14 DAY TRIAL // The smartphones available on the worldwide mobile phone market have a new competitor, namely the Samsung SGH-i607 aka BlackJack aka Moto Q Killer, that, as its name suggests it, will come in style on the Cingular wireless network and will also try to knock off the Motorola Q from its throne, occupied after its release on the Verizon Wireless' network. After seeing what Samsung's phone is about, I couldn't do anything else but agree to the fact that the reign of the Q is almost over and if the Cingular customers will close their eyes on the biggest sin of the BlackJack - the fact that it has no Wi-Fi connectivity, then the launch of this device might just be one big final commercial hit at this year's end for Cingular.
The i607 runs a Windows Mobile 5.0 AKU 3 operating system that will offer its users the seamless mobile experience everyone has gotten used with when using phones sporting the same OS as this one. The quad-band GSM/WCDMA/EDGE enabled handset, working on 850, 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz networks, is one of the few on the market that is compatible with Cingular's HSPDA speedy network, a fact that will enable the users to send and receive emails from the device through the push-email technology represented by Microsoft's Direct Push, Good Mobile's Messaging and Cingular's Xpress Mail, emails that will be easier to write with the help of the full QWERTY keyboard sported by this device.
One will also have at its disposal the wireless Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity with support for the stereo A2DP technology, together with a number of services provided by the American carrier: the Broadband Connect 3G enabled service, the subscription based Cingular Music service that offers content from providers like Yahoo! and Napster and the on-demand Cingular Video service that streams exclusive video content such as HBO.
On the multimedia side, the BlackJack will also make you jump for joy because you will get a high-resolution QVGA 65k colors LCD display working at a 320x240 resolution, a multimedia player, a microSD memory expansion memory card slot and a 1.3 megapixel camera that comes with brightness functions, together multi-shot and self-timer support, and also capable of recording and streaming video content through the built-in Windows Media Player 10 protocol.
Compared to the Motorola Q, its direct competitor, the BlackJack has more pluses than minuses, it's drawbacks being the lack of Wi-Fi and IR connectivity (rumors say the Wi-Fi has been taken out on Cingular's demand), but it still has a 99 grams weight compared to the Q' 115 grams, it still is smaller with its 113mm x 59mm x 12mm measurements and it still has Java J2ME support, a thing that Motorola's handset has yet to learn.
Oh, but there is one thing that might get in the way: you will be able to take the SGH-i607 BlackJack home from Cingular if you pay 199.99 $ after you sign a two year service agreement that comes with an unlimited data plan. Thinking of the fact that THE Q comes for half of the price, I don't know how many people would head over to the Cingular stores to buy it, but then again, there are a lot of people that like the Sammys... Even stateside :).