to town - I still miss it's familier feel and thin form factor. :(

[leslietroyer]

We have both in our family -- I have the Q9h, my daughter has the BJII.

I have fat hands, and for me the keyboard on the moto is so much easier to use. It is a sturdy thing -- the dual batteries seems like a plus at first, but I only use the extended battery if I'm going on long trips. The Q is wider than the BJII, and not nearly as comfortable to hold onto when talking.

My daughter loves her BJII. She is a texting fool with > 3000 msg/month. The jog wheel on her first one went out after ~6months, the replacement would just spontaniously shud off, so it also went back. I HATE that this phone doesn't use a "standard" connector to charge, and the little door that covers the usb slot is sure to distroyed in the 1st year of use.

Which one should you get depends on your like of the keyboard, and feel of it when calling.

[macattack]

I've had both. I had the original BJ -- maybe the best all-around phone I have ever had (It's my wife's now). I bought the BJ II to replace it, and I returned it after two days.

The original BJ had perhaps the best wireless radio on the market. It locked onto, and held onto, any tower around. The BJ II had a hard time holding onto the EDGE network in my area and would regularly bounce between GPRS and EDGE. I've owned a lot of phones from a lot of manufacturers, and NONE of them have dropped to GPRS in my area -- none. The screen on the unit I had looked kinda milky and pixelated, as if it already had a textured non-glare screen protector on it, but it didn't.

On the plus side, the BJ II is beautiful, especially in red wine. It also fits much better in the hand.

What did I get to replace it? A Q9h. It is almost the equal to the original BJ in terms of its wireless radio. It gets very good reception -- and the only place I've seen a "G" is way out in the country or in the mountains. Its keyboard is very good, and it's screen is by far the best on ANY handheld I have ever owned. The ambient light sensor continually adjusts the brightness for conditions, with the screen being not only readable, but really nice to look at, in direct summer sunlight. Voice quality is great. The speakerphone is great. I could go on.

The only real downside is that it's wide. I mean REALLY wide compared to most Smartphones and all feature phones. But I've gotten use to it.

Hope this helps.

[Jason Dunn]

I decided to get the Samsung Jack (Blackjack II) - it's $100 cheaper than the Q for me on a three-year contract, and I found the Q9h to be just too wide for my tastes...they need to narrow it down a bit.

[ajwalker]

I decided to get the Samsung Jack (Blackjack II) - it's $100 cheaper than the Q for me on a three-year contract, and I found the Q9h to be just too wide for my tastes...they need to narrow it down a bit.

Congrats on the new phone:D

But I honestly hope they NEVER narrow down the Q9h.

Like I said, not everybody likes itsy-bitsy phones.:cool:

[Jason Dunn]

But I honestly hope they NEVER narrow down the Q9h. Like I said, not everybody likes itsy-bitsy phones.:cool:

I personally think the Dash is the best phone of that type that's ever been created, and it has a great keyboard - so I don't think the phone needs to be that wide to be usable. Just my 2 cents. :)