Tocco, the Italian word for touch, aptly chosen to name this touchscreen mobile phone that offers an enormous amount of features in a sexy slimline package. These features include a music player, FM radio, 5 megapixel camera, ultra-fast 3G web browsing and tonnes of memory! Samsung Tocco is for those who are kinaesthetically inclined and appreciate the tactile vibration feedback of the “award-winning” Croix UI touchscreen user interface.
Design
The Samsung Tocco is classy in looks with an understated clean fascia with a minimalist but robust feel, housed in a high gloss casing. It comes with a leather case which not only enhances its stylish image but also protects the shiny finish and screen from damage.
The 2.8in customisable touchscreen conventional QVGA resolution screen dominates the front fascia of the Tocco It is a compact ultra slim handset that measures 98.4 x 55 x 11.6mm and weighs 106g ,(it is smaller than the iPhone) making it very pocket friendly. New touches include applets to the standby screen by the revamped touch Wiz user Interface. On the base of the black faceplate you will see a discreet rectangular manual control pad with a central menu key with standard buttons for call and end. Chrome edge trim and a brushed metal back panel all give this attractive phone a minimalist look and feel.
Features
Top of the bill is the five-megapixel camera equipped with a wide range of camera settings and functions including an auto focus system. You can play around with the new face-detection technology and be amazed with the Smile Shot option which means that the camera will not take a picture until it sees a smile. You will achieve impressive results with this camera with a 2 step focus-then-shoot when using autofocus.
The camera touchscreen interface is intuitive and simple to control with a screen tap calling up the first set of options and the press of the side-mounted camera button activating the display in landscape mode… Options and sub-menus are well ordered and it is a simple tap to select and adjust the automatic settings, or add effects etc. Very important is for exciting and high activity photo opportunities is the anti-shake option. Edit your images with photo editing software, or upload them directly your blogs, using an embedded ShoZu application. You can edit and upload video clips in a similar fashion with the Tocco’s 320 x 240 pixel movie quality.
Fast 3G downloads and streaming, video calling and browsing are possible with HSDPA at up to 7.2Mb/s on suitably equipped mobile networks. Above the display you will find a front-facing low-res camera.
The Samsung Tocco has an adequate Access NetFront web browser. Use the volume key for zooming in and out, tap links directly, in addition to a page thumbnail overview there is a selection of Smart-Fit small-screen rendering options. The RSS reader, is useful for you to receive updates from your favourite websites and blogs and a picture puzzle game to pass the time Samsung’s music player interface is set-up with, with low-key touch-scrollable lists of tracks and categories.
Player and equaliser effects buttons appear on the screen so you can drag the timeline along to move through your track choices by artists, tracks, albums composers and podcast. The inclusion of Bang & Olufsen ICEpower audio technology inside with a decent set of supplied set of in-ear earphones produce bass depth and a decent top end for fine listening. There is also a 3.5mm jack socket for plugging in your own choice of high quality headphones.
Samsung has included a Micro SD card expansion slot to some existing 223MB of internal storage. Samsung also supplies a USB cable which allows you to sync your favourite tunes with your PC using Windows Media Player or alternatively you can copy the utilising provided Samsung PC Studio software. Drag and drop with the phone in mass-storage mode, or send them over Bluetooth. In addition to the FM radio with RDS Samsung has added a Music recognition application to help you identify songs you hear as you go along.
Samsung Tocco’s voice call performance is consistently clear with little or network drop-outs with a steady and strong signal. You will get up to three hours talktime or up to 250 hours of standby, although real life power handling is going to depend on its functionality use.
Ease of Use
The TouchWiz screen is quick to respond as soon as you start playing with it. You are pleasantly alerted when buttons have been successfully pressed by the Haptic vibration and audio feedback. You can avoid accidental pressing of the buttons by using the ‘hold’ button on top allowing you to lock the display. Ever changing as you navigate the menu and applications the Dial, Phonebook and Menu buttons are lined up in a bar across the bottom of the display. When you need to access your messages, internet, music player, calls, and the main menu press the physical button below the display and 5 large buttons will appear.
Access feature and application icons through tapping the small arrowed tab on the left of the display towards the bottom of the screen bringing up a tool bar. Using your fingertip smoothly and intuitively drag and drop your choice of icons from the column on to the standby screen. Select from an array of widgets i.e. Music player, FM radio, calendar, birthday alerts, photo viewer, profiles, games, date and various clock options. You can optimise your viewing screen by dragging the widgets in and out of view and removing the operator logo to unclutter your screen. Save your set up and close the toolbar until you wish to make some changes by tapping the arrowed tab once. This is a neat and user-friendly touch.
To access the main menu it is a simple tap and the phone screen transforms with a rotating transition to a colourful grid of icons. From here you will be able to access the sub-menu lists which utilise touch screen scrolling. Use your fingertip to flick through the lists. Samsung opted for the virtual phone-style alphanumeric number pad for texting. The buttons are spaced for accurate tapping and the switch between predictive text and manual entry is easy.
Conclusion
Beauty is not skin deep with this sexy slimline gadget packed touch phone. There is plenty to get excited about but this phone is especially designed for those who rank camera quality as a priority and want the extra offerings of quality video, music, web, and email at their fingertips bundled in a sleek high gloss and leather case.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
paul 10.13.08 at 3:48 pm
are you able to access wi fi on this phone.?
paul 10.13.08 at 3:49 pm
does the phone have wi fi
Alfreda 11.06.08 at 8:17 pm
i heard dat the phone has low voice quality wats d percentage of its reliability
wholesale 05.18.09 at 7:54 am
nice phone
Nikki 05.24.09 at 9:14 am
can u take piks with the front camera?
Keyz 09.29.09 at 4:20 pm
Hi, I am also trying to find out how to use the front camera.
Most sites i’v been on say it isn’t a camera and can only be used for video calls. Although, me and one my friends have the same camera and have both accidently pressed something and got the front camera up without a video call. Meaning you obviously can use the front camera. Please can any one help?
lonewolf 11.27.09 at 6:33 pm
heard this phone had battery problems is it true??
Meg 02.25.10 at 2:38 am
I have this phone. The front camera is only for video calls. The battery life is amazing, I only have to charge it once a week. Also it doesn’t have WiFi.