Samsung BlackJack II vs. Motorola Q9: smartphones to the death!
We’ve been using the BlackJack II since yesterday, and we have mixed feelings about it. We love the Motorola Q9, and spec-wise, the BJII and Q9 are almost identical. Both have UMTS/HSDPA radios (the BlackJack actually has a tri-band UMTS radio for world-roaming), 2 megapixel cameras, integrated GPS, full QWERTY keyboards, both run Windows Mobile 6 Standard, and well, you get the point. Size is a difference, with the BlackJack a lot sleeker than the Q9, but oh man, the Q9’s keyboard! We’ve broke down our thoughts comparing the BJII and the Motorola Q9 after the jump, so let us know what you end up picking up!
Signal:
Samsung BlackJack II:
We’re not sure if this might be just our unit, but it has had major issues with data connections. Sometimes it even switches down to GPRS! Our device doesn’t hold a candle to the old BlackJack which was a 3G monster. That thing could pickup a 3G signal 20 stories underground.
Motorola Q9:
Really nothing to complain about. The Motorola Q9 holds a 3G signal like Britney is trying to hold on to her kids…
Q9 wins here.
Keyboard:
Samsung BlackJack II:
Sammy’s keyboards have always disappointed us. No matter what you do, if you’re a real fast typer, the keyboard will skip key presses. It is not a software thing, it is a hardware issue. It’s happened way back from the Verizon Samsung i730 and was definitely an issue on the last BlackJack. We’re pretty sure it is fixed on the BlackJack II, but we need to test some more. Additionally, the keys are really narrow on the BJII, but they are a little improved from the previous version.
Motorola Q9:
The Q9’s keyboard is one of the best in the biz! The trade off is that the device is incredibly wide to accommodate the full QWERTY ‘board, but the layout, buttons, and anything else are top notch.
Q9 wins here again.
Navigation:
Samsung BlackJack II:
Samsung finally ditched that shady "scroll wheel" from the original handset and added a scroll wheel which also functions as a 5-way directional pad. This works really well, even better than the T-Mobile Shadow. It makes navigating the phone, web pages, emails, and anything else you need to zip through a breeze. The back button and home button are adequately placed and sized. We’re not mad at them.
Motorola Q9:
Motorola also ditched the scroll wheel from the first Q and instead added up / down keys, a select key, and back button on the right side of the handset. These are alright, not perfect, sometimes a little hard to reach due to the wideness of the Q9, but do work pretty well. There’s no fancy schmansy navigational wheels or accelerometers here, just a 4-way directional pad and a center select key. The home, back button, and send and end keys are also adequately sized and placed.
We’re giving the BJII the win here!
Screen:
Samsung BlackJack II:
The BJII’s screen is very nice. It’s crisp and bright, but is a little washed out. It doesn’t have an ambient light sensor like the Q9 so the backlight will not automatically adjust based on your lighting conditions.
Motorola Q9:
Both screens are 320×240 but the Q9 provides a richer, brighter, more pleasant display to look at. Add in the ambiant light sensor and we’ve got a winner.
Moto Q9 wins here.
Speaker loudness / quality:
Samsung BlackJack II:
One word describes the BlackJack’s speakers…disappointing. They sound very muffled and are not as loud as we had hoped. Speakerphone volume was pretty low for us and we even missed some email alerts because of the volume. One good part about the tiny, tiny speaker is where it’s placed. It’s made so when you lay the phone on a flat surface like a desk or table, the speaker won’t be covered and you should still hear the majority of what you’re supposed to.
Motorola Q9:
Hate to say it, but best speakers on any Windows Mobile device we’ve ever heard. Period! Volume and sound clarity and quality overshadow anything else. Just Blaze, back me up on this one!
Motorola Q9 wins yet again.
Call quality:
Both made very good calls, and were equally clear, but talking on a Motorola is talking on a Motorola, and we found it offered a better conversational experience (?).
Built-in apps:
Samsung BlackJack II:
The BlackJack comes loaded with a lot of things. From a nice Windows Media Player skin, to a built-in RSS feed reader, to a converter, world clock, and one of the best searching programs, it’s ready to rock out!
Motorola Q9:
The Q9 didn’t come with as many pre-loaded applications, but the stand out one would be the inclusion of the Opera Mobile browser for free.
Samsung takes the win.
