Thanks to Samsung, I've recently got my hands on the final version of a Samsung
SGH-i600, the EMEA/APAC version of Samsung's BlackJack which was launched
late last year. While the i600 was announced earlier, the U.S. got it
released faster but since last month, the i600 is also available across
Europe. Generally speaking, the i600 is the follower of Samsung's
earlier introduced SGH-i320 and like the i320, the i600 is sporting a QWERTY
keyboard for easy typing. This makes the device definitely another BlackBerry competitor. The i600 is part of Samsung's Ultra series and this
one is also called "Ultra Messaging". Only 11.8 mm thin, the i600 fits
perfectly into Samsung's Ultra series but UMTS and HSDPA
makes it quite unique today. Not too many keyboard enabled smartphones
features triband GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850 MHz aren't supported), singleband
UMTS/HSDPA (up to 1.8 Kbps) as well as WiFi b/g and Bluetooth 2.0 EDR yet.
Sporting Windows Mobile 5.0 with the latest 3.4 AKU, the Samsung SGH-i600 is powered by a
TI OMAP 1710 CPU at 220 MHz and features 128 MB ROM and 64 MB RAM which can be
extended with microSD flash memory cards.
The 2.3" (non-touch) screen supports a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels at 65k
colors. On the back, the i600 includes a 1.3 megapixel camera for photos
up to 1280 x 1024 pixels or videos up to 320 x 240 pixels. On the front, the
device has a VGA camera for UMTS and HSDPA-based video telephony (if supported
by the operator).
The sales pack includes the device, two standard batteries, a battery holder which also
acts as a charger for the second battery, the AC 110 - 220 V charger, a USB sync
cable, a stereo headset with microphone, CD-ROMs which contains Microsoft
ActiveSync, add-on software, the User's Guide in PDF format and a printed Quick
Reference Guide.
On the front, the device features the Windows Mobile typical Home and
Back/Clear keys as well as two soft keys and for sure the Send and End keys.
Centered is the 4-way navigation key with the OK/Action key in the middle.
Bellow is the thumb-keyboard (for this review, the German QWERTZ layout is used
but Samsung also offers British and French localized keyboard layouts) and
bellow the keyboard - on the right - you have the microphone. Above the function
keys you have the screen with the speaker and video camera on the right.
On the back, the device features the 1.3 megapixel camera and left from it a
mirror for self-portraits. On the right, the device has the loudspeaker which is
used for hands-free calls and media playback. Unlike the SGH-i320, the
i600 neither features a photo-light nor the dual speakers anymore:
On the left, the device features the volume up/down keys and bellow it has
the headset/power adapter/data cable jack - protected by a flap. Unfortunately
Samsung is using a propriety jack again and not supporting a standard mini USB
jack. This means you have to buy new cables and chargers, if you need additional
or spare. Also, accessories you might have bought already will not work with the i600 -
for instance standard stereo headsets but you either have to use the original i600 stereo
headset or a Bluetooth stereo headset. I'm not aware of a i600 plug to 3.5 mm
stereo adapter yet:
On the right side, the device has (top down) the microSD card slot (also
protected by flap), the clickable thumbwheel and another Back/Clear key which
also acts as the camera key (by pressing and holding the key).
Having volume keys and a thumbwheel is quite unusual, most devices features
either the one or the other but having both adds serious convenience to the
device. Last but not least the i600 shows-off what it can do by having the WiFi
and Bluetooth logos on the left side and featuring a HSDPA writing on the right
side.
Under the battery cover, the device hosts the battery and the USIM card. On
the right photo, we have the battery holder which also acts as an external charger for
the second battery:
Size-wise, the i600 is a typical messaging device and similar sized to its
competitors - like the Motorola MOTO Q 9h (which is another new UMTS/HSDPA
Windows Mobile Standard smartphone):
Thanks to the rubberized soft-touch finishing on the back, the device is pleasing to
touch and hold and even if it looks quite wide (and for sure it's
wider than a regular candy bar phone) on the first sight, it's a pleasure to
hold and use it.
Similar to the SGH-i320, Samsung also grouped the number keys at the i600
which means E and R acts as the 1 key, T and Z as the 2 key, U and I as the 3
key, etc. if you dial a number. This is unique for Windows Mobile smartphones
and makes sense since it doubles the space for entering phone numbers. I already enjoyed this idea with the i320 since it makes
dialing a number way faster. And, typical for Windows Mobile Standard based
smartphones, the software either knows if you want to enter a number or a
character or - for instance at the address book - it offers both in parallel.
Bellow a short video with some of the use cases including the use of the
Thumbwheel and the use of the keyboard:
As said earlier, the Samsung SGH-i600 is running Windows Mobile 5.0 for
Smartphone which means it doesn't has a touch screen. Samsung used the latest
available AKU (3.4) to get most out of the operating system and AKU 3.x includes
some additional benefits.
