Samsung's BlackJack II, available from AT&T in the U.S., is - like the original BlackJack - a favorite among those who like their tablet-style QWERTY thumb-keyboard smartphone Windows Mobile flavored. Starting this week, the BlackJack II may become even more popular. That's because AT&T is now offering it in a pair of additional color schemes.

No longer available in just red and black, you can now buy the BlackJack II ($99.99 with a two-year contract) with the back of the smartphone either pink or blue - behind a white front - and a numeric keypad colored to match the hue on the back.

                      

As you can see from the pictures above, each new edition of the BlackBerry II sports its own nifty pattern on the back as well.

More on BlackJack II
The BlackJack II is Samsung's follw up to the BlackJack. 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.

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 last October's CTIA Wireless show. With System Center Mobile Device Manager, Microsoft's jumped into the mobile-device management market.