Samsung’s industrial designers could not resist screwing with the numeric keypad. Instead of integrating the standard three-by-three plus 0 arrangement into the QWERTY layout like every other Smartphone extant, they’ve instead bizarrely alternated the grey number keys with black alpha keys. In other words, the 1/E key is next to the @/R button instead of the 2. What in the Sam Hill were they thinking? Different sure, but Samsung also has vastly increased the level of difficulty for this device’s primary function — making a phone call. Talk about your fatal flaws.
If you can somehow look beyond this inexplicable hiccup, you’ll be rewarded with an otherwise wonderfully sleek and slim Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone that exceeds normal cell speed limits on Cingular’s new 3G HSDPA/UMTS network with access to the carrier’s vast array of streaming video and music services. Samsung also is heralding the Blackjack’s slimmer profile (4.4 x 2.3 x .5 inches), which is not really an advantage over other Smartphones. All that’s required of a Smartphone is that it fit comfortably in a breast shirt or sports jacket pocket. All Smartphones meet this criteria, even though at 3.5 ounces, the Blackjack won’t sag a breast pocket as much as the 4.1 ounce Q or the 4.7 Blackberry 8700c. Regardless of Blackjack’s diminutiveness, however, it’s still too bulky to fit in a pants pocket, where buttons are accidentally activated and the exposed screen scratched by keys, loose change and other pocket flotsam.
What also sets the Blackjack apart from Cingular’s other Smartphones is its ridiculous alphanumeric array. Dialing becomes a game of Finding Waldo, except there’s nothing red to aid the search. Not only are the number keys not bunched together, but their dark grey color blends with the nearly identical neighboring black keys, more hue harrowing given Blackjack’s matt black surface. Beaming white character backlighting helps this black-on-black confusion considerably in dimmer ambient lighting conditions, but you’ll be frustrated in sunlight and bright rooms. And with less girth, the keys also are bunched a bit more tightly than on other Smartphones, making it difficult to avoid adjacent key hits during text and email message composing.
