The Samsung G600 has been out for a little while now and is no longer the only 5 megapixel competitor to the Nokia N95, so it's worth taking a more in-depth look at this model. This is worth doing as comparisons to the N95 are unfair, as the size, features and target audience are widely different, as is the price.
The G600 boasts sleek good looks in a compact slide design and is remarkably thin for a 5mp camera-phone. Underneath its metallic finish it has features such as EDGE, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, FM radio and expandable memory via microSD (Transflash)
Whilst the design is not particularly groundbreaking, but Samsung have learnt from their long experience making slide phones, with a gap between the two softkeys and the slightly raised screen allowing a comfortable space to fit your thumb for a comfortable sliding action.
The D-pad in the case of the G600 is a circular design, with normal up, down, left and right controls and confirm key in the centre; it seems to have been designed to look exactly like a scroll-wheel. The only issue with the keypad is the fact that after prolonged use by a colleague, a couple of large scratches appeared on the bottom-right of the scroll-wheel, clearly showing that although the rest of the handset is very-scratch resistant, this is not the case with the scroll-wheel.
Samsung's menu interface has long been a source of irritation for many, thankfully some big improvements have been made. The transition speed between menus is now almost instantaneous and the overall look is far more mature and subtle. We especially liked the different options for transition types (slide, zoom, fade and door).
Whilst the keypad is easy to use and text upon, on issue that did concern us was the limit imposed on the amount of messages that can be stored on the SIM & phone combined, which is capped at around 225. For some this may not be an issue, however for the average user, this means that the mailboxes will need to be emptied at least once or twice a month (bearing in mind this limit includes messages received).
This model is not designed to be a music phone and it certainly isn't the best on the market in this respect, but the overall sound quality is impressive and with the expandable memory, this feature is certainly worth having. The phone comes boxed with a standard stereo plug in handsfree, which double up as headphones, however sound quality is not great with these. Luckily Samsung have thought ahead and include an adaptor which plugs into the Samsung I/O connector (yet another new design currently only seen on the G800) and allows the use of either the bundled headphones, or any 3.5mm headphones that you may possess. The adaptor also acts as the FM aerial.
Managing to pack in a 5-Megapixel camera with auto-focus, image stabiliser and flash into a handset measuring just 14.9mm thick, is a considerable achievement. The G600 is the smallest 5MP cameraphone on the market. There should be no problem in getting a high-quality snap in almost any situation, though low-light situations are not its strong point. A Xenon flash would probably have suited it better to make up for this shortfall. The only other minor-let down is the relatively slow-speed of the shot-to-shot time, but, the overall image quality does help to override this minor fault. Interestingly enough on several independent camera-phone "shoot-outs" the G600 tends to rank quite highly, despite competition from the likes of the LG Viewty, Sony-Ericsson K850i and its own sister model the Samsung G800.
Samsung's G600 combines a great-range of features, excellent design and a very-capable camera all in a neat package. Being the smallest 5MP cameraphone out there as well as the cheapest and (with the possible exception of the LG Viewty, the best looking model the G600 is highly recommended.
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