Samsung D600 - Much More Than a Phone (Samsung SGH-D600)

Member Name: derek-a

Product:	Samsung SGH-D600
Date:	19/10/06 (1857 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Small and lightweight with a host of features.

Disadvantages: None that I have found

My trusty mobile phone finally decided it had had enough just over a month ago when I dropped it straight into a mug of boiling tea. After berating myself but stopping short of slamming my head into a wall, I decided I would need a new one. My old one did actually switch on after I dried it with a hair-dryer, but kept switching itself off every time it rang, not very good behaviour for a mobile phone. Anyway, my birthday was coming up…

I hadn't intended getting a camera phone thinking that it would be something I would never use, but when I looked at the tiny Samsung D600, I couldn't help but be impressed. We had gone to Car Phone Warehouse and had actually been left alone by the sales staff to look through the PAYG phones. I don't use a mobile a lot so I wasn't looking for a contract phone.

When I called the salesman over he told me that D600 is an upgraded version of the D500 which was voted Handset Of The Year (Mobile Choice Awards 2005). As he flicked through its features, I was sold on it.

The phone is of the "slide form" - the keyboard slides smoothly from underneath the screen which lights up as you do so with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels in 262k colours. Open, the phone's total length is around 14cms and closed it measures just 10cm. I was offered a colour choice of black or silver, I went for the silver.

When I switched it on I was presented with a colourful screen that is easy to read. At the top is displayed the date and time, signal strength, and memory card indicator that is present when you insert the optional memory card. I had bought a 256mb but you can go up to 1GB if you want to store a lot of photos or MP3 files. The memory card is easy to install, a tiny chip just slides into the base of the phone and is automatically recognised. It took me all of 3 seconds.

In the box is the battery charging cable, a USB cable so that you can connect the phone to your PC so that they can "talk" to each other - this also charges the phone-battery. All this comes together with a CD to install the software - which I found very easy to do. There's a set of earphones with a microphone attached so that you can use the phone hands-free or to listen to MP3s you store. The D600 also supports something called PicBridge for direct printing of images to compatible printers.

So this is not just a phone, it's also a digital stills camera, video camera, MP3 player, a calendar, timer, alarm, web browser, a games machine and a storage device where you can store images, voice memos, music files, sounds, and whatever stuff that you can download from the Internet and/or your computer.

The phone also has blue-tooth which means it can wirelessly connect to your computer to transfer data, bluetooth printer, or a head set for hands-free operation

Main Features….

Camera (Still or Video):
The camera gives an impressive 2 MP (mega-pixels) resolution which to me seemed to be the best camera phone on the shelves in the store, all the others being around 1.3 MP. This means it will easily take print-quality images and on top of that it has a 4x digital zoom - all right it's not optical zoom, but I can well-forgive that, after all it is a phone. When I did it a little video-footage I found it to be crystal clear on the screen - there's also TV-out connection leads, so you can view your recorded videos directly on a TV or record them to VCR or DVD recorder.


Sound:
Coming from tiny speaks on the side of the phone, the sound is crisp and easy to hear. The presence of these speakers turns this little gadget into a speaker phone. I tried this and was pleasantly surprised at the clarity, I could hear the caller very clearly, and he could me just as clearly when the phone was about a foot away from me on my desk.

You can also play your MP3s through the speakers and hear the music quite clearly - but there is a far better hi-fi sound when you listen through the earphones.


Battery:
The battery was easy to install and seems to hold its charge for a long time. According to the manufacturers, it will stay in stand-by for up to 300 hours and talk-tiime up to 7 hours. I had it switched on continuously for two days, took some video, sent several texts and took a couple of photographs - at the end of day 2, when I took the second photograph, I had a warning come up saying the battery needed recharging.

What's it like to use?

Well I found it quite easy. On switching it on, I was present with the main screen. To operate, the phone needed to be slid open first. Pressing the top left button, I gained access to the main menu where I was presented with icons. Some are obvious what they mean, others are not, but then I realised that if I selected one with the "up-down-left-right" buttons of the "joy-stick", labels came up on the top of the screen telling me exactly what each icons was for. Pressing OK ( via a button in the centre of the 4 directional buttons, opened that feature of which there were 9…

1. Call records telling you of missed calls, received calls, etc.
2. Phone book.
3. Applications (MP3 Player, voice recorder, world time, alarm, java world (games) calculator, timer and more.
4. Browser (if you want to set up an internet connection).
5. Mail box, for SMS, MMS (for setting photos/files), and email facility (that would need to be set up with calls provider).
6. File manager with folders that can contain photos, music, videos, sound and other files and access to your memory card.
7. Calendar that you can enter data on and view a day, week or month at a time.
8. Camera facility where you can take or view a photo, record or view a video
9. Settings - where you can set date/time, phone settings, display settings, sound settings, network services, bluetooth, memory etc..

I was quite surprised at how easy it was to fiddle with all these settings. To be hones I was thoroughly enjoying myself. It was all more or less self-explanatory (very much like my PC in miniature) and when I did need to refer to the instruction book, it was set out in plain easy-to-understand English.

Regarding it's durability, I have only owned this phone for a week (and I am not intending testing it with a mug of boiling tea), so only time will tell on that, but I am really impressed with the weight and feel of the phone and the overall build-quality.


Price:
The phone cost £149.95 which included £10 airtime with vodafone, the card costing £20 and a protective see-through casing another £17.

Summary: A great little phone, camera, MP3 Player with bluetooth and computer connectivity.

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