Box Content

Inside the box you get a useful amount of accessories, for one you get your AC Mains adaptor, two batteries, a normal and extended battery, a box to charge your separate battery, some headphones, a USB cable and a second back plate to accommodate your larger battery.

Spec

• OS: Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0 Standard Edition
• CPU: 416Mhz Intel XScale PXA270
• Network: HSDPA / GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900
• Display: 2.2" 320 x 240 pixels
• Memory: 80MB Shared memory
• Card slot: microSD (TransFlash)
• Data: GPRS: Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, HSCSD: No, EDGE: Yes, 3G: HSDPA, 1.8 Mbps
• Bluetooth: Yes, v2.0 with A2DP
• Infrared port: No
• USB:Yes, v1.1 miniUSB
• Camera: 2 MP: 1600x1200 pixels
• Dimensions: 113 x 59 x 11.8 mm
• Weight: 105 grams

Design

When you first lay your eyes on the i620 you will certainly be impressed with its small profile, light 105g weight and slide-out Qwerty Keyboard. Granted its black finish does attracted finger prints and smudges, but Samsung certainly know how to make their devices small, whilst still providing added functionality.

For a start with the device closed you get a jogwheel underneath the 2.2" screen, which has been borrowed from the Samsung X830. This allows quick navigation around the Windows Mobile OS and can also be used as a standard directional joypad if so desired.

Samsung have even added touch sensitive buttons to the front of the device, which are maybe a little bit too sensitive at times. This could explain why the buttons are locked out pretty quickly by the aggressive power saving modes.

When these kick in you won't be able to utilise the phones call/end functions until the screen is pushed upwards or the phone is un-locked. So when making a call and the power saving cuts in you have to slide the phone back down in order to end the call.

The 2MP camera at the back is also housed behind the screen, so you need to push the screen upwards to gain access and of course to the Qwerty keyboard underneath.

You could argue the i620 is only practical when the screen is upwards, however it’s something you do get used to and with a quick visit to the settings options, you can tailor the power saving mode to make the device more functional with the screen closed.

With this adjusted the front buttons remain lit and calls from your existing contacts can be made with the screen closed. Also calls can be ended with the standard red call end button.

The Qwerty keyboard keys are almost touching each other, but are angled slightly to make them - surprisingly - comfortable to use when typing in emails or texts. Once again it’s a credit to Samsung in the first place, for squeezing in the keyboard into such a small profile.

The small 2.2” screen is positioned in landscape mode, which does look a bit dinky compared to the size of the buttons underneath, but it’s still a quality display and we took advantage of this by activated the customised animated front screen theme, which looked great.

This supplied theme automatically changes in appearance - depending on the time of day - so with Big Ben in the background and the birds flying overhead, it goes from daylight to night-time seamlessly. You will have to see this in action to appreciate this cool touch.

Alongside this the ClearVue document viewers (for viewing Word, Excel, Powerpoint fields) could still be viewed properly and watching videos was also trouble free - even on the small screen.

Connectivity

For the connectivity front you will be pleased to know that Samsung have provided 3G with HSDPA support, though like the previous i600 it can only managed the slower 1.8mbps connection speed. Regardless of this web browsing was quick and Samsung do provide Opera as well as Internet Explorer for browsing.

There is no Wi-Fi included, though according to some sources on the web it does, but we can definitely say this phone does not come with Wi-Fi.

For Bluetooth you get 2.0 support, with the ability to handle the A2DP protocol for connecting a pair of wireless headphones.

Performance

With its 416Mhz CPU we had no problems playing back videos and the general day to day task of navigating around the OS was relatively quick.

We did notice a bit of a delay when opening documents, but the previous i600 also had the same problem. Regardless, it’s not something that will bother the standard user.

You get 80Mb of shared memory, however there is only 21MB of free storage space, so utilising the microSD card slot – which is positioned to the side of the phone - is a must.

The 2MP camera took some respectable images, but t does lack a flash/macro mode, so its usefulness will be limited. And like we mentioned earlier you will need to have the phone open to gain access to this function.

For phone reception you get only Tri-Band support, but generally calls were clear during our tests.

As the i620 comes with two batteries, a standard battery and an extended battery, you do gain the ability to have access to two sources of power, as and when you need them.

Its claimed battery life is 250mins of talk time and 350hours of standby, but we are not sure if this is the standard or extended battery life.

However after a bit of digging around, we think the standard battery is rated at 1200 mAh and the extended is rated at 1500 mAh, which should prove useful.