In a nutshell: Samsung have combined the two sexiest form
factors - the touchscreen and the slider - to create a slide phone
with a full touchscreen-driven interface. The Tocco Ultra is a flagship
phone with an 8 megapixel camera, class-leading OLED display, media
player, GPS, Bluetooth, memory card slot and high-speed internet.
A lovely phone, although the user interface could be better, especially
for texting. Best buy: *Free* with half-price line rental or £140
auto cashback from Mobiles.co.uk
(Black); or £199.95 on PAYG from the Carphone
Warehouse (Black, Blue or Red).
Review:
March 2009. Updated October 2009.
The
S8300 Tocco Ultra is a next-generation slide phone from Samsung.
Just when you thought that the slide phone could go no further,
Samsung have come up with a twist: combine the slide design with
a full touchscreen driven user interface. The Tocco Ultra combines
the best of the Samsung Soul with
the Samsung Tocco to create a new
slider for 2009.
In
its press releases, Samsung are describing the Tocco Ultra as its
flagship handset for 2009. There are a number of justifications
for this claim. First is the screen - its a new kind, called Active
Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode - or AMOLED for short! Never
mind how it works, the results are stunning. Its high resolution
(240 x 400 pixels) ticks our box too. At 2.8 inches across, the
display is large for a slide phone, but small for a touchscreen.
But the combination of touchscreen with haptic (vibration) feedback
plus numeric keypad does seem to work reasonably well. The Samsung
Soul
pioneered this principle with just the lower part of the screen
having touch-sensitive controls, and by pushing this design to its
logical conclusion, the Tocco Ultra has been given an even better
user interface. The design offers the fun and intuitiveness of being
able to drag photos and music around the screen with your finger,
but without the frustration of having to use a virtual keyboard
for all tasks. We know from user feedback that not everyone is happy
with touchscreen phones, so the Tocco Ultra seems to offers a great
alternative for these people. However, user feedback suggests that
not everyone is happy with the Tocco Ultra UI - especially people
who are new to Samsung, and those who text heavily.
Another
feature that marks out this phone as a flagship is its 8 megapixel
camera. The camera is fully equipped with smile-detection autofocus,
a powerful LED flash and geo-tagging thanks to the built-in GPS
receiver. Photo quality is excellent and comparable to the superb
Samsung Pixon. The camera can also
record video at a high VGA resolution and a respectable 30 frames
per second. There's even a video editing tool built in to the phone
- a feature normally only seen on smartphones. Video calling is
also available.
The
S8300 comes with a media player that supports all popular music
formats and can play videos in DivX & XviD formats. As well
as the media player, an FM radio with RDS is included. Annoyingly
there's no 3.5mm audio jack, so you'll have to use the standard
stereo headset supplied by Samsung or an optional Bluetooth stereo
headset. The built-in memory is a bit limited too. 80 MB is just
enough to store a CD's worth of music, so you'll need to upgrade
this with a microSD memory card. Fortunately the Tocco Ultra supports
cards up to 16GB.
We've
already mentioned the geo-tagging feature for photos. The GPS can
also be used with the mapping application to find your way around.
Useful for pedestrians, hikers and cyclists, but don't expect to
drive from Land's End to John O' Groats using this!
For
connectivity, we'd rate the Tocco Ultra at 8/10. It has Bluetooth,
USB, EDGE and 7.2 Mbps HSDPA, but is missing WiFi. Given the phone's
size we're willing to forgive this ommission.
Physically,
the phone is great. With a thickness of 12.7mm, it's slightly thinner
than the Soul. Its brushed metal finish gives it the quality you'd
expect from a top-of-the-range phone too. It's amazing how Samsung
have managed to pack so much into this phone. Yes, we would have
liked WiFi, a 3.5mm headphone jack and more memory. But hey, in
its class this is one of the highest spec phones currently available.
The only phone to compare with this is the new Sony
Ericsson Aino.
Features of the Samsung S8300 include:
8 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom, face-detection
autofocus, geo-tagging and dual LED flash
Video camera (VGA, 30 frames/second) / Video
editor / 3G video calling / DivX & XviD playback
Display: AMOLED, 16 million colours, 400 x 240
pixels (2.8 inches) with auto rotation
WAP 2.0, GPRS, EDGE, 3.5G (HSDPA 7.2 Mbps),
web browser
Connectivity: Bluetooth, USB 2.0
Memory: 75 Mbytes plus MicroSD memory card slot
(up to 16GB)
Personal organiser functions
Quadband GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) plus 3G
Dual Band (900/2100)
Size: 110 x 51.5 x 12.7 mm
Weight: 118g
Samsung Tocco
Ultra Consumer Reviews
Love
your mobile? Hate it? Please share your experiences to help other
people choose the phone that's best for them. Please do not review
this phone if you have not used it. This is a review site, not a
forum, so please don't just ask questions. Please do not use swear
words or offensive language, and please, no advertising!
Reviewed by Pete Tomlin from England
on 2nd Sep 2009
I have to disagree with the negative reviews. I've had this phone
for a few months now & I love it. I am envied by everyone as it
is so stylish & sleek. Texting is no more or less tricky than any
other phone, the slider is solid & sturdy, voice call quality is
very good (sometimes too loud). The only criticism is with the battery
life but it isn't surprising as there is so much on this phone to
use the power! I definitely would recommend this phone. Rating:
Reviewed by danielle from UK on
2nd Sep 2009
Ok I got this by default because I begged my phone provider to change
the handset cause my last phone kept breaking...I didnt want a touch
screen but luckily it has a kep pad so thats cool... Its very pretty.
Thats about it.... Try to use the internet with the touch screen?