Device speed:
If you just want the actual CPU speed, the Samsung runs a TI OMAP CPU at 260MHz, and the Motorola Q9 runs a TI OMAP CPI at 325MHz. If we’re talking about which device feels faster, we’d have to say it really is close, but the Q9 feels faster from our unscientific experiments.
Battery:
Samsung BlackJack II:
Unlike the first BlackJack, Samsung doesn’t give you an extended battery this time. We haven’t had enough time to really test the battery, so we’re going to guess the fact they didn’t include the larger battery was because the standard one should do fine.
Motorola Q9:
The battery in the Q should be called the Energizer Bunny because it keeps going, and going, and going. Sorry. For the extreme hardcore freaks, Moto even includes an extended battery which should last you a couple hot air balloon flights around the globe…
From early impressions, the Moto wins, but we didn’t have enough time to really test the BlackJack. We’ll call it a tie (that’s being more than fair).
Charging cable / USB cable:
Samsung BlackJack II:
Dudez, we don’t live in Korea, and no one uses your messed up charging cables. If Nokia can manage to start transitioning to microUSB ports, so can you. Enough of this crazy nonsense, please!
Motorola Q9:
While it’s not the miniUSB we all know and love, microUSB will do just fine. Thanks for the included adapter too, Moto.
Motorola hands down wins.
Look:
This is totally subjective so we’re not going to declare a winner here. The Motorola Q9 is more of a beast, with a sharp next-gen look. The glowing blue lights when charging are enough to freak out your grandmama. The blue keyboard backlighting is awesome as well. The BlackJack II is completely glossy, less wide, and over all more pocketable. The screen and device keys have a mirrored finish, and we can’t really say anything bad about it.
We won’t declare a final winner because that’s going to be up to you guys. If you do end up going with the BlackJack II or the Motorola Q9 this holiday season, hit us up and let us know which one!
My husband just purchased the bjll, but as the first one , it doesn’t really create/edit word or excel files, which for me is very important. I have a Plam Treo 680 which let me do that but the touchscreen is driving me insane, as it makes the device freeze all the time. Does the Q9 let you create/edit excel files? I need a new phone and wanted to know before hand if this really has this capability
@elly77
The Q9 comes standard with Documents to Go (full version, nothing sneaky).
DocToGo will allow you to save, edit and create Excel and Word files
I currently have the “old” AT&T unlimited GSM plan which I am obvioulsy reluctant to let go of since i can talk until I drop for $99 a month. I also have a data plan which I added. As such, I want to get an unlocked Motorola Q9, however I was told that while it will work with my sim I will NOT be able to connect at G3 speeds because G3 sims are different? is this true? If so, can I clone my SIM somehow? I really needa new phone and hate to give up my awsome calling plan. thx, in advance for any help and guidance.
@ Jacob
I must admit to the answer to your question being way above my pay grade.
Anyone else care to lend a hand?
When i swtiched from my razr to the Palm treo i also switched sim cards. As per the AT&T rep they told me to do it as the conection wouldn’t be the same. But i was able to keep my phone plan and also they copied all my contacts from the old GSM sim card to the new 3g card with no problem. Jut to be on the safe side, i recommend to call tech support and they will be able to give you more information
AT&T will NOT allow me to migrate this plan to a new phone od SIM card for that matter. They say that their is no equivelnt plan in theor current lineup. I can live without G3, I just want ti make sure that the phone will work with the G2 SIM.
I turned in my Tilt 5 days ago for the Q9. The tilt was highly frustrating for single-handed phone operation although it is excellent with many other features such as Windows Mobile 6 Professional, Wi-fi, etc. However I needed a device with more phone-like features and the Q9 has been excellent. I also was going back and forth between the BJII and the Q9… all the while realizing the only thing it had over the Q9 was its size and style. So I haven’t regretted the decision as the style “points” go away and features live on. The things I like most are the speaker phone (loud and one-button on-off), the keyboard, customizeable home screen. Voice dialing has worked better than anticipated. Reception is very clear. Google maps and Telenav have worked great. (Love Google maps, it’s awesome). And the battery is very good two full days of heavy use on one charge. The tilt barely made it thru a day. It’s a keeper.
Q9 DONT HAVE GPS!!!
I almost buyed this phone based on this LAME review.
