SAMSUNG D600**CRAZY R1 AUCTION*****

The Samsung D600 is an upgraded version of the highly-rated D500 and was voted Handset Of The Year at the Mobile Choice Awards 2005. It's two years old now, which is pretty old by mobile phone standards, but now that the D500 is no longer available, the price of the D600 has dropped dramatically, and we think that when priced under £100 on Pay as you Go, the D600 is still an outstanding phone.

The D600 is very similar in appearance to the D500, sharing the same slide-up form, but there are some subtle changes to the design. The phone is thinner, but slightly longer and wider. The keypad layout is basically the same, but with some small styling differences. The D600 is available in a choice of black and grey colours.

The slide-up form factor has proven to be very popular. Like a clamshell, it enables a large screen to be placed within a compact phone design, and it has an advantage over a clamshell in that many of the phone's features are conveniently available on the front face. A gentle push will make the slide mechanism open and close automatically, giving access to the keypad below. This design has now been in use long enough to dispel any initial concerns about its durability.

The Samsung D500 was at the cutting edge of phone technology when it was launched at the end of 2004, but what's new in the D600? First of all the camera has been uprated from 1.3 megapixels to 2 megapixels. The camera can take print-quality images and comes with a powerful 4x digital zoom, an LED flashlight, a choice of shooting modes and an image editor. There is also a high quality (by phone standards) video camera. A useful innovation is a TV-out connection, so you can view your recorded videos directly on a TV! The D600 also supports PicBridge for direct printing of images to compatible printers. The screen has also been upgraded and enlarged, with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels, 262k colours and stunning clarity.

The phone comes with an MP3 player, which now supports MP3, AAC and AAC+ formats. The MP3 player supports 3D sound technology from stereo loudspeakers. MP3 clips can also be used as ringtones as an alternative to the 64-voice polyphonic MIDI ringtones that come supplied. MP3 ringtones offer the highest quality audio possible.

The phone makes use of the same voice clarity technology used in the D500. The phone automatically senses the volume of the background noise and will increase the volume and clarity of the incoming call to make it more audible. In addition there is an integrated handsfree speakerphone.

When it comes to connectivity, the D600 is very well specified. As well as full Bluetooth support for wireless headsets and data transfer, there is support for a USB cable connection to a PC. A Bluetooth stereo headset and Bluetooth car kit are available from Samsung. As mentioned previously, TV Out and PicBridge are also supported. The D600 is also Samsung's first quad-band phone, making it truly a world phone.

The D600 can handle most kinds of messaging, including SMS, EMS, MMS and email. It incorporates a new PicselViewer which enables office documents to be viewed. The formats supported are Excel, Word, Powerpoint and HTML documents. The TV Out feature can be used to display documents on a TV screen if desired.

The memory available is 81 Mbytes - enough to store 60 minutes of video or up to 20 MP3 tracks. In addition the memory can be expanded using a TransFlash™ card, making the storage capacity of the D600 as good as any other phone on the market.

Are there any problems with the D600? Well, nothing major, but some small things that could be improved ... the PC software supplied isn't the most user-friendly, you can't change the default message tones, and there's no option to have vibration and ringtone simultaneously. OK, these are minor quibbles and shouldn't put anyone off buying this amazing phone! You can read the user reviews below for "real world" comments, but what stands out is that there are no major issues with this phone, and it comes quite close to perfection!

In summary, the D600 builds on the success of the hugely popular D500. Whilst it doesn't have the Symbian applications of a Nokia smartphone, nor the auto-focus ability of the latest camera phones, for under £100 it still offers extraordinarily good value for money. It is the replacement for this phone and is highly recommended.