Ben Forta

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A Couple More Samsung BlackJack Comments

In addition to the comments I posted yesterday regarding my new Samsung BlackJack:
Pros:

  • Batteries can be charged via the included charger, or by connecting the phone to your computer, it uses the same USB connection to sync the device and to charge the battery, which is very nice. No need to carry a charger and a sync cable.
  • I’ve been using the phone actively today, and call quality is superb!

Cons:

  • Battery life is appalling! I do have Bluetooth activated all of the time, and that does drain power. But still, this device has the worst battery life of any device I have used. Not good at all.
  • As already noted, I like that the device charges via the sync cable. But, there is no easy way to determine when charging is complete! No light, no indicator, the battery strength indicator is not granular enough to distinguish between partially full and completely full.
  • And the biggie! As noted yesterday, the Bluetooth support works well. But, there is one MAJOR implementation flaw. You can pair as many devices as you like, including multiple headsets. But only one can ever be active at any time. What does this mean? I use two headsets continuously, one is a little ear headset and the other is my car. Both are paired with the phone, and so whichever is available should be used. This is how every other Bluetooth device I have used works, including multiple Sony Ericsson phones, the Nokia E62, the Treo 650, Windows devices like the Cingular 8125 and the Treo 700w (meaning that this is not a Windows Mobile limitation), and more. But not the BlackJack. To switch from one headset to the other I have to go to Settings, Communications, Bluetooth, Headset Settings and use the menu to manually select which one to use for connections (SET will appear next to the selected one and an X next to the other). This is a ridiculous and arbitrary limitation, and could be the deal breaker for me. 🙁

More to follow, I am sure.

16 responses to “A Couple More Samsung BlackJack Comments”

  1. Critter Avatar
    Critter

    I have the Motorola Q, it’s battery is /just/ as bad. A full charge with absolutely no use of the phone will deplete in one day. It borders on ridiculous.

    Reply
  2. DK Avatar
    DK

    I have a motorola Q with the regular battery not the extended and do not have that problem at all. I just got back from Thanksgiving 4.5 days off without charging and maybe making 10 minutes of calls per day, bluetooth only on during the calls.
    FYI – I got it the day Verizon released it and shipped the battery back for a new one because they said the release ones some had an inferior battery (which is why they had such a great deal on the extended battery set back then). might want to check that out.

    Reply
  3. Richard Cooling Avatar
    Richard Cooling

    i have the sony erricosn k610i
    its an amazing little phone – tiny light has everything I could ever need – i switched from a p910 and have never looked back.

    Reply
  4. Eric Austin Avatar
    Eric Austin

    About your sync cable comment and battery charging. As far as I can tell (and I have tested this), the sync cable will not charge anything (including the included external charging "box") unless your computer is synced via activesync to your Blackjack. As I am typing, I have the external charger hooked to the sync cable and nothing happens. If I connect the phone and activesync kicks in upon connection, charging occurs, but since the charger box does not trigger activesync….bupkiss.

    Reply
  5. Jim Avatar
    Jim

    Have you had any problems (or heard) of any problems where people couldn’t connect the Blackjack to their Bluetooth for ActiveSync (but it is connected otherwise).
    I’m also having a problem connecting the USB cable. I get a message saying "USB Device is not Recognized". The funny thing is that it recognized it 2 days ago.

    Reply
  6. David Given Avatar
    David Given

    I just got the blackjack and am equally disturbed by the battery life. In using the external charger I find a flashing orange light for hours upon hours. Anyone know if this means charging still? Or not charging?

    Reply
  7. Paul H. Avatar
    Paul H.

    I agree, the battery life is terrible. Even though it’s not easy, you can see how full your charge is by doing the following from the main screen:
    1. Click Start
    2. Click Settings
    3. Click "7 More…"
    4. Click "3 Power Management"
    The charge on the main battery is displayed with a blue bar. Not particularly easy to find, but very useful.
    My active sync is not linked now and it seems to be charging with the USB cable. I did notice that for the first few minutes it didn’t display the charging icon.
    Has anyone bought the extended battery? If so, how much does it add to the back of the case?
    And based on the use, would I just be better to buy another standard battery?

    Reply
  8. Salil Maniktahla Avatar
    Salil Maniktahla

    Ben, I’ve noticed the same Bluetooth-headset pairing problem. I had an Audiovox SMT-5600 two years ago that had no problem with being paired with multiple headsets. And I use this thing with my car or with an earpiece. Lately I’ve taken to just using the earpiece, since managing the bluetooth on this thing is so clunky.
    Does anyone else have problems with charging the phone while linked via Activesync? I’ve noticed that when my phone is hooked up via USB to my laptop and Activesync is running, my phone still doesn’t charge. If I go into my USB controller settings, the USB port is providing power. But the phone doesn’t seem to notice. The "charging" icon and the "full battery" icon will alternate now and again.
    Oddly, I CAN charge the battery if I take it out of the phone and put it in the charger and hook that up to a USB port. I have no issues with charging either the slim battery or the extended-life battery. And when I use the extended-life battery, I can go a loooong time without charging. I just don’t like how big it is.
    I’ve heard that 3G service will also drain the battery faster than EDGE network, by the way.

    Reply
  9. JJ Avatar
    JJ

    Seems to me that that battary fully charged is indicated with three battary bars in place of the plug icon when the phone is plugged into charger or computer.

    Reply
  10. Salil Maniktahla Avatar
    Salil Maniktahla

    I’m fairly certain that the widely varying experience people have with devices like the Q and the Blackjack stems directly from the network they’re using. The new generation of high speed networks (call ’em all 3G for ease) tend to be very power intensive. The EDGE network and similar from other services seem to allow much lower power network interfaces, and thus have correspondingly longer battery lives out of the same hardware.
    For comparison’s sake, as an experiment, this last weekend I disabled the 3G service on my phone using a registry hack, and the result was my battery lasted all weekend without being charged. In fact, my battery level didn’t drop below 80%!
    When I turned 3G back on last evening, after 4 hours the battery was down to 50%.
    I flew to North Carolina, to a small rural area, late yesterday evening. Coverage here is only EDGE network, but my battery consumption has again dropped drastically. I had charged the phone overnight. It’s 1:40pm as I type this, and my battery level has only dropped to 85%.

    Reply
  11. lory Avatar
    lory

    Verizon is about the only place you can get the authentic RIM product and matching door. Most other sites are out of stock and even when they are in stock they have the black battery door which looks like crap.
    We supply a large range of rechargeable Tool Battery packs for your tools, All tool Battery in our DEWALT BATTERY are made with high quality cells.

    Reply
  12. Salil Maniktahla Avatar
    Salil Maniktahla

    Yeah, I have this same problem. So far as I can tell, you can’t charge the phone via USB cable. You can use USB power and not drain the battery, but you can’t charge the battery.
    I have no explanation for this. It definitely seems like a big design flaw. Every other Smartphone I’ve owned or used has been able to charge when plugged into the USB port.

    Reply
  13. Salil Maniktahla Avatar
    Salil Maniktahla

    er, Ben…please remove the previous two postings. I just realized that "laptopbattery" is a bot that regurgitated part of my own previous comment from earlier in this thread.
    Annoying!

    Reply
  14. omar jaime Avatar
    omar jaime

    can you help me my phone doesnt wanna charge and i bougth a new battery and charger and it still wont charge

    Reply
  15. batteries Avatar
    batteries

    sir,i love your blog.as your blog is very well.you give expression to your literary grace

    Reply
  16. jhon12 Avatar
    jhon12

    good article, very informative, I just have a audiovox battery it works good, I bought it 2 months ago and it still working like a new one.

    Reply

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