Review: Samsung Jack (SGH-i637)

With the Epix released late final year and the Propel Pro before this yr, some might have believed that Samsung had wrapped things up for a while with Windows Mobile. The Samsung Jack, the heir apparent to the BlackJack serial, came out of left field for some and the time information technology took to become from announcement to appearing on the shelves was lightning-fast (shame HTC can't follow suit). We're not lament, but it definitely took us past surprise.

Dieter introduced you to Jack a few weeks ago and shared a easily-on video of Jack. You lot've seen it compared to other Windows Mobile phones, and recently we had the chance to take the Jack out for a test drive. The latest Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard phone did impress united states of america in several ways. Join u.s. after the break.

Jack in the Box

The first impression you lot get when you showtime have the Jack out of the box is how light this phone is. Weighing just 3.6 ounces, the Jack actually is .08 ounces heavier than the Samsung BlackJack 2. What masks the added weight is the smaller form factor and curved edges and corners. Blindfolded, information technology would exist difficult to tell the Jack from the Blackberry Bend. Jack did have a plastic feel to it, but non in a bad manner. Jack didn't feel like a "toy" phone just instead a solidly synthetic device that felt proficient in the mitt.

The Jack is packaged with the customary (and proprietary — grrrrrrr) charger, USB cable, software CD, owner's manual and headphone adapter. As Dieter pointed out in his hands-on video, the Jack doesn't come packaged with a headset, which really is no large loss. I would take liked to have seen (every bit would virtually) a iii.5mm jack on the Jack, but we can say that far too many phones.

The front end-facing QWERTY keyboard on the Jack is patterned very similar to the Motorola Q9h, but it's smaller. It lacks the spacing of the BlackJack II's keyboard, simply it does have similar hotkeys for e-post, camera, GPS and Web browsing applications. At that place's also ringer mute primal. Typing on the Jack's keyboard was nice, simply the smaller size did take some time to go used to.

Just beneath the screen and above the keyboard is the Jack's heart control panel. Here y'all'll discover the answer/stop buttons, two soft keys for on-screen menus/functions, a habitation and back button and a five-style control pad. Samsung calls the pad a "turbo" pad in that if y'all press and hold one of the directional arrows, the scroll speed accelerates.

Some of the center buttons pull double duty. Pressing and property the respond push mutes a phone call; pressing and holding the home button pulls upwardly the Task Director. Tapping the end push button brings yous the Home Screen and pressing and holding the finish button locks the telephone.

On the left side of the Jack you accept your power button and book keys. Both buttons are flush with the sides of the telephone. While information technology makes for clean edges, these two buttons aren't the easiest to manipulate. If y'all accept a free hand, they piece of work great. But they demand to be a piffling more distinguished (e.g. slightly raised) to exist more suited to one-handed functioning. These two keys may very well be the weakest point of the Jack.

On right side of the Jack y'all take Samsung'southward proprietary charging/sync/headphone port. (Again, grrrrrrrrr.) To the rear yous'll notice a iii.2-megapixel camera and speaker.

Under the hood

The Jack sports a speedy 528MHz processor and 256MB RAM/256 ROM memory. There is an expansion port for microSD cards. But, unfortunately, it requires removing both the battery cover and bombardment to access information technology.

Speaking of the battery, the Jack is powered by a 1480mAh battery with a reported lifespan of approximately 7 hours' talk-time and 12 days of standby time. I was able to apply the Jack heavily during the mean solar day (setting up e-mail, running GPS, installing apps, browsing the internet, etc.) with plenty of juice left over (near 50 percent) which which to head into the next solar day.

The Jack is fitted with Bluetooth, WiFi and GPS. With Google Maps, I was very pleased with the GPS performance. It does have assisted-GPS (aka aGPS) which volition go yous in the neighborhood of your location. In activating the GPS receiver, from a common cold outset, I pinpointed my location in less than a minute.

Software

The Jack is loaded with Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard and the customary AT&T bloatware (going to through in another "grrrrrrrr" here) such as AT&T Mall, Navigator, MediaNet and that pesky ExpressMail download. You likewise have a AT&T WiFi Locator that is supposed to help you locate hotspots, but information technology'south not active yet.

