Samsung G600 vs. Samsung J700

On the surface, the Samsung G600 and the Samsung J700 look similar, but how similar are they really?

Both devices are slim and slender, compact candybar style slider phones (which means they both come with a slide-out keypad). They also both just about the same size - with the G600 being 101 mm x 47.8 mm x 14.9 mm as compared with the J700 which is 99.5 mm x 48 mm x 14.8 mm. The J700 is, however, a bit lighter weight than the G600, weighing in at 92 g to the G600's 104 g.

The G600 has a 2.2 inch display screen with 240 x 320 pixel resolution and is capable of up to 16 million colors. The J700 has a slightly smaller 2.0 inch display screen and only 128 x 160 pixel resolution, capable of just 65,000 colors.

Both of these phones run on the AT&T EDGE network, and neither of these phones support 3G speeds. Both phones have Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP and a USB v2.0 port, but neither one has Wi-Fi.

The G600 features a speakerphone but no photocall, while the J700 features the reverse - photocall but no speakerphone. The phonebooks in both devices, meanwhile, are each able to store 1,000 contacts, but the G600 can save 10 more each of your dialed, received, and missed calls than the J700 can (with 30/30/30 versus 20/20/20).

Along the same memory-related lines, although both devices sport microSD card slots for expandable storage, neither of these smartphones has very much internal memory, with the G600 having 55 MB and the J700 having 10 MB.

Similarly, the batteries powering the two devices are similar - both Lithium-Ion batteries - but the one with the G600 is slightly more powerful, able to retain a charge for up to 300 hours of standby time and 3 1/2 hours of talk time versus up to 250 hours of standby time and 3 hours of talk time with the J700.

One enormous difference between the two Samsung devices is their digital cameras. The G600 has a 5 megapixel digital camera, but the J700 only has a 1.3 megapixel digital camera. Plus, the camera on the G600 includes autofocus, image stabilization, and LED flash, whereas the J700's camera has none of these. Both devices have some degree of video recording or capture and playback capability, but the G600's is better, being VGA capable at up to 15 frames per second.

For your music listening pleasure, however, both devices have a built-in MP3 player and an FM tuner (though the G600's is in stereo).

What is most surprising about these two smartphones, perhaps, is that it was the Samsung G600 that was released first, in July of 2007, while the Samsung J700 was released in February of 2008. You'd think it would be the other way around because the G600 seems like an upgraded version of the J700. So to sum up, unless you really want a pink smartphone (the J700 does come in black too, by the way) or unless there's a significant deal or pricing difference, then there's really no obvious reason to choose the J700 over the G600.