Smooth and sensitive to the touch (Samsung SGH-J600)

Member Name: Andy2901

Product:	Samsung SGH-J600
Date:	07/11/08 (290 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A good low price phone

Disadvantages: you need nimble fingers

I'm not the biggest mobile phone fan in the world, however they have their uses and can be extremely useful at times. As I use mine purely for convenience, I'm not constantly changing it for the latest flashy model. I've only ever owned 2, a Sony K700i and this Samsung.

When my Sony gave me the black screen of death one day, it forced me into buying another. It had been a good phone but I wanted something a bit smaller and more lightweight this time, so the search for another began.

My first port of call was the Virgin mobile site, as I've used virgin all the time, and you can often find good promotions on there. Looking at the phones, the Samsung J600 touch sensitive phone caught my eye, mainly because it was half price at £35 and included £10 of airtime, plus free next day delivery. A quick search of the internet showed they were selling at around £60-£70 including e-bay, so decision made, I bought it.

Now I didn't just jump in and buy it purely because of the price, I did check what functions it had. Although not wanting the latest does everything but talk for you phone, I did want a half decent one, and this model looked well capable of fulfilling my needs, well at least the ones that the barmaid at my local club won't, but that's another story.

So, what did I get for my money? Well,it's a slim, smart looking slider phone. Mine is a nice dark metallic blue with silver trim and looks very smart, it also comes in black, silver and pink for the girlys. There is a decent sized 1.9" tft screen on the front which has a high quality display. Below the screen is a silver trimmed square with a button marked i on it. This is a shortcut button for connecting to the internet which also acts as the ok button when you're in the main menu. You don't have to worry about accidentally connecting to the internet as the phone is automatically locked until you slide it open. Also when you open it, it lights up your main screen and the touch sensitive functions on the front of the phone. These are four small illuminations, the bottom two for dialling out and ending a call, the top two for going to the menu, or to your contacts book, the top two are also used as confirmation for save/send/options, and back, when using the phones menu. On the right hand of the case is the on/off button, a shortcut button to the camera and a port for the charger, headphones or usb cable. On the left hand side of the case are two silver buttons which are used for zooming the camera or pictures on the phone or for adjusting the volume, below them is a slot for a Micro SD card. When you slide the phone open it reveals the keypad. Surprisingly for a phone this size the keys are a decent size and easy to use, especially for texting. They are backlit and it's far superior to the Sony I had for ease of use.

The technical stuff:

The phone has a 1.3 megapixel camera with a 4x zoom and built in flash. While today's latest phones are much higher it does take good quality pictures from close up, from a distance they're ok. You can also take and play videos. Again the quality is pretty good.

It has an mp3 music player. The sound is a bit tinny through the phone speaker, but is a lot better through headphones.

Built in FM radio, a nice touch but will only work with the headphones in, acting as an aerial.

The phone has bluetooth, but no infra red.

Built in modem and browser.

There's a host of other functions in the menu too, which is the norm for mobiles nowadays, tri band, gprs, clock/alarm, calendar, calculator, ringtones, themes, games, call log, picture phonebook etc. and also settings, so you personalise the phone how you want it.

There's 20mb of inbuilt memory but it does take a Micro SD card.

The phone book will store 1000 numbers, well 800 actually, another 200 on the sim card.

The battery has a talk time of nearly 4 hours and a standby time of 300 hours, with full charge up time of 2 and a half hours.

It weighs in at 99 grams, measures 97.8 x 44.8 x 15.2mm and comes complete with charger, user manual CD software, stereo headset and a usb data cable.

I've had this phone a few months now and it still looks as good as new. It's been in my pocket with loose change and keys but still looks nearly as good as the day I received it. I've dropped it a few times and the screen's survived, so it's a hardwearing phone. I like this phone, it's nicely compact and looks good. It's easy to use, has all the functions you need. Calls have always been nice and clear on it and texting is easy, no struggling with the keys. You can also call me childish but I derive great pleasure from setting individual contacts to display a stupid or rude picture and play a stupid noise or ringtone when they call me.

However, it's not the perfect phone. The little square on the front with the internet shortcut in it is also where the directional function is. You press above, below, or at the sides of the i button to navigate the menu, it can be quite tricky and you can find yourself skimming all round the menu. Also the touch screen function on the front can be a pain at times, accidentally touch it and you can abruptly end calls, mistakenly dial someone, open a menu item you didn't want, send a half completed text, or accidentally delete one you're composing. These happen less and less as you get used to the phone but still happen occasionally. That apart, I'm happy with this phone and will not be changing it untill it breaks.

This model is currently selling for £49.99 on Virgin

Summary: A decent phone for the price

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