First Call: Samsung Ace

 The Samsung Ace from Sprint is basically the CDMA version of the Blackjack, which has been available from AT&T for awhile now. The Ace lacks the updates we saw on the Blackjack II (review)like the two megapixel camera, but it's not identical to the original Blackjack either. In particular the phone seems to have addressed one of the biggest issues of the original BlackJack: the D-Pad. On the Blackjack the D-Pad was flush with the surrounding buttons, which led to constant mistaken presses. On the Ace the D-Pad has been raised above the surrounding buttons, although it still seems a little on the small side.

The QWERTY keyboard on the Ace is also different, with each key sloping above and below a center peak. The keys are spaced more closely together than the original Blackjack. In our initial use of the keyboard we found that they were too close together, leading to mistaken presses. We also found the feel of the keyboard to be a little strange. We'll see how we do in our actual words per minute test after we've spent some more time with the handset, but one of the things we liked about the original Blackjack was that the keys were comfortably spaced. Expect the full review in a week or so.