After a long 3 month haul, our bloggers are finally resting their fingers, as the Samsung blogger competition comes to an end. Our blogger guests have been on a roll since June 2007 and have been entertaining readers about the Samsung handsets that were on loan to them.

Rafiq Phillips came in second place with his delightful posts on the popular D900 cellphone and the overall winner of the Samsung Blogger Competition was Tertia Albertyn with an outstanding 76% of the votes. Congratulations Tertia, I hope the F300 'Flipper' phone serves you well and keeps you well entertained.

There is a twist in the tale of these phones as it is only the winner of the competition that gets to keep their phone…The rest of the Samsung handsets will be entered into another competition of sorts and we’d like you, the reader, to help us decide who to give them to. I’ll let Daniel L. from Samsung explain more on this soon, but let’s just say it’s all for a worthy cause.

A big thank you to Nico Olwagen (Samsung i600), Deshanta Naidoo (E250), Rafiq and Tertia who all were involved from the get go, and blogged their hearts away on our blog. You’re welcome to stop by and visit anytime!

There are whispers on the corridors of Samsung that a chance meeting with the bloggers might be on the cards so keep you eyes posted on the blog for more updates.

We also have a fantastic new competition lined for you and are busy putting the finishing touches to it so if you’re a ‘Heroes, best you get your gear ready to make a name for yourself on the blog. I’ll keep you posted on this one too.

This is just a short post to tell you how great the Samsung SGH-i600 Blackjack phone is when it comes to mobile connectivity.

As mentioned before, this phone packs a punch when it comes to the various connectivity options such as infrared, bluetooth, wifi, GPRS, HSDPA etc. Depending on your network coverage at the time, the various 3G/WAP options are selected automatically.

This obviously means that you can browse the internet, read email etc. on the go with the phone. However, I have found out this phone excels when used as a data modem. Simply plug in the data cable (or use bluetooth) to your laptop, fire up the Internet connection sharing application on the phone and viola, instant fast internet connection.

Sitting in Cape Town International the little Samsung i600 is connecting via 3G/HSDPA and the connection speed was clocked at 349Kbps. Not bad.

Perfect for quickly updating Facebook, reading some email and writing a blog post or two.

I'm very happy, and I know some other people I spoke with in the last week are impressed with the connection speeds too.

Reviewing the Samsung SGH-i600 Blackjack phone for the last few weeks has been a blast and I get quite a few utterings of 'oooh' and 'aaah' from family members and work colleagues alike.

Mostly, people have commented on how snugly the phone sits in their hands and generally how easy it is to operate. This is also one area where seeing is believing, you need to physically hold the phone to appreciate it's size and general functionality.

Words can hardly do it justice, so I was quite excited when I found this great video clip on YouTube which shows some of the general functions and aesthetics of the i600.

Makes you want to pick it up and hold one for yourself right?

PS: As you may have noticed, the flap hiding the charge/sync/hands-free port and the other one housing the memory card is pretty flimsy and sometimes gets in the way when something is plugged in to the port.

Earlier last week I had to pop into Garden City Hospital for a 24-hour EEG (Electroencephalogram, pronounced ē-lek′trō-en-sef′ă-lō-gram) and I took the opportunity to avail my time by really tinkering with the i600 Blackjack.

With the all-clear from the Neurologist that the cellphone signal wouldn't affect the test I set off with a mission to get to know the i600 really well.

It's at this point that I have to indicate that I've always been a fan of touch screen devices. From my first Compaq iPaq H3630 to my latest HTC TyTn, most devices/phones have had a touch screen with stylus input. This therefore has proved to be the one major issue I've experienced with the i600, the lack of a touch screen and stylus.

Now don't get me wrong, the i600 can stand really well on its own without it, but if you're used to a touch screen device, make yourself ready to be a bit frustrated. This was especially true while browsing the internet as the screen is just a bit too small for the most common web-based tasks.

