Do you want to slide with me? (Samsung SGH-D600)

Member Name: computer_xpert

Product:	Samsung SGH-D600
Date:	28/09/06 (2403 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Design, Big Screen, Cool Layout, Camera, Slides

Disadvantages: None

This phone seems to be changing so many people's lives so I'm gonna have to write about it! I got my Samsung D600 back in March 2006 and ever since my life has been different.

I'm currently a student but I'm also a freelance website designer. It's much easier to give people a mobile number and safer then giving out a home number, so when I went looking for a phone I was selecting a phone not just to keep in touch with friends but to help run a business.

When I went into the store I already had a Samsung D600 in mind. A friend from college had a the previous model, on which I didn't like the back of the slide function, but this has changed on this model.

Anyway here's how the Samsung D600e changed my life. Enjoy :)

1. The Phone Case Design

There are a lot of mobile phones on the market right now. You can get big, small, thin, flip and slide mobiles. They're releasing new designs everyday so it's hard to decide which one to get. The good thing about the D600's design is it's simple! It's small enough to fit in my hand, pocket, shirt pocket but not too small so I can't grip onto it. The phone is about 9.2cm by 4cm.

The 4cm by 3cm screen is in a good location. I don't have to flip or slide the phone in anyway to see who's calling. It appears on this huge screen.

Just below the screen is the samsung logo. Below this is the main set of keys, excluding the 0 to 9 keys ect. You have the have the green and red phones, the C key, a direction and OK keypad, plus a left and right key. Using just these few keys you can control the phone without even sliding it.

I've said the word slide a few times so let me tell you about it. Some phones flip open but the Samsung D600 slides. This means the screen and the keys I just talked about above slide upwards. The number keys then appear where the other keys were. This is a good design feature of the phone because it means that keys you don't need for other uses, e.g. playing MP3'S or games, are hidden away and this has resulted in a smaller phone design.

On the right side of the phone is the handsfree / headphone socket and the camera button (Silver button). On the left side is the volume control, also silver buttons.

On the back of the phone is the 2 megapixel camera, the flash and a little metal section to view yourself in if you want to take a picture of yourself.

The best bits about the design of the phone is the ease of getting the phone opened. You simply place the phone in the palm of your han, place your thumb on the screen and push it upwards. The number keypad then appears, giving you freedom to select any key using your thumb. This means you can use the phone with just the thumb! Pretty good yeah?!

2. The Phone's Screen Design

The most important feature of any phone is the screen. Without the screen you can't input anything into the phone! Like I said before the screen is 4cm by 3cm, which I think is huge! Not only are you getting a huge screen but it's colour and 230 x 240 pixels! I can't describe how bright and good the picture and colour quality is!

To activate the screen you either have to slide the phone open or, if the phone is closed (Slide not open) you need to press any key then the left function key followed by the right function key to unlock. So it's really easy to unlock either way, however, first way is just so much easier. When you activate the screen the backlight comes on, which can be set to stay on for 15 or 30 seconds, 1,3 or 10 minutes (Strange times is what I thought). The keypad also lights up, standard white keys apart from the green and red phone keys.

At the top of the screen appears the standard icons.

New Message
New Voicemail
Signal Strength
Call in progress
Out of service
Alarm Set
New multimedia message
New E-mail
Call Divert Feature
Bluetooth Active
Connected to headset
Synchronised with a PC
GPRS Network
Home Zone
Memory Card Inserted
On Vibrate
Quiet Mode

and the battery level :)

Just below all those lovely icons, in a coloured bar, is the day and date, you can change the format of this by using the phone settings, however I have it set like this "Wed27Sep". This is followed by the time on the right. At the bottom of the screen is the network, e.g. 02-UK and the word "Menu" on the left and "Contacts" on the right. Menu is worked by the green phone icon on the keypad and contacts by the red phone icon on the keypad.

3. Let's talk about Menu's!

Ok so if you select the "Menu" option you can then decide to view the call records, phonebook, applications, browser, messages, file manager, calendar, camera and settings.

Call Records - Here you can look at all the details of the calls you've made. How long a call was, the number or name of the call. How many times has that person called, the total minutes of calls you've made from the phone.

Top Tip - If you have a contract phone like me then here's a good idea for you. Go to call records and look at "Call Time". Look at the total sent call time so you don't go over your monthly limit. Find out when your bill date is and reset the call time on this day for the month ahead. It works for me :)

Phonebook - Here you can add new contacts, change contact details, put contacts into groups, arrange speed dials and lots of other groovy stuff. Also you can find out your own number in case you don't know it :)

Top Tip - If like me you have tons of contacts you can add a picture, music or tone for each contact. So if your waiting for a call from say your girlfriend your know when shes calling :)

Applications - This is another great feature of the Samsung D600e... Applications! MP3 Player, Voice Recorder, Image Editor, Java World, World Time, Alarm, Calculator, Convertor, Timer, Stopwatch, O2.

So let's have a quick think about what you might want to do with your phone? Play a game. Well the phone comes with three games (Might vary). They're great fun and kill time waiting for the bus.

Want to play some music? There's a great MP3 player built-in. Just plug your free headset into the side of the phone and use the PC to PHONE USB cable and software CD. You can purchase a memory card for about £30 (512mb) to put extra music, movies, images and other files on.

