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Photograph courtesy of Sprint PCS
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By WILSON ROTHMAN
Lately, cell-phone video games have gotten beyond the one-thumb playing that a phone keypad will permit. Jamdat Bowling and Ms. Pac-Man are fine, but what about Top Gun Air Combat? That Galaga "homage" requires two very healthy thumbs working in tandem, and there's no room on a phone for that. Browsing the department of silly sounding accessories, I came across one that really makes sense: the PCS Game Pad for the Samsung A600, new from Sprint PCS. If you have fallen under the spell of phone-based games, you really should check out the phone and Game Pad.
The Game Pad is roughly the size and shape of a Game Boy Advance, except that the vibrant color screen is part of a phone that can be removed at any time except during game play. The directional pad and buttons correspond directly to the phone's own controls, so when you're not in a game, you can use it to browse the Web or fiddle with settings. You can even charge the phone through the Game Pad, smart considering that games can really drain the juice.
The phone itself is sleek, similar in design to the Samsung V205 sold by T-Mobile. The built-in camera is strong on colors but weak on focus. Nevertheless, it does the trick: it's easy to snap a shot and the PCS Vision network is very quick at sending shots to other phones or e-mail addresses, even with attached voice messages. The flash, however, is more sales-sheet bullet point than genuinely useful attribute.
There's no second LCD panel on the front — something that would have made it thicker and less energy efficient, but more useful for call management. As a compromise, its main screen can rotate outward, but this is mainly for easy gaming and also self-portraits and other fancy photo shoots. In other words, odds are you won't leave it face-out for easy call screening. But I could be wrong.
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