Samsung BlackJack II tops Consumer Reports' list of best smartphones

by Chris Ziegler, posted Dec 18th 2008 at 8:10AM

Sometimes it's the unsung workhorses that deserve the lion's share of the praise, and that might just be the case with the aging Samsung BlackJack II -- a phone that you probably wouldn't expect to top Consumer Reports' January 2009 ratings of popular smartphones. Sure, it may not be the shiniest device on the market these days, but you've got to admit it's just about as functional as you'd ever need a business-class handset to be with GPS, HSDPA, and WinMo 6.1, which gladly sucks up Exchange accounts until you're blue in the face. When you factor in the fact that it runs just $80 these days on an AT&T contract in a choice of four colors... okay, yeah, we can kinda see it. The iPhone 3G and T-Mobile G1 don't play second fiddle terribly often these days (they were way down in the middle of the Consumer Reports pack in this testing cycle, in fact), so let's just let this old dog have one more moment in the spotlight, shall we?

Filed under: Handsets, Samsung, ATT, Windows Mobile

Tags: att, blackjack ii, BlackjackIi, consumer reports, ConsumerReports, samsung

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Highly Ranked

boss-hogg @ Dec 18th 2008 10:01AM

Really?.... this must be just for phones that are in carriers stores

Low Ranked

Brian @ Dec 18th 2008 10:11AM

this is one of the worst phones ever
and im not hatin on winmo i have a touch pro but my god blackjacks are shitttttt

Highly Ranked

000000 @ Dec 18th 2008 11:36AM

Hold on there buddy. I wouldn't go that extreme. BlackJacks are pretty solid. IMHO. And I just got a Red one on Ebay for 84$ shipped. But they said it shuts off on it's own... We'll see.

Neutral

Jeff @ Dec 18th 2008 10:35AM

Actually, Blackjack II IS a very excellent device. At least on AT&T. It's a close race between that and the Motorola Q9h.

However, I saw this on another blog - the phones they rated tops are mostly older phones. It seems that this report is just out of date and out of touch with the latest technology.

I wouldn't rate this as tops - but I would definitely put it up there... and given the price (many times free at retailers) it is an excellent deal!

Neutral

carcomptoy @ Dec 18th 2008 11:20AM

Just another example of Consumer Report's ineptitude.

Neutral

thedesolate1 @ Dec 18th 2008 5:03PM

Agreed. The Nokia E71 will wipe the floor with this phone.

Neutral

fkl @ Dec 18th 2008 6:14PM

Yeah, except the N71 feels like a Fisher Price toy in your hand. Obnoxious build quality on that phone, hollow cheap, unrefined, uncoated plastic. I have no idea where Nokia gets off releasing such poorly constructed handsets (the N95 is the same way, cheap flibsy plastic, cheap sliding mechanism).

Neutral

thedesolate1 @ Dec 19th 2008 1:07AM

@FKL
You sir, fail at life.
I am not even going to bother replying to your statement.

Neutral

boss-hogg @ Dec 19th 2008 9:35PM

wow FKL must own an Iphone. enough said

Neutral

CLShortFuse @ Dec 18th 2008 11:26AM

I sent this in tips. For smartphones, the list is:

#1 - Blackjack II
#2 - T-Mobile Wing
#3 - Motorola Q9C
#4 - T-Mobile Shadow
#5 - Blackberry Pearl Flip
#6 - iPhone 3G & T-Mobile G1

Neutral

superklye @ Dec 18th 2008 12:55PM

How does the Ace (Sprint) compare to the Blackjack II? They LOOK like they're the same phones, but I can't seem to find a single review that's newer than May 2008. :(

Neutral

mak618 @ Dec 18th 2008 1:59PM

Do they cover devices just within the US ? if yes then only those handsets pushed by carriers would succeed in making the list ! As you mentioned the $80 price tag makes it real attractive over something like the Iphone or even the Palm Treo with a $500+ tag attached to it.

Neutral

bucky @ Dec 18th 2008 4:43PM

Blackjack II is a pretty good phone with good functionality. But it has one major achilles heel: the jog wheel. When you get a good one, it works great (and the latest software allows you to set the jog wheel speed/sensitivity). However, most of them turn out to be jerky/stuck/skid. It's a mechanical wheel rather than a touch wheel, and I believe there's some manufacturing/design issues that cause most of them to be defective and hence worthless.

Neutral

thedesolate1 @ Dec 18th 2008 5:02PM

Okay now Im convinced that consumer reports is crooked and paid off. First they insult the Kuro and now this piece of shit phone gets rated number 1. Maybe if they spent 3 months with it they wouldn't be thinking that. It concerns me how lightly these publications make such statements without thoroughly testing the products. I guess our standards have gotten that low?

Neutral

NuShrike @ Dec 19th 2008 4:09AM

Consumer Reports hates on the Prius with a lot of erroneous statistics such as high depreciation rate. It's 5 years later, CR is still wrong and won't own up to it, so no way can they be accurate on any tech especially about the BJ2.

Hell, even their top-rated microwaves aren't sold in most stores even. What kind of rating system is that?

Neutral

Pete @ Dec 19th 2008 11:02AM

The cost versus the functionality does pan out pretty well, even though I hate to admit it. It's an alright phone overall out of what we sell, but what really must bug me is the camera quality, haha. (I still prefer the Q9 to this in that area of handsets.)

The upshot is they didn't pick the Pantech Duo. Now THAT is a terrible phone.

Neutral

slr_sd @ Dec 20th 2008 7:34PM

had the bj II for quite a while now.. all i can say is i really like this phone cuz it's a winmo phone nd in my opinion, it looks really nice. nd i've dropped it A LOT OF TIMES nd surprisingly it has no scratches, even though i dont use any case for it. also got the new 6.1 update for it nd stuff... looks amazing. but probably gonna upgrade to a touch screen phone soon enough :D