Samsung i640 / i640V (SGH-i640)

A follow-up device to the recent i620, the Samsung i640 (also sold on the Vodafone network as the i640V) is an HSDPA capable 3.5G slider phone with an unusual 320 x 240 pixel display.

So, what has changed since the i620? Well the truth is, not much. In almost all regards, the i620 and i640 are completely identical. The one significant difference between the two devices is that the i640 boosts the speed of HSDPA downloads to 3.6 Mbps from the rather slow 1.8 Mbps on the previous model.
A quick tour around the specifications on the SGH-i640 show that this is a capable enough device, but it is very much just a rehash of last year's model and the competition has moved on. The 2.4" wide aspect QVGA display is pretty good, but it is much smaller than the panel on the Nokia N95 8GB. Surprisingly the i640 lacks WiFi, and unlike much of the competition, the i640 also suffers from a pretty basic camera, lacks GPS and it doesn't come with a touchscreen.

Samsung i640 On the other hand, there is a practical QWERTY keyboard and the Samsung i640 runs Windows Mobile 6. So, it seems obvious that Samsung are pitching the SGH-i640 against BlackBerry handhelds and other messaging devices, rather than aiming this at the consumer market.

Internal memory is stated to be 141MB and this is expandable with microSD cards. As with many Samsung devices, the i640 is tri-band GSM only with 2100 MHz WCDMA for 3G and 3.5G support. Physically, the i640 measures 95 x 61 x 16mm and weighs 126 grams.

The SGHi-i640's battery life has been quoted as a maximum of 6 hours with up to 15 days standby, although it's not clear if that is on 3G or GSM. The 1200 mAH battery should be sufficiently beefy to keep the i640 running for quite a while.
Vodafone have the i640 available right now for contract customers in several different countries. In the UK it is free on a £30/month one year contract.