Samsung J600 - Cheap Can Still Mean Cheerful

 
With many mobile phone manufacturers going down the route of trying to out-style one another when it comes to handset design, the cheap and cheery handset has almost become a forgotten memory. Thankfully, Samsung has decided to fill the gap, with its stylish yet inexpensive J600 mobile phone.

Despite it being aimed at the cheaper end of the market, one thing that the J600 can’t be accused of is lacking in looks. Available in a choice of colours (pink, bright blue or silver), it’s another good-looking slide design phone form arguably the best manufacturer in this market.

One of the features that make this handset stand out even further than its cool design is the touch-sensitive keypad that can still be accessed even when the slider is closed. You won’t get lost either, due to the way that the keys light up when you’re using them. However, there is a small gripe with the keypad – it can be a little too touch-sensitive.

 
 
A good example is if your finger accidentally brushes the keypad – this can switch the phone on, or use one of the features such as the fast key for WAP access, which can be a little annoying. Speaking of WAP, the J600 supports the latest WAP 2.0 software, which makes browsing the Internet a much better experience than many other handsets.

Although the phone has a decent-sized screen, at 1.9 inches, it only has a resolution of 128×160 pixels, so it’s not the sharpest of displays. However, pictures and videos taken by the 1.3 mega-pixel camera don’t suffer too much because of this, and are relatively sharp.

One particularly handy feature on the J600 is the ability to tailor your menu, with the My Menu function. Although hardly groundbreaking, it’s still a nice little touch, and gives you a slightly more personal feel than just having another standard menu to wade through. You can also attach pictures of your friends to their contact details, so that their faces will pop up when you receive a call from them.

On the multimedia side, the J600 doesn’t disappoint. Coming with both an FM Radio as well as support for all the major formats, including MP3, AAC and WMA, you can pretty much upload any of your favourite songs to the phone and it’ll play them. Bluetooth is supported too, to make any transfers between a computer and your phone even easier.

If there is a slight gripe to the Samsung J600, it’s that its internal memory is a slightly stingy 20 Mbytes. However, unlike some more expensive handsets, it does allow you to upgrade this with a MicroSD memory card. Add to that the fact that it’s a tri-band unit, and that talk time is just under four hours, with standby clocking in at 300 hours, and all in all, the J600 should prove a fairly popular addition to the Samsung range.

You might also be interested in: Samsung U700 free line rental mobile phone deals and some of the cheapest O2 mobile phone deals