The joystick pad and scroll wheel on the i600 seems to work well together, but watch out if you have big fingers. I did find that I tended to press slightly off key and was either sent to the home screen or left to the fate of one of the More/Done/Back/Menu options. I quickly found out that the return button will become your friend in the beginning.

Similarly, the QWERTY keyboard is a must for any business phone but the keys are just a tad too small.

One last bit of criticism, although not entirely Samsung's fault, was that the phone constantly kept on searching for a network signal which interfered with my earphones. I think the EEG spiked every time I heard and reacted to the pulsating tone of the network signal being acquired. This also meant that the battery life was severely affected.

I managed to capture some fairly good pictures whilst confined to the hospital bed. However, as I mentioned before the lack of some sort of night shot mode or flash on the camera meant that few of the dimly lit shots made it into my favourites collection. Why not pop over to my Flickr set for some pictures taken with the Samsung SGH-i600 while in hospital.

In my next post I'll focus on some of the more positive points but I do have to say that at least I managed to score 848 in Megashift Bubble Breaker...

It's an age old question, does size really matter? Some will say yes, some will say it's how you use it...either way, hold that thought for a moment.

When you first look at the Samsung SGH-i600 your immediate reaction is, "It's so small, it's so thin, I'm going to break it." But interestingly enough its size is quite deceptive. I should give credit to Samsung for making the i600 such a sturdy phone. The phone can take a few knocks (not that I've been kicking it around or anything) and seems up for quite a few more during it's normal lifetime.

Let's talk size. The i600 measures in at 113 x 59 x 11.8 (mm) and despite it's small size, it packs a punch with the various connectivity options, including Wifi, HDSPA and Bluetooth.

Compared to phones like the Nokia E65, it is definitely smaller in all areas. This is a good thing as you really don't want to go to client meetings with a big bulging phone in your pocket. The fashion faux pas of carrying your cellphone in a hip holster has been thrown out with the bath water too. Instead, get a smaller, slimmer phone like this one to stop those embarrassing moments.

Some instances where size does in fact matter include camera, memory and battery size.

I do have to mention that the 1.3 megapixel camera is slightly underpowered. Considering that most other smartphones feature at least 2 megapixels and built-in flash cameras, this should not deter you from taking fairly good pics in brightly lit areas. I'm still doing a review on the camera, so keep watching this space.

In terms of memory, the phone has 128MB ROM and 64MB RAM, which is pretty standard. It uses external microSD cards to extend its storage capacity. Unfortunately the phone does not come standard with an external memory card which Samsung should consider including as a minimum requirement. I've popped in my 1GB card which carries enough music, video, picture and office files to keep me busy for long periods waiting at airports or transits.

With regards to the battery life, it's still under review, but I would suggest that you pop in the extended battery pack into the phone from day one. So far I've been getting about 3 days with a bit of synching (trickle charge during this process) before the battery starts screaming.

Finally, if you want to avoid embarrassing bulging pockets and still want a phone at your finger tips that has ample connectivity, messaging, entertainment and business functionality on the go, then this phone is for you.

Otherwise, go get yourself a brick.

Last night I had a similar experience while preparing dinner to that of Rafiq's first encounter with his D900. My uncle came to visit and upon a mere glimpse of Delilah, proceeded to sweep my Samsung E250 into his grubby little paws, and he was completely in awe of her.

Suffice to say the details of my new mobile handset and info on the blogging competition flowed thereafter, and now Sham wants to be part of the action. The first question after my slow, deliberate explanation of the phone and how I came about acquiring it, was "So how can I enter?"

Well I slowly and carefully spelt out the URL to The Samsung Blog and made sure he memorised it so he could go vote for me. After that I had to let him down by telling him that I was gonna get to keep Delilah for two more months and thats only when he'd be eligible for taking her over only if by circumstance that I don't actually win the competition.

