The 81-day experiment

The 81-day-experiment continues with the Samsung BlackJack from Cingular—Day #4, synchronization

The day has come for my contacts, calendar, tasks, and notes to get synchronized with my Samsung BlackJack. I installed ActiveSync on my Windows laptop and synchronized. This was a fairly seamless process, and within 20 minutes or so, my 1500+ contacts and numerous appointments, were nicely accessible on the BlackJack. Yet another important milestone has been reached

The BlackJack is now fully loaded and functional. I have my data whenever I need it and I can synchronize changes easily. I have e-mail working and I have access to the Internet, and not to mention, access to a camera, streaming music and video, and much more!

The Samsung BlackJack helping out with the menu

Oh well, why do you need a camera in a smartphone afterall? Yesterday, the camera of the Samsung BlackJack from Cingular came to the rescue at our favorite sushi place, and helped us capture the handwritten "specials" menu which was hanging on the wall next to the sushi bar, as we walked to our table. The wait staff went over the menu anyway, but the captured photo and the BlackJack zooming capabilities were the real savior. We were able to take our time to review the menu and make sure we didn't miss any new and unique items.

So if you're in the process of selecting a smartphone, and you're wondering on whether you need this camera or not, it is almost certain that you will have many good uses for it. Not necessarily capturing menus at restuarants, but maybe caputring company and product information at tradeshows and conferences, or whatever else is important to your business.

However, you want to keep in mind that some companies do not allow you to take your smartphone with you inside their premises if it has a built-in camera for security reasons--something to keep in mind as you make your smartphone selection.

The 81-day-experiment continues with the Samsung BlackJack from Cingular—Day #3, e-mail setup, browsing the internet, shortcuts

Setting up e-mail is yet another important milestone that needs to be accomplished sooner than later when you get a new smartphone. The process was easy and within minutes I was reviewing my e-mails on the Samsung BlackJack and able to reply to them. First I setup the size limit to 500 bytes per message, but then I found myself constantly having to retrieve more of the message to make sense out of it, so I decided to go for the 5000 bytes limit.

E-mail can be setup to retrieve messages from a variety of e-mail accounts including corporate accounts, and when used in conjunction with Microsoft Exchange and the necessary server software, you have the option of having your e-mail synchronized wirelessly with the Exchange Server. This can transform your Samsung BlackJack (or any Windows Mobile device) into a BlakBerry like environment.

Browsing the Internet

I was hoping that the 3G network will make browsing extremely fast, and that browsing would be smooth and efficient. These hopes, or maybe expectations, made the 3G experience somehow disappointing. First of all, and as I mentioned yesterday, I was only able to get the 3G signal sporadically (even though the map shows pretty good coverage in the San Francisco area). This in and by itself is a bit disappointing. Second when I was in an area where 3G was available, the browsing didn’t seem to be much faster or at least not consistently faster than the browsing at the EDGE speed.

The moral of the story is that, until the Cingular 3G network is more widely available and performing more consistently, you may want to keep your expectations low, in which case you may be pleasantly surprised rather than disappointed. Another observation here is that if speed is one of your top priorities, you may want to explore what Verizon and Sprint have to offer is this area.

The Samsung BlackJack nifty shortcuts

Press and hold the End key to lock the device, the phone key to activate the speakerphone, and the home key to get to the task manager. These are only a few of the many helpful shortcuts that I am learning as I continue to explore the Samsung BlackJack. Most of the shortcuts and other helpful tips are outlined in the quick reference card that comes with the device.

Overall, my experience with the Samsung BlackJack has been pretty encouraging so far. The BlackJack is small and slick and can very easily slip into your pocket or purse. It is the kind of device that you can happily take with you to a social event and yet rely on it for your serious business activities. It is not a laptop replacement so you won’t be able to create and edit document like you would with the Pocket PC smartphones. But this may not be what you need anyway!

The 81-day-experiment continues with the Samsung BlackJack from Cingular—Day #2, camera, battery, 3G coverage map, Motorola S9 headset, and more!

It is nice to have a built-in camera in the smartphone again. The BlackBerry 8800, which I have used recently, does not have one, but the Samsung BlackJack that I am using now comes with a 1.3 mega pixel camera. It also comes with video recording capabilities if you’re interested in fully capturing the moment and documenting what is happening.

I made my first call today, and I charged the battery. The blackjack came with two battery packs. One being the regular size battery and the other being an extended battery. If you use the extended battery, which is slightly thicker than the regular one, you need to use a different back cover which is also provided.

Here is the extended battery:

And here is the extended battery with the cover:

For now, I am going to use the regular battery (and therefore keep the device thin and elegant) but if necessary, I will switch to the extended battery later.

The Samsung BlackJack is a music phone

Another feature I tried today is the streaming music. The BlackJack is a 3G phone (with upload speeds of 400 to 700 kbps, and download speeds of up START HERE) which makes it the perfect music and video phone, especially when coupled with the Cingular Video and Cingular Music services. These services however cost extra. I started the 30 day free trial today to check out Internet radio and will soon explore the related costs. Remember however, that the 3G networks are not yet available everywhere. So far, in my area within San Francisco, I only got to experience the 3G signal a few brief moments. You can check out the coverage in your area by going to www.cingular.com and searching for the 3G coverage maps. Here is what the map of the San Francisco area looks like at this point in time:

Where is the headset?

The Samsung BlackJack didn’t come with one. So I decided to order the Motorola S9 Bluetooth stereo headset (picture on the left). Having gotten used to the stereo headset that came with the T-Mobile Dash, I wanted to continue with a stereo headset. I felt that the Stereo headset transformed the phone experience into a more pleasant one. I am hoping that the Bluetooth stereo headset will take this experience even further.

And don’t forget the cables!

Once again (similar to what I mentioned when I was using the Treo smartphones, Cingular 3125, and the Nokia E62 in the early days of the 81-day-experiment), the Samsung BlackJack comes with proprietary cables. So don’t leave home without them!

The 81-day-experiment continues with the Samsung BlackJack from Cingular—Day #1, back to the Cingular store

Another visit to the Cingular store, and this time Ernest helped me with the Samsung BlackJack. The Samsung BlackJack resembles the Motorola Q especially the Motorola Q Black that was released late last year. I am eager to find out how it compares with the Motorola Q and T-Mobile Dash which I have used previously in the 81-day-experiment.

At least for now and until I gain more experience with the BlackJack in the next 9 days, my expectation is that my experience with the Samsung BlackJack from Cingular is going to be very similar to that with the Motorola Q from Verizon and Sprint, and the T-Mobile Dash from T-Mobile. It seems to me that if you are in the market for a “light” Windows Mobile smartphone, and if you are a Verizon or Sprint customer (and would like to continue with their service), you are likely to pick the Motorola Q, and if you’re a T-Mobile customer and want to stick to T-Mobile, you are likely to go with the T-Mobile Dash, and similarly if you are a Cingular customer, you are likely to go with the Samsung BlackJack.

My gym friend Gordon, who is considering the BlackJack, mentioned that his colleagues are happy with the BlackJack fast performance and high-speed internet access. Could the fast performance be an edge that the BlackJack has over the Motorola Q and T-Mobile Dash? I am curious about that, especially that one of the complaints I had recently about the T-Mobile Dash--after using it for several month, relates to its slow performance, especially going into my address book and looking up addresses.

For now, here are a few photos of the BlackJack together with the Motorola Q and the T-Mobile Dash.

And you can see in the following photos that the BlackJack is slightly narrower than the Q and the Dash:

The experiment continues with the Samsung BlackJack from Cingular taking the center stage for the next 9 days. Hope you will visit us again.