Unlike its Pocket PC Phone brethren, such as Samsung's own SPH-i700 (see Review: Samsung i700 Smartphone Contender... Not Champion), Windows Mobile Smartphones like the i600 are designed to be mobile phones first and PDAs second. That's why smartphones built on this platform, such as the SCH-i600 and the Motorola MPx200 (see Review: Motorola's Compact MPx200 Smartphone) are so small.

The i600 is a dual-band phone capable of 800MHz CDMA and 1900 MHz PCS communication. It is currently available from Verizon Wireless for $549.99 with a one-year service contract, or $499.99 if you ante up for two years. Samsung reports the unit will soon be available from Sprint as well, albeit with a slightly different name.


Clamshell Open

Samsung's i600 is undoubtedly pricey even by smartphone standards, but you can take some solace in the knowledge that the package bundles a number of useful accessories.

The unit ships with two batteries—both standard (900mAh) and extended life (1700 mAh) models. Moreover, the included charging and sync cradle can charge the extra battery and the phone simultaneously. A high-quality leather case with belt-clip and stereo headset round out the package.

The Samsung is a tick wider and an ounce heavier than the comparable Motorola MPx200, but it's still quite compact given its capabilities. The i600 measures 3.5 x 2.1 x 0.9 inches (HWD) and weighs 5 ounces with the standard battery, which is rated for 2.5 hours talk time and 4 days on standby. The extended-life battery increases the phone thickness to 1.2 inches and weight to 5.8 ounces and is rated for 4.7 hours and 7 days. The phone has a small stub antenna and offers a front-lid display for caller ID and other information.


Clamshell Closed

The i600's TFT display is bright and crisp, capable of 170 x 220 pixel resolution and 65,536 colors. Windows Mobile 2002 ships with the phone, but at the time of this writing, Verizon Wireless was offering subscribers the ability to upgrade to Windows Mobile 2003 directly from the website.

I sometimes experienced a lag time of several seconds during certain phone operations like loading applications and switching between screens, which isn't surprising given than the i600 uses a mid-level 200 MHz Intel PXA250 processor. The i600 has 32MB of RAM and provides a Secure Digital slot that is SDIO capable for memory and peripheral expansion.

The slot's placement on the lower-right side of the unit, however, makes holding the phone awkward with any SD cards that protrude outside the slot as many peripheral cards are likely to do. The unit supports infrared data transfer but doesn't offer either Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connectivity.


SD Slot, Buttons

While the location of the expansion slot is unfortunate—though understandable given the limited real estate on such a small device—the i600 otherwise offers good ergonomic design.

The navigation keys follow the basic layout common to all Windows Mobile Smartphones, but the D-pad and soft buttons are oversized and the entire keypad is backlit with a bright blue hue. The phone's left edge sports volume and voice memo keys. The right edge also has two buttons—a Quick List key that lets you quickly switch phone profiles or turn the radio off, and a button that lets you call up Internet Explorer or invoke voice-activated commands.


Left Side Buttons, Bottom Connector

The i600's crisp display made accessing the Internet about as pleasant as it could be given the current limitations of handheld browsing. The i600 uses CDMA2000 1X for accessing data services, a protocol that is capable of about a 144 Mbps transfer rate. There is a slight initial delay when accessing the network, though.

Like the MPx200, another clamshell type Windows Mobile Smartphone, text input on the i600 is not done via a stylus but rather through the numeric keypad. Two modes are supported—cycling through the characters in each key, or T9 predictive text.


Front View with D-Pad, Keypad

For some strange reason, the feature didn't work on our review unit, but having worked with T9 on other devices, I know that it does a fair job of guessing what you're trying to type as you go along.

Voice Signals
Another option to interact with the phone is via the included voice recognition feature. Called VoiceSignal, it can be used to dial phone numbers by speaking either digits or names from the speed dial list. Because the system doesn't need to be trained to understand your voice, you needn't pre-record voice tags to associate with speed dial entries (though you still can if you want to).

Aside from the ability to dial phone numbers, VoiceSignal can also be used to open entries from the contact list or a few of the major applications, including Internet Explorer, Inbox, and the Calendar.

The VoiceSignal feature proved reasonably adept at deciphering voice commands, at least when there wasn't a lot of ambient noise in the background. On the other hand, while the VoiceSignal feature can be useful, it does have some significant limitations.

For starters, it must be invoked before it can be used, either from the Programs menu or the phone's right-side button (held down for two seconds). So you can't simply start speaking because the phone won't be listening.

Also, it won't take very long to realize the boundaries of the i600's voice recognition capabilities. For example, you can use the system to dial a number, but not to hang up the line if the person doesn't answer. Similarly, while you can use VoiceSignal to launch a handful of applications, your fingers will still need to do the walking if you actually want to use them.

If you're looking for Windows Mobile-based PDA that's also a cell phone, there are now several choices with larger screens and stylus input. But if you want a more compact device with real buttons, the Samsung SCH-i600 is worth a look.