Our Review of the Samsung G600
The G600's has a compact, fashionable design and powerful imaging features mean that you can finally leave the digital camera at home.
Samsung's entry into the 5 Megapixel war has finally arrived. The G600's has a compact, fashionable design and powerful imaging features mean that you can finally leave the digital camera at home. Stylistically it looks like a mix of previous Samsung models but with enough new visual hooks that it still feels fresh.
The slider design has been a feature of Samsung phones for about three years now, and functions smoothly on the G600. The handset's smooth, silky finish looks smart without being a fingerprint magnet like some models. At 15mm thick and 48mm wide, the G600 is a good, practical size.
The large 2.2" TFT screen has a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels and 16 million colours. Whilst not touch-sensitive, they keypad is easy to use and gives good tactile response. The camera on the back is well protected by the slide.
The camera is obviously the main feature of the phone. Aside from its 5 Megapixel power, the camera comes with autofocus, 4 x digital zoom for taking close-ups and a power LED flash that helps in bad lighting conditions. Just like a standalone digital camera you can make setting changes to capture more interesting images and edit them using the G600's built-in software. Two useful camera modes are panorama mode which lets you take pictures of wide views such as landscapes, and macro mode for detailed and focused close-up shots. Photos can be shared with friends and contacts using the phone's multimedia messaging service, and photos can be printed directly on a Pictbridge compatible printer. A TV-Out facility lets you look at images on your home television.
The music player in the G600 is one of the best available on a Samsung. Every major format is supported (MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+ and WMA). Stereo Bluetooth enables you to listen to music on a wireless headset, and the phone even supports a second headset so you can listen to your music with a friend.
The handset has a music library which you can use to code and organise your favourite tracks by album, artist or genre. An FM Radio is also built in. Storage is not an issue thanks to the generous 55MB of internal memory. There is also a microSD card slot, which allows you to expand the memory by 2GB.
The Samsung G600 has a WAP 2.0 and HTML web browser powered by EDGE technology for high speed data transfer. The phone can be connected to other compatible devices by a USB cable or Bluetooth to download data or transfer files. Text messaging, multimedia messaging and email are all supported. A document viewer lets you access email attachments in Word, Excel, Power Point and PDF formats. Other features include a hands-free option, voice memos, offline mode, polyphonic and MP3 ringtones.
In conclusion the G600 is an interesting addition to the 5 Megapixel camera phone family. It will be a tough decision whether to opt for this, an N95 or a K850i. But the sleek form of the G600 may make the choice easier.
Pros
Excellent camera.
Great sound quality on the MP3 player.
FM radio built in.
Cons
No 3G compatibility.
Our Rating
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If there's one thing Samsung's great at, it's packing massive features into a tiny phone. A wafer-thin 15mm, the G600 is no exception with its 5 Megapixel camera and power LED flash.
