We never doubted Samsung's claim that its Ultra Edition 6.9 (UE 6.9), also known as the SGH-X820, is the slimmest candy-bar phone in the world. After all, its girth measures just 6.9mm (think iPod nano), which is a full 2mm thinner than the already anorexic SGH-P300 introduced earlier, and less than half that of the 14.9mm-thick Motorola Razr clamshell. What's more amazing is that the UE 6.9 doesn't skimp on features. Besides offering Bluetooth and speakerphone function, the Samsung also sports a 2-megapixel camera, onboard video and music player as well as a document viewer and TV-out capabilities. The UE 6.9 is currently sold in Singapore for as low as S$148 with a two-year operator contract.

Design
As with everything made smaller or thinner, there's usually a tradeoff in terms of design ergonomics. However, this didn't seem to be the case for the UE 6.9. Despite a thin form factor, this Samsung candy bar offers a good grip and solid feel. It is also surprisingly comfortable to hold against the ear, thanks to its wide and long frame.

If you are looking for a super-slim phone that slips easily into pockets without weighing you down, the 66g UE 6.9 is probably one of the best choices out there. Having said that, this reviewer still had his reservations about putting the phone in the back pocket, even after repeated reassurances from Samsung, as the thin chassis does bend slightly when stressed.

We like the sleek, matt-black design of the UE 6.9 which will appeal to both sexes, though a quick survey in the office showed that male users are more likely to buy and use the phone.

Like most Samsung handsets, the UE 6.9 is equipped with a bright LCD screen which is capable displaying up to 262K colors. Not surprisingly, images turn out vibrant and crisp on the phone's 1.9-inch panel in most lighting conditions except when viewing under direct sunlight.

Samsung has pretty much stuck to its standard layout for its button design, with two soft keys above the call answer and call reject buttons, and a slightly smaller cancel button below the four-way navigation keypad. Generally, we found it easy to type on the UE 6.9, especially the number pad which has well-spaced with large keys. We did, however, find it hard to press the center "i" button which was flushed with the navigation keypad. As with previous occasions, there were several incidences where we accidentally pressed on the "i" for menu but ended up activating the Internet browser function.

With the limited real estate on the UE 6.9, buttons along the sides are understandably kept to a minimum with the volume toggle on the left and the camera activation/shutter key on the right. Just above the camera activation/shutter key is a port, in fact the only port that multitasks as a connector for the headset, charging adapter and USB cable. This literally limits you to performing one of the three tasks at any one time.

Features
The UE 6.9 comes with an impressive list of features most people will not expect to find on a slim phone. Most notable is the inclusion of a 2-megapixel camera which takes decent images up to 1,600 x 1,200 pixels. You get a slew of camera controls such as ISO (up to ISO 400), white balance as well as preset scene modes, though the lack of a flashlight makes it hard to shoot in dimly lit conditions. There's also no self-portrait mirror. The camera doubles as a camcorder for shooting videos up to 352 x 288 pixels.

The Samsung phone supports a good variety of audio format, from the popular MP3 and WMA to AAC and AMR. The onboard music player itself offers a basic amount of functionality. Users can choose to customize the player with the preset skins provided, create playlists and adjust equalizer settings, on top the standard playback controls. An offline flight mode is included for those who would like use the music player and camera while traveling on a plane. While this is a useful function, we found it weird that you could only enable this offline mode after turning on the phone.

Users can connect the triband handset to the PC using the bundled USB cable or via wireless Bluetooth. The Bluetooth profile, which comes with A2DP, also lets you connect to stereo Bluetooth headsets. Other network protocols supported on the phone include GPRS, Java MIDP 2.0 and WAP 2.0.

Disappointingly, Samsung has chosen to equip the UE 6.9 with just 80MB of internal memory and no flash memory expansion slot. Unless you are planning to store only a handful of songs and take occasional snapshots with the camera, the 80MB storage will run out in no time, particularly with the higher-resolution 2-megapixel camera.

It is also noteworthy that the UE 6.9 has a document viewing and TV-out function, much like the SGH-D600 slider. Document formats supported include MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, TXT, PDF and JPEG files which can be viewed on the phone. The TV-out function is ideal for presentations or family photo-sharing and can be activated using an optional A/V cable which is available separately. Also onboard are a 1,000-entry phonebook, voice recorder, email support and PIM functions.

Performance
Overall, the quality of the calls from the phone was excellent. There was hardly any interference or dropped calls, although we did find the phone and speakerphone volume a tad soft for outdoor use. Music playback was generally satisfactory, though we were impressed with the music reproduction quality of our test tracks when we paired the phone with the Samsung SBH-100 Stereo Bluetooth Headset.

During our Lab tests, we managed to squeeze almost 3 hours of usage from the UE 6.9. While this was slightly more than the rated 2.5 hours of talktime, the phone still ranked below average among most current cellular handsets in terms of battery life. Understandably, this was due partly to the smaller 630mAh battery used in the mobile. Fortunately, Samsung has made up for the shorter usage life by bundling a second battery. An external charging box also lets you power up the battery separately without the handset.