Samsung i620 review: Whiter shade of pale

We have seen lots of phones from Samsung with slider form factor but this time it's a full hardware keyboard that is revealed when you slide the Samsung i620 out - the new mid-range smartphone running on the Windows Mobile 6 Standard edition. Packed with some exclusive features - a rotating D-pad wheel and sensor keys all over, you might as well be blown away by the one-off snowy white color too. So, it's compact, it's QWERTY, it's smartphone - yes this is really an offer you can't resist to play with - and neither do we. So grab yourselves something to drink and join us on this Samsung i620 review.

   
Official photos of Samsung i620
Key Features
Windows Mobile smartphone 
Novel design and unusual form factor 
Compact dimensions 
2.2" TFT display 
Tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and HSDPA, 1.8 Mbps 
Rotating wheel and sensor front panel keys 
Full hardware QWERTY keyboard with sufficient backlight 
Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP 
2 megapixel camera 
microSD card slot 
Main disadvantages
Landscape orientation is not common for applications 
No Wi-Fi 
No autofocus, mediocre camera performance 
TI OMAP 200 MHz processor struggles at times 
QWERTY keyboard has little tactile feedback 
Only 34MB storage memory available to the user 

The Samsung "i" line of smartphones are obviously keeping us busy these days. And again, quite obviously, the i780 we recently tested and the i620 are poles apart. While the high-end PocketPC sure adds value to the Windows Mobile lineup of the company, the main point of i620 is the benefit of diversity. After all, Samsung i620 is an i600 in the slider form factor and short of Wi-Fi. Sadly, one of the defining traits of the device is an absence.

Samsung i620 handles very well. The touch-sensitive controls on the front and the rotating D-pad wheel make navigation a breeze.