His disappointment at the prospect of having to wait so long to get his hand on a Samsung handset got me thinking...Everyone wants to be in one of the four bloggers' shoes at this point because it's a taste of the good life so to speak.

Sharing is caring after all so I've got a little secret to share with you. You too can be part of the awe inspiring action if you are a Standard Bank customer and enter their competition. They're giving away 3 Samsung i600s as part of the launch of their new Cellphone Banking platform. You should go check it out and make your life easier by registering for a much faster banking service.

Think about it, if your cellphone really is your life shouldn't your life in essence be easier?

I've registered for it and now any friends that I refer can stand a chance of winning two of the i600s, and we'll then be entered into a further draw to win yet another i600. That's two chances of winning and the competition ends on 30 June 2007 so be sure to be quick or lose out.

All I can say is watch out Nico, the competition is heating up...

I seldom lack words to express my thoughts, but today is a bit of a strange one. It all started going a bit “pear shaped” at 09H17 when my online marketing team came to me and said that the plans we’d discussed were coming to fruition and that the new Samsung blog was going live today….please can I be one of the first correspondents to the site.

The brief, - to write 350 ~ 500 words about Samsung, its products, but make it personal…a welcoming note of sorts.

Huh? Talk about being stumped. Who would read this page, what’s the average age, race, income, and interest of the reader. Segmentation plans, carefully considered corporate wording and product PR speech jumped to mind.

Being my very first foray into writing something for a blog (yip – I’m an absolute virgin to this space), I decided to raid as many blog pages as I could find. I needed some background! Some blogs dull the mind whilst other’s delight in shear fantasy and rubbish, but on the whole, I figured this could be a fun and engaging space, especially where people are committed to the content.

It’s really not so different to the cellular world that I promote. It’s about communicating, sharing ideas, opinion, passions, thoughts and moments.

So that’s what we’re committed to doing with this new site. We’ll share our views on our passion, that ever changing, dynamic world of mobile telephony and hopefully we’ll be engaging, informative and interesting.

So let’s chat. I look forward to hearing from you, talking directly and making this a site where people of common interests can share knowledge.

Enough of the rambling. So on to the phones… and we have some amazing models out right now. Of key consideration to anyone who needs to be wirelessly connected is the i600 Blackjack Smartphone.

The i600 runs off a Windows Mobile platform and has become a personal lifeline to our business.

Smartphone’s take the “being plugged in” concept to a whole new level. I’m an E-mail Manager, and so are most of my colleagues – our business is conducted by a string of e-mails punctuated by phone calls and bathroom breaks. For those of you who haven’t experienced it, the i600 draws you into a place where you really can manage your business on the move.

I invite you to take a look at our website and check it out, or give us some comments about the i600 on this blog.

Justin Hume
Marketing Manager – Mobile Phones
Samsung South Africa

First up, welcome to the new and improved The Samsung Blog! We hope you are having fun poking around the site and most importantly having a blast getting savvy with all that the site has to offer.

In line with wanting you to become part of the Samsung community, we at Samsung Mobile SA want you to engage with us and that's why we have chosen to introduce a blogging competition to the site.

Four bloggers from the existing blogosphere have been chosen to take you on a journey of discovery that encapsulates the interactive Samsung experience. These bloggers have been chosen because of their keen sense to educate, entertain and inform others, and they come different walks of life.

Rafiq Phillips is a web entrepeneur and loves his new D900. Tertia Albertyn, popular authoress of "So Close", a book about IVF, will be testing out the sexy new F300. Nico Olwagen is on board to share his thougts on the newest smart phone to the Samsung family, the slick i600 Blackjack. And last but not least, Deshanta Naidoo who's new to the SA blogging scene will take you through her experience of the stylish Samsung E250.

We hope that you will enjoy reading their posts and we ask you to be the judge of who gets to keep their phones after the whole experience. We'd like to encourage you to be open and honest, to have fun, and to feed back to us ideas for making the Samsung experience a better one for all involved.

The competition ends on 31 August 2007.