I have very small fingers but even I can't click on some of the
links, when you use the slide open keypad, which is a life saver
btw, its really hard to delete what you have written... I have a
random widget that comes up every morning called events, anyone
know how to stop that happening? My contacts are all back to front
and I cant get around it so now everyone begins with "mob". Have
you ever tried playing the touch screen scrabble game? Its actually
impossible. It doesn't come with one of those pen things so I got
one for it and no it doesnt work. And OMG heaven forbid if you want
to move the cursor in a text message to edit a previous word! The
phone works though, and I can use the internet as long as I am really
carefull and zoom in as far as it goes to click on a selection....everything
is so long winded. And no skype? no MsN? Is there anything that
this phone is allowed to do? The Camera is nice though and like
I said its pretty. But its PAINFULL to use. Rating:
Reviewed by Richard from England on
1st Sep 2009
Agreed with some of the below reviews. I have had this phone for
4 months and I've had enough. Going back to Nokia. Touchscreen is
slow and un-responsive, battery life is very poor, camera ok. texting
hard even when using keys. ANNOYING. Worst phone in my 14 year career
of using them Rating:
Reviewed by Rach from UK on 31st
Aug 2009
Thank goodness for Dan Searle's review further down because it is
going to save me a long time typing. His review pretty much covers
all my frustrations with this phone. I have been a Samsung user
for years and this phone is making me think that my next phone will
NOT be a Samsung. Texting is ridiculous, you have to take hideous
steps to include apostrophes or maintain the word you have just
selected... I won't rant on repeating what the others have said,
but have got something else to add - You have to turn your phone
off, remove the back cover and battery just to get your memory card
out. This is completely stupid when you want to use your micro-SD
apapter and have to have your phone in bits to do so. I know that
you can bluetooth pictures to photo-printers but surely a slot on
the side would be a step in the right direction. I absolutely agree
with every negative review on here. I will stick with the phone
for my 24 month contract (I had to keep this one after returning
the Pixon - don't get me started on that one!) but I wouldn't recommend
it to anyone unless you spend a lot of time concentrating solely
on the task of texting or setting your alarm (SO confusing and very
easy to 'set' it without it actually coming on due to frequency
etc) and doing nothing else. Rating:
Reviewed by SammiAhoy from scotland
on 30th Aug 2009
i love this phone. like actually! texting with the touch screen
is simple. especially with predictive text on. photo quality is
great. video call is good. and my tarrif is amazing haha!! i would
of liked some games to come with the phone instead of having to
buy them, but you can't get everything (: well done samsung! Rating:
Reviewed by l0l from lol on 27th
Aug 2009
i have a samsung tocco ultra and its 1 of the best ive ever had
ive paid nearly 400 pounds for it but im really happy with it l0l
Rating:
Reviewed by SS from UK on 24th
Aug 2009
The interface is covered by most of the other reviews on here so
I'll restrict myself to the most important aspect of a mobile phone
- voice call quality. Unfortunately its very poor, dropped calls
are frequent, volume and clarity are far too variable and the its
almost impossible for someone to hear you if the phone's slider
is closed. Very disappointing after the excellent E950. Rating:
Reviewed by Dan Searle from Portsmouth,
UK on 22nd Aug 2009
Yes, the Samsung Tocco Ultra S8300 is a fantastic piece of technology,
great 8mp camera, great screen graphics and fidelity, easy to use
touch-screen, lots of snazzy subtle enhancements in the way the
applications are loaded and managed, all-in-all a really solid and
sexy phone that no doubt cost a fortune for Samsung to develop.
So why, as a pre-existing user of a Samsung phone, do I want to
smash it with a sledgehammer? Because Samsung have made some senseless
changes to some of the tried and tested basic functionality of the
phone. Changes that buy you NOTHING but a whole load of heartache
for existing Samsung users, changes that wholly obliterate the positive
feeling you had with all its sexiness and snazziness. The list is
long, but these are the lowlights; • No easy way to control
the cursor in a text message, the large button at the front of the
phone that you think would move the cursor just cancels the message.
Placing your finger on the touch-screen to place the cursor is next
to impossible to control with any level of accuracy. • This
has always been a naff annoyance with Samsung phones; but when you
backspace to clear a word you have to be careful not to press the
button too quickly or it deletes your entire 6 page message. Conversely,
when you actually want the backspace button to delete the entire
entry, eg when you’re trying to add a word to the phone’s
dictionary it only deletes one character for every press! •
In the add word function, the software writers forgot to add the
box that tells you when you’re in uppercase or lowercase,
and it defaults to uppercase, which is odd as 9 out of 10 times
you don’t need your (more often than not slang or swear word!)
to begin with a capital letter. • The dictionary seems very
limited, some very basic words are missing, words that were in the
old my 3 year old samsung phone’s dictionary. Odd, and annoying.
• When in predictive text you type “them” and
switch it to “then” using the 0+ key, and then add an
exclamation mark or full stop it reverts back to “them”.
Why? My 3 year old Samsung didn’t do this, and logically nor
should it of course. So you have to press the # key before you add
the punctuation, BUT that then adds a space, so you have to backspace
first before you add the punctuation. Complete nonsense. •
When you type a word the dictionary doesn’t recognise it gives
you every conceivable string it can imagine, even if your word was
3 letters, it then suggests 4 letter words, 5, 6, 7.. etc until
you’ve hit the 0+ key about 50 times and then you finally
get the “add word” option. If I typed a 3 letter word,
guess what, I probably don’t need to see every 4 to 10 letter
word alternative. • This is a minor irritation but nevertheless
a completely senseless change on Samsung’s part. Whereas you
used to punctuate your texts but pressing the * key, and you would
get a fullstop, followed by a comma etc.. now comma is 4th in the
list, why? How is this an enhancement? It’s like having to
learn to ride a bike again. • A left swipe on the touch-screen
enables you to shortcut the open menu option, wow, what a time saving
shortcut, apart from the fact the open menu button is permanently
on the front screen, so how is a swipe a shortcut versus a key select?
This phone is quite heavy and solid, which is a positive aspect,
but it also means it slides around in your hand a little, resulting
in inadvertent swipes on the touch-screen, so the ability to right
and left swipe on the screen are added functionality that are just
completely unnecessary and bring more pain than they ever bring
joy. I dare say some of the criticisms above are unwarranted, I
dare say that if I spent a month doing searches on google I’d
find the solution to some of these problems, but the point is, should
I have to? Shouldn’t it be intuitive? And why when it always
was intuitive, have Samsung come up with non-intuitive “enhancements”?
In summary the Ultra Tocco is great piece of kit totally ruined
by some daft changes to the basic and essential functions which
just leave the user feeling totally frustrated. I can’t recommend
this phone to anyone who is a heavy text user, which is probably
half the world. Massive own goal Samsung. Rating:
Reviewed by Karen from England on
21st Aug 2009
Love the phone - took a bit of getting use to but can someone PLEASE
tell me how to change my incoming text message alerts?????????????????? Rating:
Reviewed by mitchell from wales on
21st Aug 2009
just bought it yesterday i LOOVE it only £35 a month !!!! 800 unlimited
text Rating:
Reviewed by James from England on
19th Aug 2009
There is one word to describe this phone - AVERAGE. I have just
spent £350 on it after having the old and first tocco and I am bermused
and disappointed with Samsung. The first one was easy to use, responsive,
lightweight, simple and effective. Almost a perfect phone, but the
Ultra seems to have gone over-complex and backwards. The keyboard
is poor, the touchscreen is sometimes slow and the sliding is all
over the place. Also even simple things such as changing text message
tones are incredibly hard to do and to navigate to; this was simple
on the old tocco. Whilst impressive in some areas and to people
new to the tocco, if you had the first one, you can easily highlight
a catalogue of errors that werent present before in this new model. Rating:
Reviewed by Tracie from UK on
17th Aug 2009
Well l love Sumsung phones and always have, it has taken me a couple
of days to get used to this one though.. In response to deleting
them all when message box full, move them to phone and save them
in a folder.The camera is not bad and it does take good pics in
normal light. Predictive text can take some time but sending messages
is really simple. The only couple of really annoying things are
the bad lack of battery power which really does not last long and
the fact the screen gets dirty quickly. But overall a excellent
phone again.. Rating:
Reviewed by Lita from UK on 15th
Aug 2009
DO NOT GO NEAR THIS PHONE!!!! Horrible horrible horrible! Do Samsung
designers not use mobile phones???? I cannot believe I have signed
18 months of my life away on this phone! Briefly: Slow. 8 mega pixels,
but massive delay means that good photos are extremely rare. Anyway,
this phone is only PC compatible, so, as a Mac user, good photos
completely useless, and i am stuck with Samsung's foul array of
ringtones. Even using my friends PC, I am told there isn't enough
memory for a single track. Deplorable texting software, complete
lack of apostrophes, no smilies, always begins without capitalisation.