However, beside using just the vanilla operating system, as provided by
Microsoft, Samsung added self-developed and licensed 3rd party applications to
make the device even smarter and more useful.
This includes, for instance, several Home Screen designs and layouts you can
find on Samsung devices only - like the Samsung Simple, the Samsung Popup, the
Samsung Calendar and the Samsung Clock layout:
In addition, Samsung also added the sophisticated Card Wheel layout which was
reviewed earlier already.
Another useful application is the Task Manager which can be launched from
anywhere by pressing and holding the Home key. The Task Manager provides
information about the currently running applications with the option to jump to
an application or to close it as well as closing all running applications with a single
click:
In addition, the Task Manager provides information about the battery status
as well as memory information for the main and storage memory and storage card:
The Quick Launcher allows you to set up shortcuts to your favorite programs,
website, files or folders to quickly access them, from wherever your are. To
open the Quick Launcher just press and hold the thumbwheel and the Quick
Launcher window appears on the right side of the display:
To make configuring the device even easier, Samsung also added an Operator
Settings configuration utility which includes, depending on the country you got
the i600 from, the available carriers and its WAP, MMS and Internet settings.
This is pretty handy and convenient, since it is always a pain for a user to add
the GPRS/UMTS APN, WAP proxy, etc. and most users even haven't heard about this
stuff. With the configuration utility you simply select your carrier and
everything else is done by the device automatically. It's even not requiring to
reboot the device which means the device is ready to use right after the proper
operator was selected:
As all Samsung Smartphones before (namely the SGH-i300 and SGH-i320), also
the SGH-i600 includes this small helper utilities which makes the device even
worthier in the daily use. For sure, Alarms (which works superior compared to
the weak alarm implementation in Windows Mobile), D-Day, Smart Converter,
Stopwatch and World Clock are not selling points mentioned in a store, for me
however it makes sense to have such helpers on a device and shows that Samsung
invested a good amount of time and money to think about what makes its Windows
Mobile device even worthier:
Making the device even worthier for business users also includes the Notes
and Picsel Viewer application. By default, Microsoft's Windows Mobile
Smartphones are incompatible with Office Notes, it's are simply not supported
which means you can neither sync Outlook Notes from your PC to your mobile
device nor you have a utility on the device you can use to write down notes and
memos quickly. However, Samsung again licensed Syncdata's SmartphoneNotes which
closes both gaps. It's compatible with Outlook which means you can sync Notes
from the PC to the device and vice versa and - on the device created Notes - can be
synchronized back to the PC:
Same sad situation with Office files. While you can receive them via E-Mails,
Windows Mobile 5.0 doesn't includes any viewers to open received Word docs or
Excel spreadsheets. Therefore Samsung added the Picsel Viewer which supports
Word, Excel, PowerPoint as well as PDF files. In addition, the Picsel Viewer
supports a wide range of image files:
However, as the name says, the Picsel Viewer is a viewer only and therefore
you can neither edit nor create Office files on the device.
Also for the MMS integration, Samsung went its own way. Unfortunately, the
Windows Mobile platform still not includes a native MMS client and ODMs and
manufactures have to add their own or licensed solution. The way Samsung added
their MMS client makes really sense, because it was combined with the SMS inbox
making it a unified inbox for mobile messaging:
This s pretty handy and makes creating, receiving and reading SMS text and MMS
messages a pleasure.
Talking about enhancements. Also the Internet Explorer Mobile got an
enhancement. However, this is part of AKU 3.x for Windows Mobile Smartphones and
it includes a Windows Mobile 6-look alike Home Page.
Before, with previous versions, Internet Explorer Mobile always went to the
Favorites after it was launched. Now, the Internet Explorer Mobile launches the
Home Page after started and this Home Page is already known from Windows Mobile
6 and includes a Windows Live search filed as well as AJAX-look alike access to
your Favorites and History:
Unfortunately, Samsung has overwritten this standard Windows Mobile Home Page
with its own (WAP 2.0)
start page. But a simple Registry change brings back the original Windows Mobile Home
Page.
While we are talking about the Internet. Two other applications, added by
Samsung are a RSS Reader and a Podcast podcacher:
The RSS Reader allows to import OPML files as well as adding new feeds on the
fly which can be read offline later. It's either possible to update all feeds or
a selected one only and feeds can be synched wireless as well as via ActiveSync:
The Podcast podcatcher allows to manage subscribed audio and video Podcasts
which can be download over the air as well. It even includes a search
functionality for Podcasts:
Downloaded audio and video Podcasts are played in the Windows Media Player 10
Mobile which is heavily skinned by Samsung to make it a nicer look and feel and
even includes a equalizer kind of animation:
In addition, it's the latest Windows Media Player 10 Mobile version
which includes a kind of smart dialing functionality to search for tracks from
the Library:
Last but not least the cameras. The 1.3 megapixel camera on the back can be
used for photos and video recordings and as always, the user interface is pretty
complete and might be one of the best available camera user interfaces for
Windows Mobile:
Unfortunately, the camera isn't what a modern mobile phone camera should be -
at least 2.0 megapixel and therefore, even not too bad for a 1.3 megapixel camera
only, the results are pretty poor compared with other Samsung mobile phones. Not
sure why Samsung decided to use a 1.3 megapixel camera only.
