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Only one day old and the Blackjack II is a disaster. I am so utterly disappointed in Samsung, and AT&T.

Let me start this post though by saying that the Blackjack I was my favorite phone ever. I have owned this phone and generally loved it for 12 months and 12 days which is the longest I have ever held on to a device. Something like 1 in 5 Microsoft employees I work with has this phone. It was/is a smashing success IMHO... but as you can see below, it's been a disaster for anyone I know who has replaced their BJ I with a BJ II.

Lets count the ways that the BJ II sucks:

1. Battery Life is terrible. I unplugged the device at 7am and at 10am it was 50% full. the phone did not make it to 7pm. I did not use Direct Push at all. Other than demoing to people how lame it was, I didn't use it except to check mail every 15 min and make 2 phone calls. My old Blackjack I with the extended battery lasted 2 days with Direct Push running 24/7. update: see this post, it looks like my battery wasn't calibrated and now it's lasting a full day with push mail and 50% battery to go.
2. Whenever you get an email, the screen comes on. It stays on for however your backlight timeout is set to (mine is 30 seconds). This is almost a deal breaker. update: if your phone is locked it comes on for only a few seconds.
3. Internet Connection Sharing is removed from the ROM. Gone, bye bye. update: there is now a way to enable ICS.
4. The polished black plastic is ugly, gets fingerprints on it and generally makes the phone look cheap. The rubberized plastic on the old BJ was far better.
5. There is a new and different proprietary connector from Samsung that is different from the Blackjack I. Way to go Sammy.
6. There is an LED light on the phone that blinks ONCE when you get an email or text message. Awesome Feature...NOT I mean WTF is the point of this?
7. The keyboard often defaults to the wrong input mode.

The ONLY thing I like about this phone is:

• Jog Dial
• Voice Command works over Bluetooth
• GPS uses a Sirf III chipset

Every person I know who has this phone has or is returning it to AT&T. Maybe they will get a clue and do something about it.

I can't believe a whole year has gone by and they have produced a phone that is WORSE than the Blackjack I.

I'm returning mine tomorrow and getting the Moto Q9h and just learning to deal with it's limitations (which pale in comparison to this).

Bottom line, if you have a Blackjack I don't get your hopes up on the II, it's not 1 year better.

I really don't know what to think... did a bunch of people at Samsung and AT&T sit around a conference room table a few times in the past year to dream up how to make a crappy device? Did they even test this thing to notice that the freaking screen was coming on every time you got an email and that battery life might suffer as a result? Was this thing rushed to market for Black Friday?