The Jack's preloaded with Pocket Internet Explorer that launches you into AT&T'southward MediaNet dwelling page. Yous can remedy this fairly like shooting fish in a barrel by changing the dwelling house folio in the Options Menu but every bit an alternative to PIE I took the opportunity to install Skyfire 1.0 and fabricated it my default browser.  I was really surprised how well it operated on a Windows Mobile Standard phone and it really performed amend on the Jack than it has on the touchscreen AT&T Fuze.  Folio load times were noticeably faster that Explorer and I didn't meet hide nor hair of MediaNet.

Dwelling screen options include the Windows Mobile 6.1 sliders, traditional view, and a few Samsung designed screens (Popular-up and Dual Clock). You still have the selection of changing the colour scheme and background prototype as well.

The Start Card pulls upwards your program listings, seven applications at a time. To scroll through them you have to go page to folio or utilize the directional keys to scroll through them. In the Home Screen settings carte you accept the option to cheque "Show Recent Programs."

Out of the box, this option is turned off (which seemed odd) so don't panic if you lot don't see your recently used programs when yous first hit Outset. I like this choice because it often eliminates the demand to sift through four pages of applications to find the i your looking for.

1 new feature on the Jack is the Message Ticker. When active, a pop-up ticker appears on your screen when new mail arrives, giving a snapshot of data. It felt like the pop-up bubble that appears on Microsoft Outlook or Windows e-mail when new mail service arrives — but more than annoying.

There are a few settings for the keyboard that I haven't seen on Windows Mobile Standard before. FN Central Settings gives y'all the ability to map a specific key to launch a predefined application of function when pressed in conjunction with the FN key.

Vanity dialing, reading directly from the pick screen, lets your QWERTY phone dial a number like "1800SAMSUNG" from the home screen or dialer. You can use this characteristic after irresolute input style to ABC via the FN cardinal in the dialer. This feature simply saves yous a lilliputian time in dialing the vanity numbers without the need to interpret how the letter of the alphabet corresponds to the punch pad. For example: Instead of dialing 1-800-356-9377, you tin can type out i-800-Flowers.

1 concluding notation with regards to the software: In the news release announcing the Samsung Jack, Samsung mentioned it would be upgraded to Windows Mobile 6.v. We know that Windows Mobile 6.5 tin can handle non-touchscreen phones, but Microsoft hasn't made any official announcements yet. Information technology may just be an indication that the specifications of the Jack make it suitable for upgrade if and when that e'er happens.

Performance

Once again, the Samsung Jack feels really good in the hand. The curved edges and corners coupled with the light weight is simply downwards right comfortable. The Smartphone Experts Side Pouch that I used while testing the Jack seemed to weigh more than the phone.

Call quality was good, about par (maybe slightly above par) for whatever other phone these days, and reception was equally as expert. Where my AT&T Fuze had ii bars, the Jack would take two to three bars.

The front-facing keyboard is suited for one-handed functioning. And with the exception of the power and volume buttons, the Jack is easily handled one-handed. Windows Mobile Standard is a very capable operating organisation. And while I did take hold of myself borer the screen from time to time, navigating effectually the Jack was a cakewalk.

Overall Impression

The more I used the Samsung Jack, the more I like information technology. Build quality was skillful and the phone feels comfortable in the manus. The only pattern nit I would pick with the Jack is that the volume keys and power push needs to be easier to access and manipulate.

The keyboard is smaller than like phones such as the Samsung Blackjack Ii and Motorola Q9h. Just then again, the Jack is a smaller phone. It did take some fourth dimension to get used to the smaller keyboard, and I found it more than receptive to fingertips than thumbs.

GPS, Bluetooth, and WiFi all are overnice features to have on a telephone, and the GPS receiver worked like a champ. I'm non a large fan of pulling up Media Net every bit your browser, but that was easily fixed by making Skyfire my default browser.

The Jack'south biggest competition will probable come up from the HTC Snap. The Snap (from what we know) should be a larger phone, which may give the Jack a slight edge with some Windows Mobile users. Additionally, the Jack will likely exist priced under the Snap. Currently, the Jack costs $350 out of contract and $99 later on rebates and a ii-year contract. No give-and-take yet on the Snap's pricing simply early over-seas pricing has information technology in the neighborhood of $500.

All in all, if you're looking to motion to Windows Mobile Standard or replace that worn out Motorola Q or Samsung Blackjack, the Samsung Jack is worth serious consideration.

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/review-samsung-jack-sgh-i637

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