Samsung SCH I600 Smartphone

Pros: PocketPC-based OS, nice display, very compact for its feature set, includes EVERYTHING you need.
Cons: Verizon's remote sync kills battery life, expensive.

I travel light. But I also like having access to my contacts, email and to a small degree, the web. While I love PocketPC technology, I have pretty much sold every PocketPC I've ever had since I never had the inclination to carry it with me. My PocketPC ...

Pros: Compact, SmartPhone 2003, 32MB Memory, Great Screen, Fast, Reliable, Cradle, Battery Life
Cons: No Camera, No Bluetooth, No Wi-Fi, No Picture Caller ID, No Pocket Office Apps

The phone I am reviewing is not the Samsung SCH-i600 but instead the SP-i600 which is identical except it runs on the Sprint PCS instead of the Verizon Wireless network. Initially when the Samsung SCH-i600 came out, it ran Microsoft SmartPhone 2002, the ...

Pros: Small size, integrated (basic) PDA features, long battery life
Cons: Expensive, any decent price with Verizon requires a 2 year contract

As I've done with my previous product reviews, I've waited about 5 months from the purchase of my SCH-i600 phone to share my thoughts. I do this mainly because I want to give a fair review, rather than one through the eyes of a big kid getting a new ...

Pros: Good phone functionality; good sound; speakphone; good reception; syncs with Outlook
Cons: Not so great battery life; email application needs work; volume controls are troublesome

I bought this phone three months ago and have been extremely happy with it. For years, I either carried a PDA and a phone or went without the PDA and was left stranded without my calendar and address book. I've always want to carry one, small device that ...

Pros: None.
Cons: Everything including price, support, software and features.

Well I got this phone because my Kyocera 6035 went for a swim in the John. Anyway, to make a long story short, luckily I took out the insurance. Unfortunately, the insurance company could only give me the Sch I600 as they had no more Kyoceras (which by ...

Pros: small, compact, VERY easy to set up, user friendly
Cons: no reminder signal for voice mails waiting

After 8 months with faulty Kyocera 7135 i had enough. I took the plung and spent the $600 for a new phone, the Kyocera being so unreliable. And boy am I glad I did, this phone is great! easy to use, learn, sync, and many available options to personalize it. Okay, two months now and I have to say, what an excellent phone.

Dialing Numbers

Dialing a number is very easy. From the home page, you can either just begin to dial the number or you can start typing the buttons associated with any part of your contact's name.

Address Book and Calendar

Addresses and calendar are best synced with Outlook. The functionality between the built-in address book and calendar and Outlook are very similar -- some minor fields like spouse name and birthday are left out but the important ones are there. The calendar can be viewed by day, week or month, though the latter two only show that time is taken up during a day, not what the actual appointment is.

Pros: compact - does Email
Cons: Slow, terrible usability, Windows is buggy

What an AWFUL phone. The usability is terrible. SO much trivial functionality that gets in the way of making it easy to use the basics (like just making a phone call!). 18 categories of features, mostly useless. 127 page manual. If you try to use Voice Dialing by pushing a tiny little button on the side of the phone and accidentally push the other tiny button that's next to it, you turn off your phone's connection to the world, and the place to go to turn it back on is in the 18th category of functions (good luck evening diagnosing the problem!). It's SLOW because of Windows (takes forever to start up), and good ol' Windows has locked up on me several times (froze - phone wouldn't even power off), and I've had to do a hard reboot by removing the battery to get it back. Lastly, the fidelity is bad, you sound very far away. This model should be called the 'Hoover' - because it SUCKS!

Pros: PDA functionality is a huge plus
Cons: Locks up. Missing common features for this price range (camera, bluetooth)

I love having PDA functionality on my phone! But whoever thought it was a good idea giving away your phone functionality to a software company that isn't known for reliability? I've consistently had the same problem as another reviewer -- sometimes it locks up and I have to do a power-off reboot via pulling the battery. When this happens, I don't even know how many calls I've missed until I noticed it was frozen. My assumption is that it's a software problem, and not the phone...but to be fair -- that is just an assumption. I'm going to try a Palm based phone next.

Pros: Good functionality, compact size
Cons: Barely usable because of the buggy software.

I love the excellent PDA functionality, I can carry my contact list, calendar and to-do list. Easy sync with Outlook. Wish it also carried the notes from the Outlook.

Unit locks up randomly. I can't even turn it off. Only way I can get out of the situation is pulling the battery out.

Neither Samsung or Verizon are of any help.

Also, Carrying case could be better but not a major problem.

Pros: Having all your contacts, calendar, and email in you phone is absolutely addictive.
Cons: It's from Microsoft...it crashes, flakes out, requires hard reboots and it eats batteries.

Think of this device as a PCA (Personal Communications Assistant). Beyond being a mobile phone, this is a whole new way of dealing with contacts, calendar, email and even IM! The concept is right on the mark: produce one personal productivity tool for business. Someday all phones will be like this.

But, the software is still not ready for prime time. Wait for the 2.0 version.

Pros: Small.
Cons: Voice activation barely works and is very slow to load each time.

Good concept, but.... so many problems. For example - if you are on a call, it is nearly impossible to pick up another or to put the person you are talking to on hold; when you open the shell to answer a call, if you so much as touch the buttons on the side of the phone (and it is nearly impossible not to), you won't be able to pick up the call. I am unable to pick up approximately 30% of all of my incoming calls and that is simply unacceptable - and I know it is not a problem handset because they have replaced it once and other people I know with it have the same complaints. A total waste of money.