Samsung Blackjack Impressions

A couple months ago I gave my archaic Nokia cellphone for a snazzy new Samsung Blackjack. I wanted something that would replace both my phone and my ancient Sony Clie Palm PDA. My choices seemed to be between the Blackjack, the Blackberry and a Treo. I didn't want to go the Blackberry route since that seemed to lock you into their network at an additional cost (according to a Cingular rep, so this could be an incorrect premise). I was a bit scared off by rumors of Palms imminent demise and they were also too darn expensive. That left the Blackjack. Here are some of my impressions of the device:

Pros

• Form-factor - the size, weight and feel are great. It is barely noticeable in my belt holster.


• Screen - the screen seems tiny at first (and it is) but it is very clear and still display enough information.


• Call quality - I have found this phone to be much better than my old Nokia.

Cons

• Keyboard - the keyboard is quite small and takes a fair amount of practice to avoid hitting the wrong key. People with large hands probably can't use it.


• Screen in daylight - in daylight, the screen is unveiwable. My old Nokia was much at this.


• PDA functionality - the Palm is a much, much better PDA platform that MS Outlook. There are tons of little things that Palm does that are missing in Outlook. For instance, having a calendar event with no time; Outlook forces a time (or rather sets it to all-day), which doesn't make sense for things like birthdays. The todo function in Outlook lacks the polish of Palm. Also, the Smartphone edition of Windows Mobile doesn't come with a list function; I had to buy and 3rd party program for this. Lastly, the sync works much smarter in Palm. The Outlook sync always makes duplicates or recreates deleted items.
  

Overall, I enjoy the Blackjack and appreciate having only one device to haul around. If you need to go with Windows, I recommend it. But if I had to do it over again, I would have splurged and got a Treo.