HTC Cavalier does battle with Samsung's i600

by Chris Ziegler, posted Dec 26th 2006 at 1:30AM

The 3G-enabled QWERTY smartphone market is finally starting to get a little crowded -- and that's a very good problem to have. Of course, that makes picking one out a bit more challenging (trust us, we're still not complaining) and it always helps to rock out with a nice, old-fashioned comparo now and then to separate the wheat from the chaff. This time around we have the Samsung SGH-i600 (alias i607 BlackJack in these parts) going up against the as-yet-unannounced HTC Cavalier, successor to the Excalibur / T-Mobile Dash. On paper, the two are nearly dead ringers for one another, with the major differences being a 2 megapixel cam on the Cavalier (versus a mere 1.3 megapixel piece on the i600) and a slight thickness advantage on the Samsung. Ultimately, the reviewer had the Cavalier coming out on top -- despite the fact it's not even available yet, suggesting the test was conducted with a preproduction unit -- though the i600 was nipping at its heels throughout. Bottom line: it seems like QWERTY lovers are going to be happy with either one, and with the HTC still at least a month or two from release, our impatient selves will take what we can get.

[Thanks, @t0mic]

Filed under: Handsets, Reviews, HTC, Samsung, GSM, GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA, UMTS

Tags: cavalier, htc, i600, qwerty, samsung, smartphone, ultra edition, UltraEdition, windows mobile, WindowsMobile

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

saq @ Dec 26th 2006 6:20PM

HTC goes to show: Anything you can do, I can do better.
And then anything HTC does, xda-developers.com hacks the shit out of it and makes it into something truly impressive.

Neutral

ralphieboy @ Dec 26th 2006 6:32PM

I really dont understand why more isnt made of the fact that the battery life on the Samsung is terribly bad when using 3g (and no, I dont want to switch to EDGE everytime I dont use internet.

Neutral

Michael @ Dec 27th 2006 12:59AM

That i600 is different from the Blackjack. According to the reviewer it has triband GSM, WiFi, and a 416 mhz processor. The Blackjack has Quadband GSM, no WiFi, and a 220 mhz processor. Also, the i600 has a slightly bigger screen than the Blackjack (2.3" vs. 2.2").

Neutral

Trevor @ Dec 27th 2006 1:05PM

Actually...

The i600 is was announced as quadband gsm. So looks like the Blackjack but is way more powerful.

I dont understand how the Cavalier would come out ahead. I mean both the i600 and Cavalier have the same features (quadband, 3g, wifi), the only thing the cavalier has is a 2mp camera. But the i600 has a 416mhz processor compared to the Cavalier's 300mhz which is hardly faster then the current on the Blackjack and Dash right now....

Neutral

Saif @ Dec 27th 2006 1:48PM

I love HTC and all, but please, how about a non-Windows Mobile product from you guys! This is why I'm suffering along at EDGE speeds on my Nokia E62.

Neutral

StuffNutt @ Dec 28th 2006 1:14PM

That's the real question isn't it: is anybody making anything 'thin and powerful' that isn't using Windows Mobile? (Yes, this question will bring every heckler out of the wood work).

Interesting that the full-length review says that Nokia, with the E61, started this craze (of 'thin and powerful'): I think some serious credit needs to go to Motorola for starting it with the Q. I'd also argue that the E61 is not quite that 'thin' as the dimensions (outside of the thin bottom section) are nearly identical to the HP 6500/6900 series - hardly a device folks would call 'thin.' But if you do agree that the E61/62 is thin then the 'who started it all' crown should probably go to the Canadians... but then we could have a discussion about 'smart' :)

Neutral

thefamousgrouse @ Dec 29th 2006 3:03AM

The Blackjack rocks out on a 200mhz processor - significantly slower than the i600 and the Cavalier. And it is a slow, inaccessible POS that goes out the door fully charged at 8 am and runs out of battery by 3. So pretty much any phone would beat it on a head to head. YAWN.

Neutral

jipi @ Apr 4th 2007 6:38AM

I have a Samsung i600. It has a 220Mhz processor (not 400Mhz). It is a very good phone. It is a Vodafone branded from Spain.
The good:
+ HSDPA rocks at 1.8Mbps (like ADSL) and you can use with your laptop easily through Bluetooth.
+ The large screen
+ The keyboard eventhough it's small
+ The size
+ Wifi, 3G, HSDPA, Bluetooth
+ Micro SD

The bad:
- Battery with 3G (can be switched down to G and solve the problem)
- No Java engine in Vodafone ES. I had to add it myself (I have found IBM Java engine)
- No MSN
WM5.0 instead of WM6
- Internet access problem when use with realmail (Vodafone). Realmail has to be switched off manually in order to connect to internet. The reason: the phone cannot connect to 2 different profiles (Internet and Push email) at the same time.
- 220MHz but I have to admit that up to now it is fast enough
- Compatibility with existing WM5.0 programs (ie recording programs)
- Non standard USB conector (phone side)

I would buy it again. I come from a HTC Qtek 8310.

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