Samsung's light, compact clamshell comes to the fore with EDGE and world-phone capabilities, Bluetooth, memory expansion, a slick MP3 player and more. Ben Patterson tries the SGH-T609 on for size.
Review summary of the Samsung SGH-T609:
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 Packing in Bluetooth, EDGE support, memory expansion, world-phone capabilities and a music player, the Samsung SGH-T609 clamshell makes for a sleek and capable fashion handset. While we wouldn't have minded a color external LCD or, say, an equalizer to go with the slick-looking MP3 player, the T609’s sharp looks and smart feature set won us over. Release: May 2006. Price: $50.
Pros: Small and light; Bluetooth; memory expansion; quad-band world phone; strong messaging options; slick music player; good battery life; bright internal display
Cons: Stiff keys; external display is black and white; no equalizer for the music player; no IrDA port.
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72%
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Full review of the Samsung SGH-T609:
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Essentially a clamshell version of the SGH-T509 – the wafer-thin handset for T-Mobile that we reviewed last month – the new T609 may not be quite as slender as its eye-catching sibling, but it manages to pack in a few extra features. Not only does this EDGE-enabled flip-phone come with Bluetooth, a suite of instant messaging clients and a bright display, it also squeezes in a microSD memory expansion slot, an integrated music player, and a quad-mode radio for roaming global GSM networks. A few pieces are missing from the puzzle – namely, a color (rather than monochrome) external display, an IrDA port, and maybe even an equalizer for the MP3 player – but overall, this trim looker of a phone makes the grade.
Small and light
The pearl-and-silver T609 comes in a fairly compact package, measuring just 3.6 by 1.8 by 0.9 inches, and it felt light in our hands at just 2.9 ounces. Even better, the phone does away with the typical external antenna, making it ever so easy to fit in a jeans pocket.
The sleek mirrored face of the T609 surrounds the one-inch external LCD, a workhorse monochrome display that gives you basic time/date, signal strength and battery-life info. The LCD also works as a viewfinder for the camera when the phone is closed (a camera lens sits just above the LCD and the T-Mobile logo), but the blocky black-and-while images are good for little more than framing your head for a mugshot. Turning to the right spine of the phone, you'll find a dedicated camera button and the microSD expansion slot, while a volume rocker and a 2.5-mm headset jack are on the left side.
Flip open the T609 and you're greeting by the brilliant 1.8-inch TFT LCD. Armed with a resolution of 176 x 220 and capable of displaying up to 65,000-colors, the display looked razor-sharp to our eyes, with just the faintest trace of pixel lines. Snapshots appeared vivid and lifelike, as did the images we pulled down from mobile Web pages. Meanwhile, the T609's backlit keypad boasts a V-shaped array of wide, flat keys; unfortunately, the keys themselves are a bit stiff, making them tough to press.
Bluetooth and memory expansion
The T609 comes with impressive connectivity options for a mid-range phone, including Bluetooth with headset, object-push and wireless-modem profiles enabled, as well as the microSD expansion slot for transferring images and music. That said, an IrDA port for beaming contacts would have been a nice addition.
The T609's robust calling features include quad-band (850/900/1800/1900) capabilities, perfect for roaming on GSM networks worldwide, while the phone's EDGE support made for breezy (if not bone-rattling) mobile Web surfing. You also get a speakerphone, voice dialing, and five-way conference calling (complete with the ability to switch calls and hang up on one caller without ending the entire conference). You can also store up to 1000 contacts in the phone’s memory, as well as 250 on the SIM card.
We were impressed with the T609's messaging options, which include the standard SMS and MMS messaging, plus an on-board instant messaging client that supports the four big IM services: AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo IM. There's no built-in e-mail client, but that’s no surprise for a mid-range handset like this one.
Say cheese!
The phone's 1.3-megapixel camera packs in a strong set of features, including a self-timer (three, five, and 10 seconds), a multishot mode (six, nine, or 15 shots), various brightness, white-balance and color-tone settings, 4x zoom, mosaics (in 2-by-2 or 3-by-3 patterns), and 12 picture frames. Our snapshots looked relatively sharp and rich for a 1.3-megapixel camera, while the videos we shot using the video capture tool looked predictably murky and choppy.
Unlike the super-slim T509, the clamshell T609 comes with an integrated MP3 player, complete with a sleek interface, a pair of groovy visualizations, on-the-go playlists and shuffle/repeat modes. T-Mobile doesn't have a mobile music storefront yet, but we were able to send MP3s to the phone via Bluetooth. Pretty nice, although we missed features such as an equalizer or the ability to listen to music through a Bluetooth headset.
We tested the T609 in New York City, and our calls sounded loud and clear. The speakerphone sounded a bit shrill but good overall, and we had no problems pairing our wireless Plantronics headset. We got about 3.5 hours of talk time from the T609 – a bit better than the promised 3.2 hours – and about six days of standby time.
Price and availability
The Samsung SGH-T609 will start selling for $50 to $200 ((T-Mobile)) in May 2006.
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