Q9 Global dont have normal gps, just gps which can be used for emergency, see the forums from motorola:
Moto Q is lacking built-in GPS functionality but you should can connect to an external GPS module over BlueTooth.
The cell phones have a “bit” that indicates whether GPS is on always or only when a 911 call was made. That’s the setting which you found. However, this setting is really you just giving permission for GPS. Technically your cell phone can be tracked any time whatever that setting is. Properly only under court order but anytime really.
Verizon has software available, not yet on the Q but other forms that use this GPS to give directions. But its not an independent “Real” GPS but rather a way where the phone can be located and then information provided to the phone about where it is.
I hope this clears it up for.
@karel
Uhh, we have 2 of these at my office and I installed Google Maps on both and it works with the GPS unit in the Q9h. The GPS unit isn’t very effective, but it works outside when you’re in a clear area. I’m not sure where you’re getting your misinformation from…
Is it just me or has anyone else noticed the buzzing sound emitted when the keyboard is lit on the Q 9h? The call quality also didn’t seem as good as on the BJII, people I called complained that they heard the buzzing sound and an echo.
I haven’t noticed a buzzing sound from the keyboard.
I use a bluetooth headset 98.9% of the time though so maybe I’m never close enough to hear a buzzing sound.
The call quality seems to be pretty good to me as well. People I talk to never complain or say they hear anything weird, not counting the sound of my own voice
If you check the manual of Q9, you see, that there is only AGPS, not true GPS. There can be some way how google maps can work with it, but not too effectivelly.
I called Motorola support directly and they confirmed that there is no GPS in Q Global. They recommended me to use standalone GPS unit.
BTW the same information in the Motorola helpline forums.
@karel
Thanks for the clarification. I didn’t know AGPS could work without a GPS receiver. I guess that explains why GPS performance is so bad. Does this mean it’s just using triangulation data and not satellite signals to get coordinates?
I have to say, that I dont understand it. AGPS should be something like GPS + triangulation of bts data (via some server).
So I dont understand, why its used just for the emergency locations. Or maybe it works in this way just in the q9 phone?
I have do idea. Can anybody help?
Hmmm… It looks, that the agps should be able to work, but evil ATT locked it so you must use telenav. google earth works fine, but that not 100% navigation, like tomtom for example.
btw it looks, that there is no gps in the european version at all.
I was leaning toward getting the BJII because of its sleeker design. However after trying out both the Q9 and BJII at a local AT&T store today, the Q9 won me over hands done. Great keyboard, but most importantly, the Q9 just feels faster! Opening up applications, browsing the internet, etc all seems faster. No lag at all – which I found on the BJII. I’m getting the Q9!
I am torn between the Q and the BJ2 still. I seem to read mixed reviews about the battery life in terms of which one really is better. Does this version of the Q automatically switch to local time based on the time zone? The original one didn’t? Actually, I hate the original Q so much it’s hard for me to even consider the Q9 over the BJ2….but there seems to be a lot of users saying the Q9 is better.
Pros for BJ2…seems to be size, more applications….POSSIBLY battery life…and you don’t have to have that stupid extended battery pack sticking out.
Pros for Q9…seems to be performance (but how much better is unclear)…more or less the actual call features…
Also, I read something on here about European travel being an advantage for the BJ2. Can someone explain? Thanks for your help.
I’M SORRY, BUT I THINK THE BLACKJACK HAS WIFI INTEGRATED. I MAY NEED TO DOUBLE CHECK, BUT I JUST SAW ONE TODAY, AND THE DETAILS MENTIONED THAT IT COMES WITH WIFI.
THAT MAY BE A DEALBREAKER FOR SOME PEOPLE.
A few more points: I’ve had an AT&T Q9 for 30 days now after 2 or 3 years of Treo 650/600s. 3G is okay but after ATT bumped up Edge for the iPhone the Treo 650 was actually pretty decently connected. However . . . the built in Palm apps sucked, and they have since they became outdated in 1999. You needed a 3d party mail app, but those cuase it to crash all the time. Want to play music on it? Crash some more. Then it decided to loose the ability to keep track of time, being a half-hour slow by the end of the business day.
So I got the Q9. I’ve got a nice 4gb micro sd card, but win media player sucks. I wish there was Pocket Tures for win mobile . . . what do you do for internet radio on win mobile?.