The front facing VGA camera cannot be used for anything else than UMTS based
video telephony and the following screens you only get while in video telephony
mode. On the left side, the larger video, is the video stream your receive from
the calling party. On the right side of the screen, the smaller video is a
preview video of what you send. This can be disabled as well (right screenshot):
The front facing camera cannot be used stand-alone as well as the Video Call
application cannot be launched separately but it's part of the telephony
interface.
Final Conclusion
Is the Samsung SGH-i600 the perfect device? No, it's not but it's close to be
perfect. However, I have a couple of objections. First of all the stand-by time
which is way too short. The standard battery gives a stand-by of around 48 hours
without any use. As soon as the device is used it might reach 24 hours only - or
less. Sure, such a device is used for more than just a couple of voice calls and
also UMTS drains batteries faster than GSM but I always have a bad feeling to
leave my home if I know the day could be longer than expected. Yes, I have to
admit that I'm using it for voice calls, web and E-Mail access as well as a
photo
camera but streaming live TV via the Slingbox gives an operating time of 2:40 h
only which is too short. Thankfully Samsung provides a second battery but I
don't want to carry a second battery at all.
The next objection is the camera. Having such a hump on the back for getting
a 1.3 megapixel camera only doesn't makes sense and it's possible to have it
leaner - as the Samsung i320 proves. The hump would be acceptable if the device
would feature at least 2 megapixel, best with autofocus and optical zoom. Now it
has a CMOS 1.3 megapixel camera only with 2x digital zoom. Still not bad for
Windows Mobile but not state of the art for Samsung phones anymore. Samsung can
do it better (up to 7 megapixel).
Last but not least the propriety connector which I seriously dislike. I would
prefer mini USB instead. I understand, such devices don't have too much space
anymore and technically it might be a problem to add mini USB. On the other
side, Samsung is always using its propriety connectors and therefore it's
questionable if it is a technical or business decision only. At the end it means
you cannot connect any other accessories and since there is no adapter
available, you even cannot use a better headset if you want to use the device as
you MP3 player as well.
Okay, all the stuff above sounds pretty negative so it sounds like I'm not
satisfied - right? Far from it because I love the device (with the few
expectations). It's close to the best Windows Mobile Smartphone I had so far and
I don't see anything better on the horizon yet. Therefore I'm sure it will
escort me during the next 6 months or so.
GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, WiFi b/g and Bluetooth 2.0 - what else does a
wireless guy like me need? Sure, quadband GSM and triband HSDPA would be even
nicer for international roaming as well as HSDPA with 3.6 Kbps and HSUPA would be
better, but the carriers doesn't support 3.6 and HSUPA anyway at the moment so
the 1.8 Mbps are quite enough. It's even close to my DSL line at home and at
home, I never had the feeling that my DSL connection would be too slow, why should it be too
slow for a mobile device?
Another great feature is the Thumbwheel and keyboard combination. This works
perfectly for me and it's so easy to navigate and to use, that text and E-Mail
messaging is a pleasure.
Last but not least the software integration. I really appreciate if ODMs and
manufactures spend time to improve the original operating system they get from
Microsoft and Samsung spent a lot of time to make Windows Mobile even better.
Either by adding useful helpers like the Task Manager, the Quick Launch utility
or the extra software, or by nicely integrating the MMS client. Here you see the
difference between a pro like Samsung, who knows how to manufacture devices and ODMs which comes from other business like PC manufacturing. The hardware as well
as the software is rocking solid and indeed it makes the Samsung SGH-i600 one of
the best Windows Mobile devices available today.
If only it would features Windows Mobile 6 already. Especially after the
Cingular BlackJack upgrade announcement, Samsung should better think twice if it
also provides an upgrade for the i600 or not. On one hand it confirms that a
Windows Mobile 6 ROM upgrade is technically possible (something we knew already
anyway) on the other hand it could add some more benefit to a great device since
Windows Mobile 6 features some enhancements, like HTML E-Mail support or Office
Mobile, which are worth the extra time, Samsung might have to spend.
If you think now you need an i600 as well you might be surprised that it's
not as expensive as you might expect. It's available in Europe for less than 499
Euro (without any contracts) - a fair price for such a device which features all
the latest wireless technologies and even more.
Cheers ~ Arne
