Do looks matter? (Samsung SGH-U600)

Member Name: Porj

Product:	Samsung SGH-U600
Date:	30/11/08 (151 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very elegant, stylish phone

Disadvantages: Very short life - battery, camera, everything!

This phone has been my thinnest yet, measuring 10.9mm in thickness. I realise now that it isn't among the thinnest of phones, however at the time of purchase (about 18 months ago) it was indeed a very thin phone. The U600 is a very elegant looking slide phone boasting a 2.22" LCD screen, a 3.2 megapixel camera and video camera, an FM radio, voice recorder and MP3 player, quad band (amongst other things)- all features that, actually, I did use and was looking for.
Even the box that the U600 phone came in was of very elegant design, displaying clearly pictures of the phone and the line '10.9 millimetres matter' - cheesy if you ask me - but at the time of purchase it was perhaps a point to boast about.
Inside the box is everything you need - warranty card, instruction manual etc. as well as the phone. The phone, as I said before, is very elegant looking. I got the sapphire blue colour, as it was the only available colour at the time of purchase - it had only just been released. This is a lovely shimmery colour, which is also complimented by the glossy screen cover with touch buttons. This can get scratched very easily though, so if you're clumsy, be warned! The top edge, I have found, also gets scratched very easily - leaving unsightly silver marks on the top edge of the phone.
The phone is fairly easy to use, however there are some points I would like to share:
- the touch buttons are very sesitive and respond to a very, very light touch. This often results in calling people accidentally very often! this takes some adjusting to.
- The keypad is very flat with very small divides between buttons. This also takes some adjusing to and can get painful - I have smaller fingers so I am lucky in that the phone was easier for me to use than a lot of people including a few of my friends.
- When the phone is closed, the designers have failed to think about ergonomics - it is very difficult to keep hold of and often used to slip from my hands. If it is left open, it wobbles very annoyingly, seeming very delicate.
- It is often confusing that the centre 'i' button does not lead to a menu, however leads to the internet if pressed.
- The predictive text was hard for me to get used to. Whether this was just my problem or not, I'll leave to you. However, the text is annoying in that it often 'forgets' words you have added to the dictionary.
In terms of interface, the design is very attractive - you can choose from either black or white glossy blackgrounds, with a choice of a list menu or a block menu. The different options light up with different colours, which is an attractive feature. The theme my phone came with was an image of big ben and the houses of parliament with a view of the thames. Not very exciting it seemed, however in the background birds flew. As well as this, as the signal decreases, the more clouds cover the sky. When a text message is recieved, planes fly about the sky with yellow smoke tails. At night, the background changes to a night sky. If a text message is recieved at night, fireworks appear! A bit of a novelty, but I enjoyed this feature all the same. Another feature like this was the number entering screen - you can choose from a quill writing the number, stucky notes or colourful numbers!
The keypad tones of this phone, at first, sound very cute - jingly tones for the touch buttons and a xylophone-esque sound for the keypad. These do, however, get very annoying after a while. I switched them off after around a week of use.
Battery life with this phone is realtively low. It has to be charged every day if it is constantly used - terrible compared with my old motorola, which lasts around a week with constant usage. This deteriorates with use - don't be surprised if you have to replace the battery after around a year of use.
The MP3 player is a good feature - not having one of my own I used this all of the time with the headphones that were supplied. Sound quality was good overall. However, my headphones did break after around a year of use as well. The FM radio was variable - since the headphone cable acts as an aerial for the radio, it often did not work, including for international radio stations such as radio one.
The camera, when it worked, was of excellent quality, boasting more features than my separate digital camera at the time. 3.2 megapixels is fairly impressive for a mobile phone, especially of its size and price. Video was fair, having a fairly poor resoltion and frame rate. The camera does take a while to load though, as well as being the first thing to break, claiming that the connection was damaged.
Everything broke down for me after about a year of use. I shall list the problems that I have come across:
- The battery life is a mere few hours
- The phone stalls and turns itself off when I try to write a message
- The predictive text turns into german every time I write a message, as well as not saving anything at all that I add to the dictionary.
- The camera does not work (already mentioned)
- The headphones are broken (already mentioned)
- Even when not in use, the phone stalls and restarts.
What's more, typically, it completely broke after the warranty had finished - and before my 18 month contract with orange ran out.
Since it has broken, I have resorted to using my old motorola l7, which, after almost two years of use, is still working perfectly.
In conclusion, this is the phone to buy if you're looking for style and features - as long as you're up for changing your phone at least every 12 months.

Summary: Only buy if you replace your phone often

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