Have to hold during calls, or you mute your call with your ear.
SO SLOW! Things always popping up - who uses 'widgets' anyway? Annoying
tones. The list is endless, words do not describe how much I despise
this terrible, lazily designed piece of junk. Rating:
Reviewed by Bruce from UK on
13th Aug 2009
This is the worst phone I have every owned. The touch screen is
unreliable, it tones are annoying. The games - not worth having.
It is very difficult to text with the phone because of the keypad,
and the T9 is hopeless. You type the word, select the one you want
then if you put a full stop after it changes your selected word
to the original one. There are no smileys available and it is virtually
impossible to get photos or video onto a computer from the phone.
I will never buy a samsung again because of this phone Rating:
Reviewed by Chris from UK on
13th Aug 2009
This phone is a pile of rubbish. It's just gone wrong from the word
go. Don't let 8 megapixels fool you.. when the camera works, you
can see the lack of lens quality whenever you're out of normal light.
Also, the thing runs too slow, you have to wait seconds at times
to go on to the next screen. The internet browseris very good but
i think that is the only saving grace for it. Finally, battery life
on this... rediculous. Pathetic, even. Too much stuff on the phone
and most of it is unnecessary. When pay day comes - new phone. (it
gets 2 stars because the internet's okay i guess) Rating:
Reviewed by Lopez from UK on
12th Aug 2009
To Michael: Yes you can scroll down to the bottom of the contact
list by sliding the right hand side of the screen down; it should
come up as your just scrolling through letters which makes it extremely
fast. Cant do the same with messages though!! Rating:
Reviewed by Lee from UK on 11th
Aug 2009
All good apart from: Does anybody know how to email pictues as my
phone always comes up with a message not enough memory to send and
I have a 4g card that is virtually empty so plenty of memory? Not
much point taking great photos if I can't send them! Rating:
Reviewed by Michael from UK on
11th Aug 2009
I love this phone, but there are a few bits that niggle at my nerves!!
Firstly, can you get to the bottom of your contact list without
scrolling all the way down to the bottom - same goes for messages
as I have to delete my whole inbox when it's full.?! Also, I have
managed to accidently put words into my predictive text dictionary
and wondered if there was any way to take them out!? Last, but not
least, is there a way to look at messages whilst on the phone? This
one is probably the most annoying as I've had many samsung phones
in the past, all with this capability, and the Tocco Ultra simply
can't. Rating:
Reviewed by Carrie - Anne from England
on 10th Aug 2009
Right, well i don't really do theese review things, but there's
a first time for everything. I've had this phone for about 2ish
months now, i was given this phone by my mums friend who got it
off his contract. I don't overally think this is a great phone,
but it's not as bad as some. To start with the touch screen can
be irresponsive at times, causing me to be frustrated and press
loads of buttons, which when, it decides to work, goes crazy. Also
ive noticed after a while that my camera has started to go funny,
theres streaks over the screen and im not too sure how to sort it
:/ in addition the back of the phone is very scratch prone and has
started to look very scabby however, on the other hand this phone
has great sound quality and the keypad is great for people who cannot
use the touch screen well. Rating:
Reviewed by GR from Australia on
5th Aug 2009
Thanks Dee, it's a relief to get rid of those tones. I feel pretty
stupid now, it was too easy!! I have to admit, I found getting the
cursor where I wanted it to be in the message difficult in the beginning
but now that I'm used to it I have no problems. When I hold the
screen for a couple of seconds I don't get arrows but it does display
a mini scroll bar so you can just scroll up and down, like you would
in the phonebook or widget, to get to the part of the message you
want to be at. Then just touch the screen where you want the cursor
to appear, it really does get easier. I was a bit apprehensive about
the finger touch at the start as I have long nails too but its not
an issue. Great Phone, Love it. Rating:
Reviewed by khy boogie from UK on
29th Jul 2009
damn, 12 year olds should be in school learning to spell rather
than reviewing mobile phones! and most probably getting brain cancer
at the same time. anyways just an update, headphone jack is intermittent
and no apparent reason for when it works, which is most of the time,
and when it doesn't sometimes removing and replacing works, some
time reboot works. phone hasnt crashed on me for ages though, still
looks good, great size. camera isnt as good as i expected but i
have high standards, expected at least cyber shot level competitiveness...
so as an mp3 player it's great, replaced my 16gb nano but not so
god if headphone jack not working... texting and calls all ok, websites
a litle annoying to use but hardly use anyways, using opera browser.
amaze was good for gps at first but now everytiem it wants to update
to new version and tells me i was in westminster when i was in epping...
Rating:
Reviewed by danny hill from walsall
on 23rd Jul 2009
this is the most crabiste phone ever. it is to complecated the only
thing best on the phone is the look.this is to comlecated for young
and old people. i am 12 years old and i cannot work how to use it.
iv hade 10 and they have all broken down between 1 week and 2 weeks.
they are so easy to get scretches it is impossible to not get a
scretch with in the first minunet. the best thing is not the camera
the clock even that gets wrong some times. so i would recomise to
not buy this phone. i would buy the sony ericsson w850i they are
the best phones ever. and the problem with the samsung tocco ultra
is the sound is rubbish and you cant hear your self in a busy area. Rating:
Reviewed by Dee from Australia on
17th Jul 2009
I got this phone because it didn't have a QWERTY pad, and more so
because it has an actualy keypad. The camera is great, have used
it a few times, but there are quite a few things that annoy me about
the phone, so much so that I'm thinking of buying a different one
- it lags, messaging can be really annoying...Tocco - how do you
get those arrows to come up? Tried doing what you said and it didn't
work. Ultimately, that has to be the most annoying thing - getting
the cursor where you want it without navigational keys! GR, when
you are on your main screen (widget page), if you press the volume
button on the left side, volume and vibration options come up so
you can mute them without having to change the profile to silent.
Battery life can be an issue - depends what youu se it for. Basic
phone use, I've gone 4 days without having to charge. Rating:
Reviewed by Tocco from Australia on
16th Jul 2009
Read some old reviews, and I have to disagree. The phone's all good,
it's just the noobs who are complaining about it. If people wanted
QWERTY keyboard supported, then they should have checked the specs
+ there are ways you can move the cursor for the text, by holding
on the screen for a second or two, which will bring up arrows. And
there IS digital zoom on camera, you can zoom in and out with the
volume control buttons. But I have to admit the battery life is
extremely short and the CPU is slow for its features. Rating:
Reviewed by jagat patel from india on
15th Jul 2009
its amazing. Rating:
Reviewed by AC from WALES on
15th Jul 2009
i was deciding between the tocco ultra and the pixon so went to
the phone shop to try them out. im a woman so have longish nails,
and the sales person told me only certain interfaces work with the
corner of my nail ( like a stick ) whereas others have to have a
finger touch ( for warmth ) the pixon works with nails whereas the
tocco ultra doesnt, so this was important to me, and probably alot
of other woman? he said the pixon works with nails as it has an
interface beginning with S, syberian? if anyone knows anything about
this ( or what its called ) can you let me know and if any other
phones have this? thanks Rating:
Reviewed by GR from Australia on
15th Jul 2009
PLEASE HELP!!! I absolutely LOVE the phone but I can't turn the
extremely annoying keypad tones off without putting the phone on
silent. The only two options I have in the normal profile are "TouchWiz"
or "Beep". Would really appreciate any info on this, have seen from
some of the reviews below that people have gotten around this problem
so I hope its fixable :) Rating:
Reviewed by Julz Angell from UK on
13th Jul 2009
I have just got this phone and I'm just about to send it back! The
operating system is very buggy: Principally, there isn't enough
gain on the bluetooth transmitter to give reasonable volume on a
couple of different headsets...Vital for my use. The screen only
responds to finger taps (it won't acknowledge taps from a wooden
stick or a ballpoint) and it is very hard to get the corrrect key.
