Review: AT&T (Samsung i637) Jack

[Pete Paxton]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://mobilitysite.com/2009/07/review-att-samsung-i637-jack/' target='_blank'>http://mobilitysite.com/2009/07/rev...sung-i637-jack/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"I'm going to preface my review of the AT&amp;T Jack with the following caveat: you will see reflections in many of the pictures. There, I said it...I feel better now. The Jack, aka Samsung i637, could be seen as the younger sibling of the Blackjack II, but with smoother lines and similar footprint, though IMHO bearing closer resemblance to the Motorola Q9 series. It sports tri-band UMTS/HSDPA and quad-band GSM capabilities, 256 MB RAM, 256 MB ROM, a 528 MHz processor and a 320&times;240 QVGA screen."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/spt/auto/1247669763.usr11642.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>If you've ever wanted an extremely indepth review of the Samsung Jack then click on over to Mobility Site's very thorough review. Numerous pics including the device being weighed on a scale (I'm not kidding) to show just how lightweight the Jack is over other devices such as the Fuze. Do any of&nbsp; you own the Samsung Jack? If so, how do you like it? With this and the HTC Snap, there are some really good choices when it comes to Windows Mobile standard smartphone devices.</p>

[RayanMX]

"... The Jack, aka Samsung i637, could be seen as the younger sibling of the Blackjack II..."


Younger sibling?

This puppy has much better specs than the old BlackJack II!

More RAM memory: 256 vs 128 (which makes wonders!)
More and better CPU: 528 Mhz vs 260 Mhz
Better camera: 3.2 vs 1.9 Megapixels

Just to name a few and without mentioning the Jack has better screen and better looks!

The only thing superior on the BlackJack II is the battery, which has an outstanding 1700 mAh vs 1480 mAh on the Jack.

Cheers everyone!
RayanMX

[CeluGeek]

I've had the Jack i637 for six weeks now and I'm still in love (so to speak) with the phone.

Other than the uber-tight Tier-2 security that makes customization and removal of AT&T bloatware a bit harder, the Jack has treated me well. It's the fastest WinMo Standard device I've ever used, and the second fastest WinMo device I've used, only beaten by the Samsung Epix.

Call quality is solid with great volume when using phone-to-ear or a Bluetooth headset. Call volume on wired headsets sucks though. It has been very stable and delivers good 3G data speeds. Battery life (on GSM mode) is great as I've been able to squeeze ten hours of talk time out of this puppy - non-continuous talk time mind you. Battery life in 3G is not that great, but still gets me through the day comfortably with phone calls, checking email, music or video playback and occasional web browsing.

One more plus of the Jack i637 over the BlackJack II/Jack i617 is the addition of Wi-Fi.

[Phillip Dyson]

I am also well pleased with my Samsung Jack. This phone is light. Its the first thing my wife mentioned the first time she picked it up.

I second all of the points listed by Celugeek.

I'm coming from a WinMo Pro device and thought that I would only use it while struggling to wait for the upcoming Pro devices. But I don't know. I think this phone service better than any touch screen device I've used. The only negative is that all of the software I use isn't availble on the standard platform. Pretty much all of my essentials are though. Like PI and Flexmail. Actually I like Flexmail better on the standard platform then on the Pro.

The only thing that I've noticed peculiar is that my MicroSD card on occasion is not recongnizable. I never take it out so I'm not sure what the issue is. It also doesn't seem consistent that rebooting solves the problem. Perhaps its an indication of a problem my card versus the phone.

[RayanMX]

In my case I'm somewhat satisfied with my Jack.

My other device is a Nokia E71 which also has it's fare share of shortcomings, most importantly tethering. With the E71 I'm constantly having tethering problems where the connection to the cloud gets lost and had to reconnect, which takes forever and it's a pain in the buttocks. The rest it's just a pleasure.

On the Jack (as with any winmo pro or std) tethering is just a pleasure thanks to it's NDIS implementation. I don't even have to install anything on the PC for it to work! Priceless!

However, the Jack lacks on other fronts (which may or may not be fixable through a ROM upgrade or patch) and I list them here:

Its been like four or five times that for no particular reason, my celullar network just dissapears, it disconnects including 3G data (the only symbol I see on screen is a G) and yes, I'm in 3G coverage.

Another thing is that the GPS is not working fine. I had to apply the modaco gps fix for the BJII and after that sometimes work, sometimes it just don't detect satellites. Totally unreliable.

One final thing is the T9 autocorrection feature. Even though it seems to work, sometimes it just makes things pretty difficult, like for example when you start typing, a set of words pops up with the closest match already selected. Why in the world do I have to click Dpad center to select it and then press SPACE bar?

On the E71, when the closest match is selected you just press space and the word is selected for you. Also there seems to be an ugly bug on the T9, because when selected, some keys on the keyboard are not right. For instance the . (period) does not work anymore and when you press the letter Z you get an S!!!!! What gives????

The only fix is not to use T9 for the moment, which is not nice at all....

I really hope to see a firmware upgrade soon!

[Phillip Dyson]

In my case I'm somewhat satisfied with my Jack.
Its been like four or five times that for no particular reason, my celullar network just dissapears, it disconnects including 3G data (the only symbol I see on screen is a G) and yes, I'm in 3G coverage.
Another thing is that the GPS is not working fine. I had to apply the modaco gps fix for the BJII and after that sometimes work, sometimes it just don't detect satellites. Totally unreliable.

I haven't experienced either of these problems. I think I get better 3G reception with this phone then I did with my Touch Dual. As to the GPS, it appears to work fine for me, although I've only used it with Google Maps and Bing. My wife and I used Google Maps to track our boat ride progress down the Potomac.

One final thing is the T9 autocorrection feature. Even though it seems to work, sometimes it just makes things pretty difficult, like for example when you start typing, a set of words pops up with the closest match already selected. Why in the world do I have to click Dpad center to select it and then press SPACE bar?
On the E71, when the closest match is selected you just press space and the word is selected for you. Also there seems to be an ugly bug on the T9, because when selected, some keys on the keyboard are not right. For instance the . (period) does not work anymore and when you press the letter Z you get an S!!!!! What gives????

I didn't even know that Jack had auto correction or suggestions. That's the one thing that I miss about my Touch Dual. Having to type out whole words. Is this something you can turn on in a setting somewhere?
One question though, why would you use T9 when you have a full keyboard? Just curious...

[RayanMX]

I haven't experienced either of these problems. I think I get better 3G reception with this phone then I did with my Touch Dual. As to the GPS, it appears to work fine for me, although I've only used it with Google Maps and Bing. My wife and I used Google Maps to track our boat ride progress down the Potomac.

I didn't even know that Jack had auto correction or suggestions. That's the one thing that I miss about my Touch Dual. Having to type out whole words. Is this something you can turn on in a setting somewhere?
One question though, why would you use T9 when you have a full keyboard? Just curious...

Yes, there's T9 feature. Well in reality it's called xT9. Take a look under settings.

T9 is a blessing when typing in Spanish (my native language) because typing accented letters is a pain without it.

Cheers,
RayanMX

[Phillip Dyson]

I actually found it a few days after I asked you about it.
It was very useful in typing sms and emails. I had no idea it was there. Up until then, typing assistance was the one thing I missed about my Touch Dual.

It does seem to get in the way sometimes, like filling out web forms. And the lack of Z support is strange. But otherwise its great.