Playing Around with the Samsung i620 Slider Smartphone

The first thing you will notice when you pick up the Samsung i620 is just how small it is and how well it fits in your hands. Samsung is really on to something with this ultra small sliding form factor. It’s the right size for any pocket or purse, and it’s a lot of fun to hold and slide open/shut. I often found myself sliding the phone just for the sake of sliding it. The sliding mechanism is so smooth and the spring action really helps to pop the phone open. I’ve used other sliding phones, but never have they had such a nice slider/spring combination.

Once you held the phone and played with the slider for a good couple minutes, you’re going to start to wonder about the specs of this little guy. It’s a European-based Tri-band device, which means it supports GSM 900/1800/1900 frequencies. Which works great if you’re in the EMEA, but if you’re North American based, this device will have mixed results when it comes to cellular reception. If Samsung had managed to include one more band, then this phone would be a sure fire hit in North America. I’ve heard rumours that there is a North American Tri-band device that is going to be released in the fall of 2008, but at this point I haven’t been able to confirm anything. Aside from the cellular bands supported, the phone also features GPRS/EDGE/3G HSDPA at 1.8 Mbps, 64MB RAM, 128MB ROM, MicroSD support, Bluetooth v2 with A2DP, 2 Megapixel camera, VGA video-call camera, and measures 113mm x 59mm x 11.8mm with a weight of 95 grams. Read more