Then there is the issue with GPS...It doesn't work at all (on Vodafone,
at any rate). Finally the picture display has issues in resizing
pictures...Probably OK if you use the on board camera, but I tried
to load my own picture and it distorted the picture to expand to
full screen, rather than give the option to resize or keep the original
format. Additionally there is no way of changing the screensaver...it
cycles through ALL the pictures on the phone (not card). Having
said all that, the phone itself works OK...You have to aim the ear-speaker
directly at your ear or it is hard to hear the other party, but
the calls are clear and the reception is good. The finish and build
quality are excellent, but the user manual is appallingly poor.
When Samsung remove the bugs in the software, this will be an excellent
phone, assuming all the other functions work as promised and the
quality is displayed by longevity. Until then the phone isn't really
a good buy in my opinion. Rating:
Reviewed by Steve BUdd from United kingdom
on 12th Jul 2009
Buy it. I did. Loved the look and Samsung are just getting better
and better. As for small niggles...I personally havent got any.
As for the battery..if you charge it correctly from new and discharge
properly I havent had any issues. Best phone Ive ever had. Might
buy the company ! Then again...maybe not ! Rating:
Reviewed by Noah from UK on 30th
Jun 2009
This is an excellent phone. The quality of the 8MP camera is awesome.
Obviously it's not going to replace an SLR, but, it's a perfectly
adequate replacement for a point and shoot. I took it on holiday
and it was reliable and did a superb job! I think you should go
for it if you take many photos. I confess though, I don't text alot
with it, I use my work supplied Blackberry for that ;) For everything
else it's fine including internet once opera mini is downloaded!
It's also very stylish and well built. Anyone remember the Nokia
8310? I don't know why this phone reminds me of it in some ways.
Obviously the technology the tocco ultra packs is years ahead, but
what is the alternative for a stylish high spec phone with top features
,and, a premium feel to it?! Rating:
Reviewed by mahdi from uk on
15th Jun 2009
fantastic phone has the greatest features if only the battery could
last long enough for me to use them samsung really need to create
an extended battery Rating:
Reviewed by doddy from uk on
14th Jun 2009
just to let you know...any problems with the day on the date being
wrong on your widget, you need to change the settings so that the
start of your week in the calender is on a sunday instead of a monday
(it could be the other way round...I cant remember now!!) but it
works!!x Rating:
Reviewed by Kate from UK on 14th
Jun 2009
I got this phone a couple of months ago, and I LOVE it! The camera
is amazing, so its definitely a phone to consider if you're into
taking photos. The music player is also great, and the speaker seems
surprisingly loud compared to my previous, Sony Ericsson phone.
I text all the time, so when I read reviews before I got this phone,
I was worried that the texting would be difficult, but I really
don't find it a problem, and personally I prefer to text using the
touch screen, but I've tried the keyboard that that is also easy
to use. A lot of people have complained that it is difficult if
you make a mistake whilst texting, but you simply press next to
the mistake, and you can edit it, again I don't find this hard to
do. I also like the phone browser, also it's slow sometimes, I don't
use it often enough to find this a bad thing, but maybe if you surf
the internet often this might not be the best choice of phone. I
love this phone, so if you're thinking of getting it, BUY IT NOWW
:) Rating:
Reviewed by Joanna from Warwickshire
on 13th Jun 2009
Its is a sexy looking fone, thats for sure...but I wish I had taken
your professional views about the txting more seriously....Im a
big one for sending text msgs, so ease of texting is really important
to me! This new phone is rubbish and awkward compared to my Sony
Erricson before this. If you make a mistake..the only way to fix
it is to keep tapping the backspace key which is on the screen,
and if you accidently hold it for too long, you lose the whole msg.
Also, if you find you've made a mistake in the msg earlier, the
only way to go back and fix it is to tap the touchscreen in exactly
the right place next to the word you want to correct, but it is
not easy to make the cursor fall on the right position. I find it
doesn't fit so nicely in my hand either...very long and hurts my
thumb to txt too much. Lastly, I like smileys in txts..and they
are not so easy to just slip in while writing, you have to search
for them. There are a lot of other amazming features on this phone...
but for txting, it's not up to standard! Rating:
Reviewed by Cool from Belfast on
6th Jun 2009
I got this phone 2 days ago and i love it. Its excellant for texting
much faster than my previous SE w910i . I would recommend this phone
to anyone. the camera is amazing better than any other 8mp i have
seen. The phone overall for a person that has never used a touch
screen handset before will find it quite hard to use, but give the
phone a chance and im sure ul fall in love with it. Rating:
Reviewed by sophia brunetti from leicester,
u.k on 31st May 2009
Everyone's so cynical about this phonee! i loveee it, n cant stop
touching the gorgeouss screen.. its addictive! haha.. the bright
colours and little genius extras make this phone something worth
having!.. lovee the music player, photo browswer, CAMERA! .. yeahh
the texting is a littlee sloww but SO what! you get used to it after
a whilee.. nothing to go mad about :( people just lovee to hate!
i say hats off to samsung for producing an amazing phone. Rating:
Reviewed by Ryan from Wales on
29th May 2009
Had nothing but trouble from SE and Nokia over the years Samsung
are the only Brand that have served me well i got the ultra after
my c905 broke after 3 months the ultra beats it in every way the
phone of the year Rating:
Reviewed by lol from england on
29th May 2009
this phone has been a really good phone so far but could anyone
tell me how to set up the top 3 widget as i am haveing trouble setting
it up ? . Rating:
Reviewed by BrianLara from India on
28th May 2009
Worth mobile for me. Simply amazing . previously i used the SE W910i
model. The samsung model S8300 is really great. Amazing. I would
recomend people to buy it. Rating:
Reviewed by Matt from uk on 26th
May 2009
Had it for 5 days and its going back. If you have ever used an Ipod
touch or Iphone then you will hate the poor quality touch screen.
Text messaging is made hard by the lack of precision in the touch
screen if you need to go back and there is no way of writing things
with apostrophes without manual input. The camera is 8megapixles
but the photos are of a poorer quality than my previous 5m Sony.
