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• Very nice looking and well built
• Touch sensitive as well as standard navigation
• 3.2 Megapixel camera with auto focus
• EDGE
• Good image quality
• microSD memory card slot
• PC connectivity
• Smart search

Things that needed some work

• No 3G
• Slow user interface
• Confirm key starts the browser when in stand by
• Keypad will lead to miskeys
• short battery life

It is common to think of the Samsung u600 to be the runner up in the Ultra Line II, behind the Samsung U700 but that is a bit misleading. They are the products of two different research and development centers at Samsung and are best viewed as separate products.

The U600 is a bit slimmer then the U700 and is actually the slimmest slide phone, coming in at just 10.9mm of thickness. Also present on the Samsung U600, but lacking on the U700 is an FM radio and TV out functionality. In short, the two phones are more different in purpose than they are in design.

It looks good

In short, the Samsung U600 is a pretty phone. It would be easy to discount the functionality of the phone, given its flashy exterior and slim lines, but I think that would be a mistake. The phone measures in at 103.5 x 49.3 x 10.9 mm and weighs a mere 81g, so it fits nearly invisibly in a shirt pocket or thrown in your trousers. Actually, after a few minutes, it would be easy to forget that it there.

Just above the 2.22 inch display is the earpiece jack opening. On the front of the phone are the touch sensitive soft keys, located above the D-pad. Between the D-pad and the soft keys are the also touch sensitive dial key and the delete key. In the middle of the navigation pad is the web access/confirm key. Its location led me to accidentally launch the web browser a time or two, but maybe that was just me.

On the left side of the Samsung U600 are the volume rocker and the USB slot. The rocker was moved from the top, where it is on the D900, to the bottom, just above the USB slot. I question this, as it is easy to hit when you are talking on the phone.

The bottom of the phone has no controls and only sports a ribbed design. On the right side are the MicroSD card slot and the dedicated camera key. They are opposite the controls on the other side, giving a nice symmetry to the design.

On the top of the phone you will find the power key. It is located on the right, in a shiny plastic color that actually makes it easier to press. The top of the phone and the bottom of the slider are shiny plastic, while the rest of the phone is an opaque finish.

The ear of the phone is rather plain. There is a gap at the base of the battery cover and the discreet badging is at the top and bottom of the phone. When you open the slider, you see the 3.2 Megapixel camera at the top right while the self-mirror and the LED flash are in the top left. Between the two are the “3.2 Megapixel” and “autofocus” labels.

Under the battery cover, which you open by simply sliding it, is the standard Samsung Li0Ion battery with a meager capacity of only 690 mAH. While it is supposed to give you 250 hours of standby and 3 hours of talk time, in reality my experience is more like 2 days of moderate use, which, while not horrible, is sure not anything to brag about.

Slim phones are nice, but when you look at the keypad you see the price you pay for the slim styling. On the U600, there is no room for a terraced keypad and their flat surface makes orientation by touch impossible. The rows are separated by thin ridges to provide some sort of direction, but you still must look at the keys, lest you send a message full of typos.

It is uncommon to see both touch sensitive and regular keys on the same phone. This threw me at first, but over time I got used to it and, I must say, it improved the looks dramatically.

In short, the Samsung U600 is a well built, well designed phone. There is no creaking, no loose joints, no strange noises. The phone gives off the feeling of comfort, yet strength when you hold it in your hand.

Standard Samsung

The Samsung U600 features standard Samsung design. You get to the main menu by pressing the soft key on the left. The right soft key will take you to the phonebook. The central key on the navigation pad launches the WAP browser if the phone is in stand-by. Each direction of the navigation pad (except the up key) can be assigned a shortcut to a list of 22 items.

The stand-by display is vintage Samsung. The top bar is where signal strength battery status and connectivity are shown. The bottom bar shows descriptions of the features assigned to soft keys. It also analog clock we have come to expect since the Samsung D900. Background wallpaper is animated; lacking is the ability to have a calendar display on the screen in standby like you could on the D900.

In displaying the main menu, you have the choice of a standard list or a 4x3 display of icons. Sub-menus are displayed as pop up windows, accessible through the D-pad or directly. One nice new feature is the choice of 3 font sizes used throughout the interface.

