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Features
Though the Z560's multimedia prowess is its star attraction, we'll get the basic offerings out the way first. The king-size phone book holds 1,000 contacts with room in each entry for six phone numbers, two e-mail addresses, two Web addresses, a nickname, a birth date, an Instant messaging handle, a company name, a job title, two street addresses and notes (the SIM cards holds an additional 250 names). You can save callers to groups, pair them with a photo, or assign them a ring tone for caller ID. It's worth noting thought that the Z560 comes with just 10, 64-chord polyphonic tones, which is pretty low for such a multimedia phone. Other standard features include a vibrate mode, text and multimedia messaging, a voice memo recorder, an alarm clock, a calendar, a task list, a notepad, a calculator, a currency-and-unit converter, a world clock, a timer, and a stopwatch. If you're tired of talking, the SGH-Z560 also offers an integrated e-mail client for Yahoo, Hotmail, and AOL accounts, and supports AOL, Yahoo and MSN instant messaging. Full Bluetooth with stereo profile is onboard, and a speakerphone, USB connectivity and modem capability round out the higher-end options.

As an HSDPA phone, the Z560 supports wireless broadband data speeds via the 3.5G network. Fortunately, the phone is backwards compatible with the slower (but still 3G) UMTS network, so you'll get zippy coverage in most urban areas. You can enjoy the standard streaming-video options available through the operator. The HSDPA support also promises quick downloads of large files.

The music-player interface is a bit generic and features a simple animated graphic with the track name, artist, and album on both the internal and external displays. We were hoping for album art as well, but it's perfectly serviceable for listening to tunes. Features were limited as well. Though you can create play lists and choose from shuffle and repeat modes, there's no equalizer. But of course, we love that the Z560 supports a stereo Bluetooth profile. When playing music while the phone is closed, the external controls and display become inactive after a few seconds. Though this timing is unchangeable, a quick press of the button on the right spine will make them active again.

	The Z560's camera doesn't come with a flash.

The Z560 has a high-quality, 2-megapixel camera that takes pictures in six resolutions from 1600x1200 down to 240x180. Other features were plentiful and included five quality settings, a night mode, a 2X zoom (not usable at the highest resolution), a multishot option with three speed choices, a mosaic shot mode, three color effects, 20 fun frames, a self-timer, a white balance setting, and three shutter sounds (there's no silent option). We enjoyed the wealth of camera shortcuts, but the camera had a bit of a lag when shifting between options. The camcorder shoots clips in two resolutions (176x144 and 128x96) with sound and editing options similar to the still camera. Clips meant for multimedia messages are capped at 45 seconds; otherwise, you can shoot for as long as the available memory permits. The Z560 comes with a healthy 50MB of shared memory for photos, videos, and downloads, but you'd be wise to invest in a microSD card. Photo quality was actually good; colors were sharp and lighting was good overall. Video quality was decent, showing less pixilation than we've seen on other camera phones.

	The Z560 had excellent photo quality. (click for larger image)

You can personalize the Z560 with a variety of wallpapers, background colors, greeting messages and alert sounds. If you're dissatisfied with the choices that come with the Z560, you can always buy more options from Cingular. You can download more ring tones, and for even greater personalization, you can save clips of your favorite MP3 files as ring tones--nice. Gamers can choose from five demo titles (World Poker Tour, Platinum Sudoku, Diner Dash, Bowling 3D and Asphalt Urban GT 3D). Of course you'll need to buy the full versions for extended play.

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