Bluetooth works between phones but not phones and Macs. There is
no firmware update service offered by samsung so you are stuck with
the version that was factory installed. Nice looking but a pig to
use. Get it and you'll regret it in a months time when the looks
wear off. Rating:
Reviewed by Thomas Hickman from birminham
on 25th May 2009
I adore this phone. I have had it for about 3 weeks now! It is so
fast,the screen is so bright and colourful. i have had one other
touch-pad phone and nuthing compares to this phone. it is simplying
outstanding. i have only one problem the battery life not as good
as some other phone but it will do! And i must say i love the camera
is it well and truely amazing the colours the flash the effects,
well i say so much better then my 9.1mp camera! and since having
this phone i have found out how to work all the apps on it. I LOVE
THIS PHONE so much better then any other phone i have had before!
if any one asked my oppinion i would tell them to get this phone
:) Rating:
Reviewed by dympna doherty from Ireland
on 24th May 2009
Upgraded to tocco ultra and after a week had it replaced with a
new one, could not be heard when i made calls, got new one which
kept dropping calls and would not send or receive mms. In repair
shop now for software replacement. A disaster not to be recommended Rating:
Reviewed by RG from UK on 19th
May 2009
I just upgraded to this phone for a few weeks and I think it is
great. When I was reading some reviews before I upgraded there were
a few quirks that people kept mentioning so Ill address these. 1)
no delete key while texting using the kepad - although there is
no actual delete key there is a delete button on screen and its
really not that much trouble to use this even if you are a speed
texter 2) some find the touch screen to be inaccurate - this is
the first time I have bought a touchscreen phone but I think it
is very responsive and just after a few days all the presses were
accurate and no problem 3) some complained that they had to go through
too many screens to get to write a message. Thats where the widgets
come in. You can put a messaging widget on the home screen and hey
presto..!just one press and your ready to write a text. 4) some
more positives - the phone looks great and feels sturdy - the sliding
mechanism is nice and smooth - the screen is nice and bright - the
camera is good (although havent done a full test drive yet so all
in all its a great phone that I am really enjoying using by the
way to joanne if you are writing with the onscreen keypad its labelled
and if you are writing with the normal keypad I think its the "0"
key Rating:
Reviewed by joanne from uk on
10th May 2009
love the phone but having difficulty with predictive text. if the
word i write doesnt display, the manual says press the "Aa" key
to select an alternate word. - can someone please tell me where
this Aa key is - i cannot for the life of me find it! please help. Rating:
Reviewed by Richard A from England on
9th May 2009
Got the Tocco ultra looks good and operates ok but major problem
you cannot get it pair up with Car bluetooth I tried on my BMW wont
work and the battery they say 4 hours more like 2 & half hours on
normal everyday use just sent it back swopping it for Nokia N85
at least I know the bluetooth works. Rating:
Reviewed by Mohammad Golzada from UK
on 6th May 2009
Got the phone 1 month ago on upgrade. good all rounder, nice wieght
and feel. Not the top of the range handset i expected. Touch screen
can be a bit tempremental at times. only 2 issues i have had is
the phone has frozen a few times on a call and the second issue
was a few times during a conversation i get really bad feedback.
oh yes i nearly forgot - dont get the RED one if your a guy as its
definately rasberry pink. Rating:
Reviewed by SteveD from England on
3rd May 2009
I’ve given the phone a good testing and as a touchscreen virgin
I was pleasantly suprised with it’s ease of use. It’s
poinless for the games unless you have small fingers,(have fun with
scrabble, you’ll fail to lay any tiles down with the drag
and drop feature) but games with phones are pointless anyway. Getting
used to texting without punctuation is a must with the T9 as it
does not know what an apostrophy is (i’ve, it’s, weren’t,
should’ve) you have no chance in predictive. It lacks a curser
button where the back button is to edit texts because again you
need nimble fingers for exact placement of curser. Overall it is
an excellent phone and I will be keeping mine beyond the trial as
the pros outway the cons by a mile but if your text and game mad
just don’t bother. Rating:
Reviewed by Paul from UK on 1st
May 2009
I had the phone for a week but in the end it just wasn’t what
I wanted and so I have now returned it for a Nokia 5800 that I am
now delighted with. The Tocco is a lovely looking phone and the
vibrancy of the on screen colours are second to none in the mobile
phone market and if I am honest you will either love the phone and
put up with its little quirks or like me realise if you are tied
to a contract the last thing you need is a phone you are not that
enamoured with. I disliked the way nothing could be done in a straightforward
manor as in messaging where you don’t go straight in to create
or read but instead go through a couple more touch screen moves
than really should be necessary. The phone lacking Wi Fi capabilities
also helped me to decide this wasn’t for me as although I
knew it lacked this function I thought other Samsung options would
come to the fore and save the day, they did not and for me much
more could have been achieved with this model as it sadly lacks
many apps that come as standard with a much cheaper Nokia 5800.
I don’t hate the Samsung Tocco Ultra it just wasn’t
for me and I certainly wouldn’t dissuade anyone from buying
it I just feel the Nokia 5800 is more straightforward and everything
is where you would expect to find it but Samsung are definitely
on the right lines and I am sure I will find a model to prise me
from Nokia's grasp in the future, just not today that’s all.
Rating:
Reviewed by Annoyed In Wales! from Uk
on 30th Apr 2009
Ok, felt obliged to write something on here, as some of the silly
stupid, childish reports nearly made me NOT purchase this phone!
First, see through the 'children’s' ratings on here, and concentrate
on the grownups...you'll be more than pleased with this phone! It's
great looking, great to txt on, great camera, easiest user interface
I’ve been on. I come from the Viewty onto this, after having
the LG for nearly 2 years, and was worried I’d miss it, NO,
the Samsung is more than capable of replacing that handset, and
i have to say, if you are thinking about it, DO IT, DO IT...plough
on through it's quirkiness, bearing in mind, every phone has them,
and you will Love it! Rating:
Reviewed by ben from uk on 23rd
Apr 2009
ok, normally i'd never go for a phone straight off of the assembly
line. my past phones (all sony ericcson cameraphones) were all out
for a while, had good reviews and firmware updates before i decided
to go for them. first of all the looks. quite simply it's one of
the best looking phones out there - competing with several of the
LG fashion ones. the front is dark burnished metal with a lovely
solid feel and the back is plastic to reduce weight. running up
the sides of the front is a flash of colour (in my case red) and
when you slide the phone out it reveals a block of the same on the
keypad and back where the camera is. the screen is simply beautiful;
larger than an ordinary phone, but smaller than a purely touch one,
full of bright and vivid colours. the features are pretty amazing
too. i'm a texter, but wanted something modern that can play music
and videos. it has an impressive 8mp camera (when you get above
10mp the human eye can't tell the difference in a normal sized photo).
furthermore there is DivX compatibility and a 1gb expansion card
that can be upgraded to 16 gb at the moment and possibly 32gb in
the future. there is no wifi which is a downside, and browsing on
the internet is difficult due to the smaller screen. Usability.
disappointingly the handset's microphone is poor; the listener can't
hear anything mumbled. there is no backspace on the physical keypad,
and this combined with a small screen with no joypad means that
editing texts is difficult. the screen itself can be a bit tricky
as well, finger presses have to be definite and accurate, and even
then it may not register, or select the wrong this which is annoying
(maybe that's why they put a back key where a direction pad normally
goes?). some people get the widgets, others don't - personally i
find them very useful and only wish they'd bring a lot more out.
the menus are definitely not intuitive. to open up a new text means
four button presses which may sound pathetic to complain about,
but what it actually means is that you have to go through four different
menus to simply start writing a text. this is similar for many other
simple actions like the alarm, which makes you wonder who created
the menu and how much thought they put into it. hopefully a firmware
update will make the touchscreen more accurate and rearrange the
menu to make it better. for one of the first attempts at a dual
touchscreen and keypad it's a very good combination, however with
time i'd expect them to improve upon the interaction and usability
of the two considerably. Pro: features - 8mp camera, divx compatibility.
touchscreen AND keypad. simply gorgeous screen. looks brilliant.
