Samsung i600 : The Ultra Messaging – it is pretty clear that the SGH-i600 is targeted at SMS and e-mail addicts.Credit goes to the phone?s easy-to-use Qwerty keyboard that takes up major real estate on the front of the unit.Its a perfect messaging device.
The i600?s design is reminiscent of BlackBerries, except that the i600 ? very light at 105g ? is also slimmer (11.8mm) and more stylish.
There is a front-facing camera, and the device supports two-way video calling. There’s also a 1.3 megapixel camera on the back that shoots stills at resolutions up to 1,280 by 960.
MP3 playback (MP3/WMA/AAC/AAC+ formats) over the included earphones sounded good too, almost on par with standalone MP3 players.
Samsung suggests you will get up to 6.5 hours of talk on a 2G connection or 3.5 hours on 3G, and up to 300 hours of standby on 3G or 305 hours on 2G.
My battery rundown test involving asking the SGH-i600 to play music continuously from a full charge with its screen forced to stay on delivered 9 hours and 10 minutes of battery life. The second low battery warning came after 8 hours 55 minutes, and which point the device turned music playback off and also disabled the SIM to preserve the remaining battery life for as long as possible.
Overall, the SGH-i600 is a perfectly acceptable choice. It doesn’t offer anything special, although some of the software extras are useful. The keyboard, 3G/HSDPA support and Picsel viewer may be enough to endear it to mobile email users.
Pros
3G/HSDPA
support Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
Front-facing camera for video calling
Ergonomically designed
QWERTY buttons and mini-keyboard
Some useful software extras
Cons
Windows Mobile 5 rather than Windows Mobile 6
Slightly large in the hand and pocket
camera 1.3mp only
FINAL SAY
Samsung’s SGH-i600 is a decent keyboard-equipped Windows Mobile 5 smartphone with HSDPA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth all present. In short its a pretty decent handphone.The i600 has one of the easiest to use Qwerty keyboards that I have come across. Highly recommended if you send SMS messages or e-mail frequently on your phone.
