Samsung U600 review

Just when you think Samsung has made the thinnest slider phone possible, it manages to go one better. The U600 is part of Samsung's new Ultra Edition Range II and boasts a plethora of features crammed into a casing that's just 11mm thick.

Design
Compared to Samsung's last ultrathin slider, the D900, the U600 is not only 2mm thinner, it's also 2g lighter, weighing a mere 81g. The combination of the U600's thin profile and lightweight design made it practically unnoticeable in our pockets.

The U600 is only 11mm thick and slips easily into a pocket or bag

The U600 comes in an attractive misty-blue colour that manages to look smart without being too 'businessy'. Of course, as with previous Samsung phones, other colour variations will probably appear later on in the year.

For such a compact phone, the U600's screen is surprisingly large, measuring an eye-pleasing 34mm wide by 45mm tall. If you can't see the screen properly in bright light, there's a useful sunlight mode that optimises the screen's contrast.

Beneath the screen are two touch-sensitive soft keys, a mechanical four-way navigation key and touch-sensitive send and end call keys. The touch-sensitive keys are responsive and work well but some people won't like the lack of tactile feedback.

Slide the phone open and you'll uncover the U600's numerical keypad that isn't touch sensitive and is fairly easy to use, although due to its flatness there is a lack of distinction between each individual key, which again may annoy some users.

On the reverse of the U600, Samsung has wisely hidden the 3.2-megapixel camera behind the back section so that it's protected when not in use. The U600's spring-loaded slide mechanism is smooth and pops open with a small push.

Features
When it comes to features, the U600 is really impressive given its size. It has a 3.2-megapixel camera on the back, an MP3 player, an FM radio, stereo Bluetooth (A2DP) and a Web browser among other things.

The U600's camera comes with autofocus and an LED photo light. Pictures came out well focused and suitable for small prints. Our only niggle is that there's no xenon flash, which would help the problem of the blue tinge created by the LED photo light.

One of our favourite novelty camera features is the ability to take photos of business cards using the namecard recognition service. This nifty feature then magically inputs all the important information from the photo of the business card into your contact database.

The U600's music player also left us rather impressed as it plays a variety of music formats including MP3, AAC files and protected Windows Media files. It looks rather similar to the Sony Ericsson W950i's player and has some similar features, too.

You can set music to shuffle or repeat, rate individual tracks, create playlists and adjust the equaliser. We were disappointed, however, that you can't attach your own headphones and have to use the proprietary ones, particularly as the sound quality isn't great.