Cons: touchscreen not perfect (maybe will improve with firmware).
menus are difficult. don't make mistakes while texting. quiet microphone.
in conclusion this is a gorgeous phone that impresses everyone that's
seen it. the features are impressive - it's nothing short of a multimedia
Swiss army knife. day to day use is a bit tricky, and can be a chore
at times but hopefully with a few updates and a few more widgets
then it can be sorted. Rating:
Reviewed by VN from UK on 21st
Apr 2009
I bought this phone on Wednesday last week. I have had the SE K750
for several years, I love it but it is getting battered and l was
well overdue an upgrade. I wanted music (at least 2gb) radio, camera
+3mg, autofocus and flash and protected camera lens, alarm and snooze
button, reliable, easy to use. I do not use the internet or play
games or video call and l have a sat nav, no special rings/person
or voice dial so those are not tried, looked for or needed. My report
is based on what l have used. After 7 months looking l think l may
at last have a phone l am happy with. TEXTING: The keys are easy
to press I have no trouble with key size sorry it must be others
that have big fingers. I am a peck and look texter though and would
rather phone. Grammar is not a worry, nor deleting, if l don’t
notice the spelling mistake at the time it goes. I haven’t
tried the predictive although l usually use that. I am trying to
learn the ‘proper’ way of texting. I’m told it
is easier. Getting unread texts up or to send new ones is easy so
not sure what people complain over with lots of pushes, but then
l am used to old technology. PLUS POINTS and TIPS: Camera is good.
I took a photo of a back lit x-ray and got an excellent image, day,
night, outdoor and indoor shots are very good. I do not use zoom
it causes camera wobble so lack of it isn't a problem for me. Sliding
the widgets back slide your fingers off the edge off the phone when
you put them back, if you just flick the widgets on they won’t
go ‘home’. I like the 3 top numbers dialled widget but
l can not have home and hubs number on his profile as the widget
always rings the wrong number, so for the 3 favourites only put
one phone number/name. I like being able to group numbers and to
make new groups. Build feels good and solid and the camera lens
is protected. Excellent screen and sound quality with or without
headset, I only ever have one earpiece in at a time, so I’m
aware of what goes on round me. UNSURE POINTS or NEGATIVE POINTS:
I can hear others but sometimes they can not hear me. It may have
been where l was in the building, middle of a huge industrial unit,
surrounded by electrical items. Be wary of the flash, you only need
it for distance l got a blue photo tint when l tried it close to
a subject. I want to take internet widgets off shortcut bar as l
do not use internet but it won’t let me. Sometimes it can
be slow to connect or the wrong thing comes up but it may just be
me not used to touch screens. I know others have had this but it
is not really a major problem and l am sure it must happen on all
touch screens. People say it switches off, but looking at the power
switch bet it is that. It is the call off button and easy to push.
On my K750 it is on the top in a recessed hole and very difficult
to push. Phone lock is quick push to set and longer hold to turn
on. I wish it had a better phone safe lock though as a slide also
unlocks it if you don’t use the side unlock. I am told that
all slides are the same. K750 had 2 buttons to push, it was un-lockable
otherwise. I bought the in car universal charger and Samsung cable,
it does not fit the phone. I am told that l need the Nokia Macro
charger, do not get confused with the Nokia Micro, double check
in the shop for fitting, waiting for mine to be delivered. My worst
bug over it is what so many have reported; I am disappointed with
the battery life. As a test l used it for about 3 hours music and
radio, took 2 photos sent 2 texts and took 3 short phone calls,
about 2mins each. And the battery was down to one bar. I had made
a point of seeing it was full charged the night before ready for
a hard days test. Apparently this is normal as they only have 5hrs
talk time. Any other point’s l notice as l get used to it
l will update but for now l have to say l am happy with it. If l
can actually bear to part with K750 l have a few days left to decide.
Rating:
Reviewed by Joe O'Brien from UK on
21st Apr 2009
....haven't actually got the phone yet !! - it is arriving by post
tomorrow from O2. I'm really looking forward to having a play with
it. I had a choice between the Samsung tocco, Pixon, Soul, Nokia
5800, LG Viewty and Renoir. I stumped for the tocco ultra as I wanted
the touchscreen features but still wanted the slidy phone bit. I
also wanted a good camera with flash, sturdy design, an accelerometer
for rotating images and 3G for google maps. I've read some of the
reviews below and on other sites and a lot of the negative comments
about this phone and all samsungs seem to stem from the samsung
user interface which is pretty common (i have a D900i). Anyone moving
from Sony or Nokia to a Samsung will immediately disapprove of the
unnecessary steps required when texting. I'm afraid it takes some
getting used to. But given that my trusty D900i is still going after
3 years even after being dropped on concrete a dozen times, and
slobbered on by my 1 year old , I had to go for samsung again. Can
I say that once it arrives, the 1st thing I will do is READ THE
MANUAL! There are so many hidden features and tips in samsungs -
it pays to read the manual. One chap who reviewed his samsung was
having a go at the inability for it to text brackets character such
as ( ) {}. These are obtained after holding down * for 1 second.
Joe Rating:
Reviewed by Tique from England on
21st Apr 2009
rebelrickb - I have the phone on vodafone and also have the issue
with the date on the widget altho in my case it was a day ahead.
I have noticed once or twice that when using the alarm - and setting
it to only go off on weekdays, it gets the day wrong and the alarm
doesn't go off even if the day and date in the Time and Date settings
is correct - not sure if this is because the alarm is linked to
the widget. Regarding the battery life - it does get marginally
better after a few charges but yes it does go down quickly. Does
anyone know if there are any firmware updates for the phone yet? Rating:
Reviewed by Nige from GB on 21st
Apr 2009
Samsung tocco ultra one month old now and suffered two squech noise
problems. One wash during bad weather so though might be related,
but this week now the same, during good weather. the speaker makes
a loud squech noise for 10+ seconds. Any one else had this issue,
or know of a problem. Think I will contact Vodafone. Rating:
Reviewed by Sophia from uk on
20th Apr 2009
Really pleased! Rating:
Reviewed by Charlotte from England on
20th Apr 2009
Iv had this phone a few days now and im really impressed. I was
slightly concerned about getting this phone as my fingers aren't
fat but there certainly not thin but I find the touchscreen really
easy to use, iv even been texting using the touchscreen rather than
the keypad. In the box I got a cable for my computer and a memory
card which is good as with my last phone I had to go out and buy
both of these seperately. Overall i'm really happy :) Rating:
Reviewed by Gloria Leicester Fan from
UK on 19th Apr 2009
average - could be so much better, I can't use the touch screen
for the life of me, every time i get a message I have to spend 2
minuets trying to press the read button (on screen). Widget is annoying
and get in my way. Positive notes: camera is good, internet is good
Texting is a nightmare. Don't get a text package with this phone
as you won't use it. average rating. I am going to keep hold of
it for a while - I think, maybe. Rating:
Reviewed by Sarni from UK on
19th Apr 2009
After having the phone for 2 days - it was enough to convince me
that I didnt want it for another 18 months. The touch screen was
so slow to respond, if I got a text message the Widget would pop
out instead - believe me, Ive got slim finger tips! otherwise I
could be tapping on the screen and just *nothing* would happen.