Anything else you might want to do like record your voice, edit an image, set an alarm, stopwatch its all on this phone! There's just so many great features.

I won't bore you wilth all these great features but I do love the Alarm. I know its only an alarm but I can set 3 standard alarms plus a poweron alarm! There are a bunch of alarm sounds to select as well. This is a good feature as I can set one alarm for my girlfriend and another for myself. We can then have our own alarm sound so we know who the alarms for :)

Browser - This allows you to visit the O2 homepage with lots of news and downloads. I liked this feature when coming home from work late at night as I could check out the latest Big Brother news if i've missed the show. I also downloaded Ms Pacman for £5, which is a lot of money but I play the game alot. I had a lot of trouble checking my email but this type of phone really isn't for that sort of thing.

Messages - The menu for messages has been well designed. It gives you lots of good options like I want to create a message. Ok what type of message it asks you. E-Mail? Multimedia or standard message?

The Samsung D600e comes with loads of multimedia templates which you can send your family and friends, e.g. Christmas one. Great fun and free :) (Not free to send lol)

File Manager - A useful tool you can use to manage your files. It's split into sections for images, movies, music, sounds, other files and memory card. You can create play lists for your MP3 player, send files to and from the memory card and watch, listen or view any of the files above.

What's even better is you can view word documents on your mobile! Plus if you plug your phone into a computer using the FREE USB plug and software you can manage all the files on your computer. This means you don't have to use the phone keypad to delete photos one by one ect.

I found this feature useful when getting back from holiday. I plugged the phone into my computer, used the software to take off my holiday pictures and then deleted them off the phone.

Calendar - Standard feature for most phones now? Well with Samsung D600e you can view a certain day, week or month and attack information to certain days. But... and this is a great feature! You can set alarms.. So lets say I want to remind myself about a meeting I have on Friday the 28th of December.

I go into the calendar, find the month and then select the day. I add some information e,g, who I'm meeting and where (There's boxes for all this stuff) and then enter a time, e.g. 9am, and set an alarm :) Great stuff.

The Camera - Yes! It's a 2 megapixel camera built into your phone.. Ok lets go over this one more time.. It's a 2 megapixel camera.. built into your Samsung D600e... There's no need to take another camera with you on holiday, ok you might want to if your a family man, but for me this baby works great.

Simply slide the phone open and press the camera button ont he side of the phone or use the menu to select the option to take a picture or record a movie :)

What's even better... yes even better then the camera (Picture quality is ace by the way) Is the extra features included with the camera. You get a whole ton of templates and features for taking your pictures. You can add some fish, a clown costume and lots of other crazy stuff to your picture.

The zoom isn't that good, I mean if you want a to take a picture more then 5 metres or more away you need to go buy a digital camera. But to take a closeup of a loved one or a pet then the zooms not to bad. If the rooms a little dark you can increase the light in the photo or turn the flash on.

The flash can be on just when you take the picture or if your in the dark you can turn it on and keep it on.

Another one of the great features is you can make the phone take nonstop photos every second. E,g take 6 pictures and it will take one every six seconds. This is good for taking pictures of moving animals or people unwrapping a gift :)

Once you've taken a picture you can use the menu to view them in either full mode or thumbnail mode and then use the keypad to change the picture. Set these pictures as a wallpaper, contact ID or send them to a friend :)

Top Tip - The phone doesn't resize pictures to fit the wallpaper. I took some pictures of my girlfriend for my wallpape but the pictures are too big to fit on the wallpaper. Upload them to your PC, resize them, and then set as wallpaper to see the whole picture.

Settings - You can do pretty much everything else here. Change the ringtone, other sound settings, time and date, bluetooth and security settings.. You get the idea folks :)

4. Making a call..

Ok you can simply press a number, e.g. 3 and press the green phone to dial. This is if you've setup speed dial. You can press the green phone button and see a list of people you last called or you can select a contact from your contact list or simply slide the phone, type the number and press the green phone button to dial. I always find I can hear people about 80% of the time clear as crystal.

When I get an incomming call it tells me the number or name of the person nice and clearly. Then all I do is slide the phone to answer the call.. How simple can you get? To reject the call press the red phone button.

I like to use my hands free kit if I'm going to be talking for a long time on the phone. Its easy to plug in (Right side of phone, pull down plastic and insert end of handsfree device) and people can always hear me even if I have it under my coat!


5. The Battery

It lasts hours and hours and hours. I think it lasts about 2 or 3 days if i don't make any calls.. If I do make a call i can talk on it for about 5 hours and the battery will still last.. Even if the battery does get low or runs out it takes only about an hour to recharge to max again :)

The Samsung D600e change my life.

So why did it change my life you ask? Well it fits into my hand, its an MP3 player, a camera, a calculator, a diary, a convertor, I can call my friends.. there's just so much on this phone.. I don't need a phone and an IPOD any more.. or even if I want to make a phone call.. it lists the contacts in a great way, has speed dial and allows me to assign ringtones to different people.

The Design - 10/10
The Features - 9/10
Overall Rating - 9/10 nah go on.. 10/10! Yeah Baby...

It's a great phone.. I won't be buying the newer Samsung phones cause I'm just soo in love with the Samsung D600E..

Summary: You wouldn't think that something as simple as a mobile phone could change your life but this will!

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