While the iPhone is hogging the headlines, Samsung has quietly released a technical powerhouse for the person who still wants a ‘proper’ phone with a ‘proper’ camera. The G600, launched in mid-2007, is a 5-megapixel slider that is arguably the most balanced handset Samsung has ever built. It’s finished in a sleek, ‘Titanium’ grey and features a sliding mechanism that is so smooth it feels like it’s floating on magnets. At just 14.9mm thick, it is significantly slimmer than the bulky Nokia N95, yet it packs nearly as much punch in the photography department. For the UK consumer who wants high-end specs without the smartphone complexity (or the iPhone price tag), the G600 is the perfect dark horse.nnTechnically, the star of the show is the 5-megapixel CMOS sensor with autofocus and a remarkably bright LED flash. It’s one of the first 5MP phones to hit the UK, and the image processing is excellent, producing natural colours and sharp details that rival many dedicated compact cameras. It features an ‘Image Editor’ that lets you crop and adjust your photos directly on the 2.2-inch QVGA (240 x 320) TFT screen. The display is a classic Samsung masterpiece—bright, saturated, and featuring 16 million colours, making it a joy to use for viewing the high-res snaps or watching video clips recorded at 30fps. Unlike the iPhone, it features a microSDHC slot for up to 2GB of storage, which is essential for its robust MP3 player.nnConnectivity is well-handled with Bluetooth 2.0 (with A2DP for wireless stereo music) and a built-in FM radio. It also features a document viewer for Word, Excel, and PDF files, making it a viable tool for a bit of light work on the train. The user interface is the refined ‘Black UI’ which is fast, intuitive, and much more responsive than the sluggish Symbian OS on the rival Nokias. One of the G600’s best technical features is its battery life; despite the high-spec camera and screen, the 880 mAh Li-Ion pack easily survives two days of heavy use, putting the N95’s battery performance to shame. The G600 is the ultimate ‘premium-standard’ phone—it doesn’t have Wi-Fi or GPS, but it takes fantastic photos, looks professional, and works flawlessly. It is the definitive 2007 slider, a technical triumph of ‘common sense’ over ‘feature-creep.’