It made me appreciate my previous Viewty screen so much more! I
was unable to create an 'event' for the alarm to go off every fortnight
(in calendar) - the only choice I had was daily, weekly, monthly
or annually - there was NO custom choice :(, another grind was that
everytime I got a text message it would save to my sim card and
I would have to manually put it on the phone memory - why cant they
have a setting to choice to do this for example you are given a
choice to save to sim or phone with new phone numbers?? Found it
difficult to backspace or find the underscore while browsing but
realised if you double tapped (eventually) you were able to enter
them in a new menu, another grind is why put all the sound settings
into different menus/drop down boxes? If I enter Normal profile
settings I want to be able to list all my incoming calls, alert
text, keypad tones in ONE list not by pressing other boxes/menus.
Didnt like that you cant able to 'insert a word' you have to start
putting the characters in and then press the 0 Key then after displaying
Samsungs alternative you can *then* Add a word....EVERYTHING IS
SO LONG WINDED! What I would say positive is the camera takes good
pictures...and thats it. Thank goodness the keypad light went so
quickly - I have now returned the item and have ordered a completely
different phone. Rating:
Reviewed by Sandra from UK on
18th Apr 2009
Had this phone 2 days and I absolutely hate it. Its such a lovely
looking phone, I like the camera, widget good idea.....and thats
it. After discovering how to stop the keypad annoying tone, my next
problem was the actual touch screen. I had a LG Viewty before and
it was perfect and responsive but this phone, you keep tapping,
pressing etc to select something and it gets the item below or above
or 90% does nothing. What also annoyed me when browsing I couldnt
use the underscore, the normal ?,.@+- etc were all easy except for
the underscore which is needed with my email address. I also wanted
to enter a re-occuring note every fortnight in my calender but could
only do every day, week, month,year etc - no option to set up as
custom. I wanted to luv it but the sound when talking to someone
on the phone sounded like I had them on speakerphone - it was all
tinny with all their background noise going on. I set up two email
accounts and one downloaded all my emails on the server (grr!) and
the other downloaded just my new emails. Everything just seems to
be long winded. Why cant they put in the profile settings the keypad
tones, text message tones and the ring tone - why put it all in
different drop boxes?? The final nail in the coffin was the keypad
lights not working....Ive sent it back and have changed phones.
Final verdict: if you want a phone just to call and not to text
then this is the phone for you! If you want to text, browse the
internet, want quick response then dont get this one! Rating:
Reviewed by rebelrickb from england
on 17th Apr 2009
is it just my tocco ultra on o2 or i`m I the only one to notice
that the date widget on the main screen is a day behind. For example
its saying thursday 17 apr 2009 when infact its friday 17 apr 2009.
And also only had 3 days and already had to charge it twice as its
gone completely flat. And ive not rang out at all only texted and
played around with it for a little while. Rating:
Reviewed by Warren Morris from Wales
on 17th Apr 2009
This phone has it all its definately as good as samsung say its
a stunning phone with loads of fab extras by far the best phone
i have ever had give it a whirl Rating:
Reviewed by Steven from UK on
17th Apr 2009
I don't believe it. They produce an excellent battery friendly energy
efficient LED screen, so what do they do? they fit a lower quality
(800mah) battery!! Battery life is therefore horrendous, when it
could have been very good had they stuck to an average quality (1000mah)
battery. Rating:
Reviewed by tom from UK on 17th
Apr 2009
ive just ended my 18 long months contract with my motorola razr2
v9 and upgraded to this beauty for £60 on a £30 contract with three
any ways i have owned so many phones in the past such as samsung
soul sonyericsson c902 and samsung tocco and belive me there are
alot more but i was a little bit weary of [ purchaseing this handset
as i didnt really like the tocco i thaught the menus were slugish
and just unadaptable but with this beauty its so streamlined it
can be a bit slugish in places like in contacts and settings menu
but i think a firmware update will sort this out i love the camera
i have never seen photos look so good well except on the sony ericsson
c905 but this is in a diffrent leuge to that thats another story
any ways the screen on this baby is indescribable its like HD or
something any ways go buy one its worth every penny Rating:
Reviewed by su from uk on 16th
Apr 2009
I love it so far and got it free last week on a 24 month contract
at 25 quid a month with unlimited landline and 1000 txts and 600
mins fab 10 quid cheaper than my previous tariff and with the same
company. Look around and threaten to leave ur existing. Saying that
how do you change the message alert?? Rating:
Reviewed by Georgina "Pips" A from UK
on 16th Apr 2009
People are making out this phone is terrible when it really isn't.
Texting is not that difficult. YES you must be aware of the fact
that there is no back space on the keypad and only on screen however
dont make mistakes you silly billy it will be a lot easier. NO the
keypad is not too small you just have extremely large fingers. The
phone can act unresponsive at times but this is due to the oversensitive
screen. The music which comes out of the phone is quite however
the c905 has better sound quality. The phone all in all is a nice
little machine, it's battery life is ok could with improving. the
c905 is this phones many competitor but there are many glitches
with the phone and there is sometimes a problem with the software.
However, if you are going to buy a phone be aware that there are
always going to be glitches. This is the first touch screen, and
keypad phone that has an 8 megapixel camera (which is also good
quality may i add).... For a 16 year old girl i think that the review
i wrote is pretty good lol Rating:
Reviewed by Adam from UK on 16th
Apr 2009
If you are looking to buy or upgrade to this phone, please be aware
that yes it is a nice looking hand set, and it does have a superior
camera, But the User interface is not as friendly or intuitive as
one would like, at the current stage of play 16/04/09 there are
very few additional Widgets available for download, The phones browser
speed is nippy. and the screen is sensitive and becomes easier to
use over time. All in all this phone is like Driving : slow to start
with as you learn : but with practice comes speed and a honed technique. Rating:
Reviewed by Kirsty from UK on
15th Apr 2009
Texting, as everyone else has noted, is the biggest problem. It's
not a phone-specific problem though, all Samsungs have the same
format which just is not user-friendly. If you're used to Samsungs
you'll no doubt be fine but Sony Ericssons are so much better and
easier to use (I wanted to upgrade to the SE C905 but I couldn't
ignore it's shocking reviews!) I like the slide out keypad (not
got on brilliantly with the touch-screen one, seems faffy) as it's
a good size. The widgets I found a little strange at first but after
some instore advice I've got the hang of it. The touch screen is
easy to use and you can scroll up or down using the volume key on
the side which is useful (although easy to hit accidently whilst
texting - yet another gripe!) using the phone outside is difficult
as you can barely see anything on the screen (easily resolved by
putting your hand over the phone but then you look very secretive
...) the lack of a zoom function on the camera feels like a bit
of an oversight given how good it is (my old SE 902 had that!).
