Samsung S5600

Editor's Review of the S5600

Measuring 102.8 x 54.8 x 12.9 millimetres and weighing 92 grams, the Samsung S5600 is a sturdy and solid mobile phone that is light. It oozes with good looks in an elegant black casing. This mobile phone joins Samsung's range of 3G-enabled handsets like Samsung S5230.

The front part of this handset is highlighted by a touch-sensitive screen that measures 71.12 millimetres and runs on TouchWiz interface. This touchscreen displays picture wallpapers, photos, videos and a host of other images in more than 16 million colours at a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. Users can personalise this mobile phone by selecting from various ringtones in MP3 and polyphonic formats.

This quad band mobile phone works on GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800 and GSM 1900, as well as HSDPA 900 and 2100 networks. It is an ideal companion for frequently traveling users with its support for global roaming, but its worldwide reach may be dependent on its network provider. This handset also allows users to visit their favourite Web sites using its onboard WAP 2.0 XHTML/HTML Internet browser. Sharing or transferring data to or from other compatible devices is easy using the Samsung S5600's support for USB and wireless Bluetooth with A2DP. Because this mobile phone is powered by GPRS and EDGE technologies, users can expect it to work on speedier downloading and transfer rates.

This handset offers SMS or text that is supported by Predictive Text, as well as MMS or multimedia messaging services. Through the handset's support for Internet connectivity, users can access their e-mail without having to operate a bulky computer. An interesting feature of this mobile phone is its Gesture Lock interface. It allows users to unlock the handset and directly access a specific application when its corresponding letter is drawn.

The Samsung S5600 can also pass for a reliable assistant to its busy owners. It is equipped with organiser tools for scheduling and planning purposes, such as a phone book, a calendar, an alarm clock and a calculator. This handset also comes with a GPS navigation application that keeps users on track during their travels in applicable areas.

The handset also makes both taking and making calls easier with its built-in speaker phone. It also records missed, dialed or received calls with its call log feature, allowing users to keep track.

Besides offering mobile phone functionalities, this communication device is also a photo-capturing gizmo. It boasts of a 3-Megapixel camera with a wide range of integrated imaging features. The onboard camera comes with a LED flash, an auto focus and a smile detection feature to thoroughly and precisely capture photo subjects. Users may then store their pictures in the built-in picture album of the handset. Additionally, this mobile phone's camera is able to instantly turn into a video recorder to take footages in QVGA format at a speed of 15 frames per second. Users may also view their captured videos through the handset in MPEG4, WMV, H263 and H264 formats. As it is 3G HSDPA-enabled, this mobile phone supports video calling.

This handset is also a good music companion with its built-in music player that supports MP3, AAC and WMA audio formats. Users who prefer to listen to their favourite tracks over the radio will appreciate this mobile phone's support for stereo FM Radio complete with RDS, which offers access to information on current events, music news or weather updates. Moreover, the handset can become a gaming zone with its pre-loaded games in Java that fully entertain its users.

The Samsung S5600 comes with a storage capacity of 80 Megabytes through which users can save messages, contacts, photos, footages or audio files. This memory may be expanded to up to 16 Gigabytes using a MicroSD memory card. Users can enjoy talking to their contacts using this handset for 3 hours.

However, the Samsung S5600's lack of Wi-Fi capabilities has frustrated some users. Unhappy users have also complained about the handset's low-resolution screen and average video-recording capabilities. Nevertheless, the mobile phone has awed style-conscious users with its slim and compact package. Some users also applaud the handset for its wide range of built-in multimedia and communication features that are fairly easy to operate.