It's no iPhone but has the basics

Author's Rating:

Pros: Email accounts, size, decent battery life.

Cons: Buttons for numbers should be a better contrast than gray.

The Bottom Line: 
If you carry it in your pocket and can't afford the iPhone, this is a decent option.

Author's Review
If you want a device that is small enough to carry in your pocket and functions as a phone, email client, and calendar, then the Blackjack will make you happy. But if you want great photos, it's 1.3mp camera isn't all that great. As a mp3 player it's not going to work all that great either, playing songs drains the battery, special headphones are required, not enough storage for lots of music, etc.

It does have 3G internet, but if you want a phone that does well with Internet, get the iPhone (best browser available). I installed Google maps and that's cool, but Blackberry just came out with a phone about the same size as the blackjack that has GPS, which makes Google maps incredibly better.

I like the size of this phone best of all, I don't feel like a dork holding it up to my ear like a treo. I did get a bluetooth headset but that's just a pain because it has to be charged, the phone's bluetooth has to be active, and I have to have those things done to use it, which never happens.

The photos are as good as any 1.3 mp camera and it's fairly handy but of course not a professional photo taking device. My wife got the Sony Walkman phone (can't even get it in stores today) and it's a 2mp camera with a flash and takes really good pix.

I like having my various email accounts automatically checked at whatever interval I setup. I know just about any email enabled phone does that, but I didn't have email on my phone before buying the blackjack so it's a nice upgrade. In fact, it saved me from ID Theft once because I got an email at 7am that my email password had been changed (without me doing so) and I eas able to get online, check my account and change my password before the jerk was able to do too much damage.

The screen size is okay but not great for web browsing. The biggest functional problem I have with the Blackjack is the buttons. Black for letters, gray for numbers, I think it would be better with black and white or even bright yellow. It's sort of hard in less than great light to see them insticively, although they do light up. Also, if my fingernails are not very short, it's tough to click the buttons, I don't know how that compares to other phones but rubberized buttons would help.

I've dropped the phone several times and it keeps on ticking. I've owned the phone for over a year and not a single scratch on the screen and I don't use a cover or anything, just carry it in my pocket. The little rubber cover of the plug in is starting to fall off after a year of use, but I could fix it with a dab of superglue.