Samsung G600 Sim Free Mobile Phone - Black

I got this phone the day it came out, and to begin with, I was very impressed with it.

In the past I have been an avid customer of the Sony Ericsson range, recently having the K800i which was an amazing phone, the camera on the G600 boasts 5mp athough the K800i having only 3.2mp was a much better picture. The phone is also very heavy, but I guess this is due to it being metal and it having ball bearings in it, which makes for a very smooth slide action.

The G600 has some lovely features but also some downsides, after only 8 days the black paint has come away around the screen, I can only assume its where I push it up to answer calls, there is nowhere else to put ur thumb its the screen, then buttons.

Im giving this phone 4 stars as it truly is a stunning phone, despite the small flaws I have noticed.

Im not the heaviest user of mobile phones, but the Samsung G600 does everything that i need and has a few nifty extras thrown in.

Camera - 5MP the qulaity of the images is clear, but i have seen better pictures on different cameras, its ok for those impulsive shots you want to take. Don't rely on it to capture important images (such as holiday snaps, birthdays etc.) use a digital camera for that!

Battery life - I know Samsungs have a reputation for having poor battery life. This phone will easily last me 5 days without charging, with moderate texting and conversation use.

Memory - The memory card slot comes in very handy as those 5mp pictures and video clips soon fill up the phone memory. Nice extra to have

Looks - Looks good, professional and has a nice smooth sliding action, after 3 months mine still looks brand new, so it stands the test of time pretty well (and no annoying touch buttons like the U600!)

All in all this is a good quality phone for people who want the basics from a phone. If you want the best of the best features wise then you might want to look elsewhere.

I got this phone under an Orange contract,and I've found it reasonably ok to live with. When starting up the phone, I found it quite slow to boot up; not handy when you've turned off your phone during a lesson, meeting, lecture, or whatever it is you guys go to :). Of course, the way to get round this is to go to silent and turn everything off.

First things first - the calls. That's why you buy a phone, right? The calls I find are very clear and loud (although it depends whats happening in both backgrounds) and if it isn't loud enough, you can always turn of the speaker.

The background of this phone is a dynamic background that changes from night to day of the Big Ben. The idea of this thing is that because it is a quad band phone, it changes to say the Statue of Liberty when in America and the Eiffel tower when you're in France, that kinda stuff. If you dislike it, you can plaster a wallpaper over the thing.

Themes are limited on this phone. There are only 4 pre-installed themes, but there is a theme creator, but the best you can do is to get a picture then change the colour of the text and stuff - not very original. The only Samsungs that could have themes like Sony Ericssons (made on the computer) were the Z series.

The main menu goes like this:
Call Log
Phonebook
Music (player)
Browser
Messages
Files
Calendar
Camera
FM Radio (can record clips off the radio)
Applications
Alarms
Settings

Oh see that shiny circular thing in the middle of the phone? That isn't a scroll wheel. This means lots of clicking if you have a lot of music :( But playlists can be made! :)

The Music Player is pretty awesome. The phone comes with noise cancelling headphones, but I use my £10 Senheisser one just out of preference. Yes, it comes with a headphone adapter for you audiophiles. Its pretty much a standard player, except you can play podcasts on it, so I assume you can also play non-DRM iTunes as well. The speaker on the phone is better than that of my laptop (read: pretty good), and quite loud too.

You get a 1GB SDMicro card (With free SD card adapter) in the box. However, accessing the photos and videos you've taken using the camera is very slow and frustrating, so you're better off looking at them on your computer.

Onto the camera. It's good quality, don't get me wrong. It's just far too slow to take a picture - the multishot function takes more pictures, and faster than the single shot! Another key point for those you like their cameras is that the flash cannot be set permanently to Auto - you've got to turn in on EVERY TIME. This camera is incredibly frustrating, as you don't have time to navigate the menus to get the settings right just to take an instant picture. I'd suggest looking at the Sony Ericsson K850i or the LG Viewty if you want a decent camera on your phone.

However, this thing does have a few nifty applications. It has:
Voice Recorder
Image Editor
Image Stamp
Bluetooth
Memo
World Clock
Calculator
Timer
Stopwatch
(Orange Plus for me as I'm on contract. Not shure about anyone else tho.)

The converter is out of date, and I don't know how to update it. :(
But, the Calculator and the World Clock functions I find to be very helpful. You can check the time in other parts of the world (Obviously) but what also good about this is that u can the time of one region as a second clock on your main wall. That's pretty awesome if you're abroad and you want to call home, no?

The battery life I find to be very good. I tend to call alot and take a few pics and videos every now-and-again, and it lasts for a week, maybe more.

Last but not least, the style. It is a good looking phone, but scratches very easily if it is dropped or the little plastic thing over the screen comes off, but is incredibly durable against a lot of drops.

Overall, it is an average phone. The camera, although the quality is excellent, it is let down by its lack of saving your pre-defined settings and the time taken to start up and take a single photo. It is also crippled by its lack of customization of the themes. That is why I would give this phone a 3/5.

PS: you see that little circle to the top left of the 'SAMSUNG' lettering? that's a light sensor :)