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You can pick up a new BlackJack for $150 with a two-year contract and after a mail-in rebate. The price bumps up to $400 without an agreement. The color choices include red and black.

Like its predecessor, the new BlackJack is tablet shaped with a non-touch display—it runs on Windows Mobile 6 Standard after all—and a QWERTY thumb-keyboard. The screen measures 2.4 inches diagonally and is of the typical QVGA (240 x320 pixel) variety. There's a jog wheel for navigation.

The tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE smartphone supports AT&T's UMTS/HSDPA 3G data network. It includes a 2.0 megapixel camera (up from the original’s 1.3 megapixel shooter) for picture and video and built-in GPS to support location-based applications, such as TeleNav GPS Navigator, which provides turn-by-turn voice and on-screen driving or walking directions, 3-D moving maps and traffic-delay alerts.

For the camera, there's AT&T Video Share, which allows you share live video while on a voice call.

It also sports Bluetooth, with stereo headset support, and an RSS news reader.

Samsung promises a significant improvement in battery life with the new BlackJack, in addition to a louder and clearer speakerphone.

For e-mail, the BlackJack II provides users with access to multiple accounts, both personal and business, through Microsoft Direct Push technology with Outlook Mobile and AT&T Xpress Mail, which supports most major POP3/IMAP providers.

The BlackJack II also offers over-the-air synchronization of contacts, calendar and task lists with Microsoft Exchange Server or AT&T Xpress Mail.

It supports Microsoft's new System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008, which was introduced during October's CTIA Wireless show. With System Center Mobile Device Manager, Microsoft's is jumping into the mobile-device management.

Redmond says the solution gives employees access to company data and a line of business applications from what Microsoft asserts is a single, secure place behind the firewall using over a Virtual Private Network.