This review will cover the ins and outs of the new Samsung Jack. It has its good part and its bad part but overall is a useful phone. If you like the look of it or are perhaps considering buying one - this review is an essential read.
| The Phone | Rating  |
The Samsung Jack has been introduced to replace its little brother – the Samsung Blackjack 2. Its a smartphone intended for both business and personal customers and I was impressed with some aspects, while disappointed with others.
Overall the device looks good. It features a square design which fits comfortably in my hand allowing easy typing on the keyboard. Looking like a blackberry is something that a lot of phone makers are trying to do but with the Samsung Jack it feels like its their own phone – not a carbon copy of someone else’s.
| Controls | Rating  |
Sadly, there is no touch screen. I was a little disappointed at this because now functionality screams out for a touch screen. They also decided to replace the cool function on the Blackjack 2 with an old fashioned D-Pad. This annoyed me somewhat as at first it seems like the user controls on this phone were taking a step in the wrong direction. While the D-Pad is touch sensitive allowing you to scroll at fast or slow paces – I still preferred the old scroll method of phone gone-by.
| Multimedia | Rating |
Browsing isn’t so great either. The phone is terrible with HTML and works well only on mobile websites. Again, a step in the wrong direction by Samsung. Perhaps they’re creating an underdog for the i900? It does however have Wi-Fi and 3G which is good news. I even managed to get the download speed up to an impressive 680 kb/s and it’s all easy to set up once you power the phone on.
The camera unfortunately is a no frills feature. There is no auto focus with very grey colors being disbursed. At best, you’ll be taking snapshots with the 3.2 Mp camera – certainly nothing worth framing on the living room wall. There is also video recording in the standard QVGA quality – again, nothing worth screaming with glee over.
| Rating  |
One good aspect I found with the phone was the keyboard. I thought it was easier to use than most QWERTY keypads on smartphones with helpful hotkeys for internet, camera etc... The keys are raised slightly to make them easier to hit. There is also an adapter to accept a standard 3.2 mm headphone jack along with various ports for data transfer etc...
It’s worth a look if you want a basic smartphone for everyday tasks such as e-mail, browsing and taking snaps but otherwise this phone is fairly typical of entry to mid-level devices.