PROBLEMS:
Q9 has what can only be described as the most suck*ss video camera, 2mp still images but 128×96 or 176×144? What kind of resolution is that? Apparently you get higher res on the Q9 for verizon, but only 1.3 still on verizon. This is unconscionable. Not even 320 x 240?
GPS instructions – stop car. Stand outside, hold hand in air, make sure no trees are around . . . . turn off gps . . . turn it on again repeat, now you have a connection and google maps will work great, just hope you don’t have to reinitiallize the GPS connection on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in January.
No Silent Button – this sucks if you happen to work,go to school, or eat, with other humans
Voice Dialing was actually kind of okay for me with the $20 AAA jabra earpiece from Frys, I haven’t tried it with my jabra 620 stereo headset yet. CALL . . . BILL . . . HOME “what the **ck are you looking at people haven’t you ever seen someone walking down the sidewalk screaming inane comments?
I see a lot of the spinning color wheel. In the mac world we called it the SPOD “spining pizza of death” glad to see micro is still being original. My initial BJII test in the stores made the BJII seem faster. 20 seconds to open Opera? Is that what you call “snappy” 22 seconds to load my banks home page under 3g? And that’s not even the online banking part? And then the Q9 it reverts to home if it’s not touched in like 4 seconds. How do actually READ a web site on it?
I just picked up the AT&T Q9 Global and – to the person who reported that the Motorola folks said the device had no internal GPS – they are incorrect.
I have Garmin Mobile XT installed on an 8gb SDHC card and I am using non-assisted GPS just fine. In fact, I removed the SIM card, just to make sure I wasn’t getting any network support – and it’s all good. I also tested this with Google Maps and it works with the internal GPS too, but you do have to have a network connection to download maps. FWIW, I bought this to have GPS when riding my motorcycle in areas that are not within cell coverage areas. I posted more about my test over at HowardForums.
I am pleased that AT&T does not lock down the devices as much as Verizon does.
Hoppy
I would have to say that i have been through 2 motorola Qs…only because one was washed and i still worked…except for the speakers. Oh well guess i can’t complain. From personal experience, love my motorola q9!!!
Does anyone know if the Blackjack keyboard is back-lit? I think the Q9 is but I have not seen if the Blackjack is or not. Any help would be greatly appreciated as this is pretty important to me.
Do the Q9 and BJ2 have a Vibrate/Silent ring tone option? Those are default feature’s even in the most basic cell phones, I wonder why it would not be present in these smart phones?
Can someone please confirm. I plan to buy one of these.
I also am test driving the BJII (red=gorgeous) and the Qh, and I wish the BJII was the winner, but the Qh is more robust, faster internet, much better speakers, automatically routes all audio including audiobooks to the bluetooth headset (no stereo set necessary) and the screen looks bigger, even tho it isn’t. Interesting how the same specs perform differently on each phone. the Qh camera seems better too. Just wish there was less silver on it, but oh well. Adios, BJIi and my old Dash!
i bought the bj2 and had it for a couple weeks. after a lot of registry tweaks, hacks, and 3rd party software installs (opera mobile, zatelnet, zasftp, google maps, omap clock, app unlock, etc.) and a slight overclock… it was a good phone with great reception and call quality. i REALLY liked the wheel in front and the size of the overall unit felt very comfortable in my had. i got the red one so it had the textured back that everyone liked about the bj1. i still miss my bj2 a little bit. so why did i take it back for a q9 global? the two phones are very close in terms of quality and i can’t imagine that anyone would consider it a “mistake” to purchase either.
the global is faster, period. interestingly enough, the native processor speed on the arm1710 (bj2) is 220 mhz so the 260 mhz speed was already a pretty hefty tweak/overclock. and i imgagine that it is for this reason bj2 owners found themselves unable to get a decent overclock (few stable OCs past 277). but even overclocked the bj2 felt just a bit sluggish. then there’s the matter of the proprietary jacks…
in the end, it’s not that i felt the bj2 was really INFERIOR to the global, it’s more that — FOR ME — the faster processor, nicer keyboard, louder speakers, and micro usb jacks outweighed the smaller size and spinning navigation wheel of the bj2.
and just to clarify… i don’t have 3g where i live so i have no idea how the two phones work on that front. i got good gps performance out of both phones with google maps and had no problem tethering either phone via bluetooth to the att network. and yes, i had to hack both phones to get ics running correctly. anyway… i hope this helps someone.