Samsung G600 review and G800 preview

Snape have posted an excellent review of the new Samsung 5 mega pixel camera phone. It features tons of pics and including ones that compare the phone to the Sony Ericsson K850 and Nokia N95 (both also 5 mega pixel camera phones). Below is the conclusion of the G600 review and the G800 preview. Enjoy!

G600
Samsung G600 is a perfect example of a brilliant implementation of a most useful and versatile functionality sold at a very reasonable price thus making it one of the best multimedia phones of 2007.

+ Perfect price/functinality ration,
+ On of the best cameras available on the market,
+ Outstanding material and build quality
+ Excellent ergonomics
+ High sound quality
+ Powerful firmware platform providing for a lot of customization options never seen before in a Samsung phone
- lack of 3G support
- relatively short battery life
- awkward position of the headset socket

G800
As you might notice, we?ve made a lot of references to Samsung G800 so let?s have a brief preview of its features. The device hasn?t been officially announced yet, so all the information came has not been unofficially confirmed, keep in mind that this is our own opinion based on initial impressions. Announcement should happen in the nearest future, the approximate release date is the first quarter of 2008. The phone utilizes the same platform as the G600 model, as well developed at Suwon, however the chipset is changed to 3G/HSDPA, and the overall count of improvements over G600 is high. Let?s have a look at some of them:

As we see, the specifications of G800 are more than appealing, the device is going to be the next major step in the evolution of Samsung mobile devices and a thrilling novelty on the world market. It?s going to be the first implementation of 3x optical zoom in such a compactly sized phone, and the image quality is going to beat anything released before. The phone might even look more like a digital camera, following the trend started by G600. Dedicated zoom controls and the active protective cover only add to this impression, the whole camera interface is designed for landscape orientation. The model utilizes a wide variety of different materials uncommon for Samsung products, the back panel is made of plastic texturized to resemble leather, the front one is smooth and glossy. Comparing the back panel to that of Nokie E65, we can?t avoid mentioning an important difference - while Nokia use a soft plastic having a feel almost identical to a Soft-Touch coating, Samsung designers use hard plastic prone to scratching. The keypad of G800 follows the fashionable design similar to that of theU600, having little in common with the G600. It?s designed to resemble a flat metal plate, but the buttons have good feedback so it?s still easy to use.

The display is bigger than G600, its diagonal counting 2,4?? (36x48 mm), the image quality remains on the same high level. The color depth quite expectedly equals to 16 M colors, so it?s going to be one of the best displays on the world market.

The camera module is remarkably different from the one used in G600, the matrix size is increased as well as the quality of implemented optics. The device won?t have any direct competitors on the camera phone market segment, its camera overpowering any other officially or unofficially announced device as well as any of those already available on the market. It?s up to you to decide whether it would be a good decision to wait a few extra months and pay even more in order to get a G800 or just pick the upcoming G600, but one things remains clear - the lesser variant of G800 and its direct precursor, the G600 offers a brilliant price/functionality ratio while the future flagship of the series, G800, is going to be the ultimate leader in the field of technological solutions and will probably beat even Nokia?s comparable devices but its price will be correspondingly high and the release date means that it will be a long wait. It?s easy to guess, the G800 model is to challenge Nokia?s N95 and N95 8 Gb models, but in fact the rivals will produce an absolutely different feel, N95 being an all-in-one solution while G800 will primarily be concentrated on its camera aspect, this particular devotion being the trump that will give it a chance of beating N95 both in sales and overall usefulness. However drawing strict parallel between the two wouldn?t be a correct approach.

What goes to the inner competition between different Samsung products, honestly there isn?t going to be any, the difference between G600 and G800 will let the both co-exist happily and have good sales. The light and compact G600 costing ?200 less will remain a mass market offer while the technically advanced users (as well as their extreme variation, the technofreaks) will shell out considerable sums of money for Samsung G800, thus making most of its consumer audience.

A detailed review of Samsung G800 will be available shortly, the article will be focused on the difference between the G600 and G800 models. A detailed photo sample comparison of G800 and the same-class devices by other brands will be included as well.