The Samsung U600 will automatically lock its keypad when the slider is closed. To unlock it, you either press the power key or slide the phone open. You have the option to decide if closing the slider will also end the current application.

Messaging

The Samsung U600 can create four types of messages: SMS, EMS, MMS, and emails, all of them using the same editor except for emails. Of course, there is a quality T9 dictionary installed. Should a message fail to send, it is saved automatically to the outbox so you can try again later. The phone’s memory will hold 1000 SMS messages. There is a black list capability for incoming messages as well as phone calls that you can define.

The email client is acceptable. You can install 5 accounts, either POP or IMAP. You can define whether you want to download messages or only headers and how often you want the browser to check for mail (between every 1 to 12 hours).

This Samsung phone includes the uTrack function; if it is activated by you and the phone gets stolen, a signal is sent out when another SIM card is installed. The signal sends out tracking messages to numbers you define in advance. I am not sure how helpful this actually will be, but Samsung likes it.



Manage Files

The Samsung U600 file browser is pretty standard fare. There are folders for various file types; images, music, video, sounds, all of which allow the handset to sort the contents. Files can be copied or moved (one at a time or in groups) and folders can be created and deleted.

You can use Bluetooth to send files as well. You have the ability to lock certain files to prevent accidental deletion. The Samsung U600 is faster than many Samsung phones when reading from the memory card. That was a nice –and unexpected- surprise.

To access the image gallery in the Samsung U600, you merely open the images folder. Like on the Samsung D900, you can view images in a list or as thumbnails and you can sort by size, name, date or type. Pictures can be viewed in portrait mode only.

Great music

With 60MB of internal memory and a microSD memory card slot, the Samsung U600 has all the capabilities of being a great music player. The music application allows you filter tracks by genre, album or author as well as allowing you to play the tracks most played, or the ones listened to the most. Should that fail, you can create a custom play list. While the visuals have changed quite a bit in the U600, the functionality is still that of the D900.

Room for the camera?

The Samsung U600 is a 3.2 Megapixel with autofocus. The maximum resolution is 2048 x 1536 pixels and it comes with an LED flash and a self-portrait mirror. Overall, the picture quality is on a par with the better 3 Megapixel mobile devices, but short of the very best, such as the Sony Ericsson K810 or the Nokia N73.

The camera interface is similar to that of the Samsung E590 or the Samsung E950. It is fairly intuitive and displays settings with icons in a toolbar at the bottom of the screen. Options show up as pop-up menu items. There is a multitude of settings, including picture size, shooting mode, color effects, ISO and white balance. Pictures are taken in landscape mode. The time to take a picture was faster than expected, certainly faster than the D900. Also of note is the Namecard recognition feature. It allows you to scan business cards and then it imposts contact information into the respective fields in the phonebook. It does this with surprising accuracy.

At last we come to the video recording capabilities of the camera. The recording length is limited only by free memory. The only difference between the user interface of the video camera and the still camera is the available options, otherwise, they are identical.

Like most other Samsung Handsets, the Samsung U600 captures MPEG-4 videos with a maximum resolution of 352 x 288 pixels.

Connectivity

The Samsung U600 uses EDGE and GPRS for browsing the internet. The browser is the NetFront 3.4 and works excellently with or without the Smart-fit function. It has a map for those large pages and a “virtual” mouse that highlights the current hyperlink or field.

Transferring data to and from a PC is seamless. One added surprise in the Bluetooth File Browser is the ability to make files you select visible or invisible. The USB connection has Media Player, PC Studio and Mass storage modes, any of which can be set as the default.

Get gaming

If games are your thing, the Samsung U600 will not disappoint. Included are Bobby Carrot, TimeRider II, Asphalt Urban GT (trial), Midnight Pool (trial), Minigolf Las Vegas (trial), Tetris (trial)., with the ability to download more should the mood hit you.

Final words…

Overall, the Samsung U600 is a good phone. I like it. On the other hand, it breaks no new ground, marks no new territory. Think of it as evolution rather than revolution. If you want a sleek, stylish device with great multimedia capabilities, then you should give the Samsung U600 a long hard look. This phone is probably not attractive to those who are technology freaks as all the features can be had on other phones for less money (such as the E590, for example, at about 60% of the ticket). Regardless, the Samsung U600 is a strong, slim, well featured phone, sure to please its owners.