So yeah it's not perfect but then no phone is these days. I haven't
tried to 101 functions of music, radio, internet, etc etc as I mainly
use my phone for pictures, texts and calls so I can't comment on
these. I am happy with my phone although it has taken me a while
to get used to it. Battery life is good and it seems fairly durable
(having already hit the floor at speed on two occasions!) It's very
stylish and feels well made (no problems yet, let's hope I haven't
jinxed it!) Rating:
Reviewed by Tony from UK on 15th
Apr 2009
Very good looking quality feeling phone. Excellent camera. Thats
where the good points end. Not the easiest to text on make a mistake
good luck ! It has already been mentioned no scroll back what a
nightmare ! Shame really because I really wanted to keep it and
gave it every chance but now the phone is boxed up ready for collection. Rating:
Reviewed by martin from england on
14th Apr 2009
Some of these other reviewers have summed it up. If you text at
all don't bother getting this phone. If you are used to nokia on
SE then you will hate it. Not being able to scroll back through
your text to edit words is a massive draw back. You can tap on the
part of the text you wish to edit but good luck with that! Also
viewing received texts is a hassle as you need to tap a number of
times on the view button before it opens. Everything else about
the phone is pretty good but if they had only added a qwerty keypad
like on older versions or added a joystick or something similar
instead of the back button it would be fine. Rating:
Reviewed by arni from england on
13th Apr 2009
quality styling and build, brilliant combination of touch and keypad
with a super camera. all round very very decent phone, shame about
thee battery though could have done much better.... Rating:
Reviewed by sebulon from namibia on
12th Apr 2009
phone too ligth,looks just too girly Rating:
Reviewed by sarah from England on
12th Apr 2009
I really love the tocco ultra , i've only had it for 1 week and
it's doing a great job and is really easy to use!! xx Rating:
Reviewed by Donna Meikle from Scotland
on 10th Apr 2009
Got this phone on the release date as an upgrade to the Omnia. First
impressions was tht is looked great, very slim but txting is a nightmare!!
U cant get a comma whilst txting with the keypad! And the keypad
is too small to begin with! I've send the phone back and I'm currently
looking for an alternative. One thing I did like was the option
to change the font. Rating:
Reviewed by Han from uk on 9th
Apr 2009
Just got this phone today as a free vodafone upgrade. I love it!
I did my research before choosing and this was the one I felt would
stay up-to-date the most, especially on an 18 month contract. It’s
not a business phone, but more for those who like gadgets and a
fashionable phone. After wanting something that resembled the technology
of an iphone, I would say this is pretty close, if not better because
it isn’t as bulky. The phone is light and thin but still has
a large screen. The phone is stylish in black and red. The display
is really clear and it has loads of gadgets to play on. I really
like the widget feature but it also has fm radio, mp3 player, fast
internet, gps etc! I previously had a Sony Ericsson K800i, so compared
with that it is definitely more modern! I’m loving the new
technology! It takes a bit of getting used to if you've never owned
a touch screen before, which is why I like the fact it also has
a key pad. This is useful for texting if you find touch screen a
nuisance. It is easy to use with the computer. I just plugged it
in via usb and moved music onto it, very simple. In the box it came
with 1gb memory, memory adapter, charger, usb cable, head phones
and hands free kit. The instructions aren’t as clear as I’d
like them to be but it’s more a case of getting used to it.
After playing on it for a while I soon found my way around. The
8 mega pixel camera is excellent! You don’t have to lug your
digital camera around on nights out etc coz it’s nearly the
same quality! It’s a very neat, fashioable and modern phone
and I definitely recommend it! Rating:
Reviewed by charlie from uk on
9th Apr 2009
Just a great phone. Call quality is outstanding, look and feel of
phone is great. I was very dissapointed with the built in browser,
but 2 clicks and opera mini is installed and looks and works like
a charm. I find texting using the touch screen to be simple and
straightforward. Camera is superb. I appreciate megapixels aren't
everything, but the photos I've taken are nearly on a par with my
nikon slr. It's amazing how upset people get about a few texting
quirks. :( Rating:
Reviewed by luke from Nothern Ireland
on 8th Apr 2009
the phone is rubish Rating:
Reviewed by adam from uk on 7th
Apr 2009
I love it having had sony ericssons for about my last 5 fones i
started with a t610 or something then had the chunky one that rotates
:P so i was abit weary about getting a samsung being 17 i love it
had it 3 hours quick net good camera decent music ok it is a bit
of a pain to do some things but its good none the less only annoying
thing is my fonebook is screwed :P Rating:
Reviewed by Gary from UK on 7th
Apr 2009
Indeed, if you are an old-skool maverick and use mobiles for anything
as querky as 'calling people', ‘texting’ or 'browsing
the web' all are very hard work: Backspacing - it takes 4/5 attempts
to get the curser to land where you want (having to use the touchscreen),
especially if you need it to land in-between letters. So it’s
actually quicker to slog through deleting a whole word and write
it again. Same is true if you just need to change the capitalisation
of a word – whereas other handsets allow you to do this scrolling
through cap’s options on an existing word - not even having
to replace that letter. As for the predictive text functions, I’ve
found my way around them now… OMG is this normal for Samsung!?
The custom dictionary has really limited punctuation range: not
including ‘ or _ for example. This is a pain for many things
like on-line form filling. On my old SE K800i I’d put my email
address in the dictionary and would write (using predictive): [G]
[A] [R] [Y] (predictive list would pop up) [button down] (to pick
my email address from the predictive list) [o] to select That’s
just 6 keystrokes on the same keypad. With this handset I have do
the following each and every time: [G] [A] [R] [Y] [@] to access
punctuation [_] [T] to go back to text [X] [X] [X] [X] [X] [O] to
scroll through predictive [@] to access punctuation [_] [T] to go
back to text [X] [X] [X] [X] [X] [X] [X] [X] [X] [@] to access punctuation
[@] [T] to go back to text [Y] [A] [H] [O] [O] [O] to scroll through
predictive [@] to access punctuation [.] [T] to go back to text
[C] [O] [@] to access punctuation [.] [T] to go back to text [U]
[K] That's an eye-bleeding, finger-numbing, whopping 47 keystrokes...
and repositioning of hands 6 times between the keyboarded and touch
screen above. I’ve tried saving my email address in the dictionary
without the underscores. But it’s equally frustrating trying
to get the curser to land in just the right place (having to use
the touch screen) to add the underscores. In the browser you can’t
scroll through predictive text options you have to hit a drop down,
scroll and then click to select. To get to the text screen you have
to click through twice and click a drop down and selected again,
and often click again, to get out. I’ve hardly sent any texts
since I got the phone, or done much on-line. I keep trying but it’s
just too much hassle. Perhaps this is a phone that people rave about
because it’s got a pretty 'screen saver' with pretty little
'widgets' that can following your finger round the screen like a
loyal little puppy dogs. But, frankly, it’s a pain in the
rear to use when it comes to the most basic functions... Rating:
Reviewed by Propeller head from UK on
7th Apr 2009
HI, i had this phone last week as an Upgrade from vodafone and all
although the actual quality of construction is OK the rest of it
requires a lot to be desired, for one it was described as the best
of both worlds!! touch and key pad, well there is an irony to this
because you cannot complete even the most simple task with out requiring
both, and even when texting you have to clumsily jump from screen
to pad and this is the same for most things, the whole user interface
only feels half finished and very frustrating, if you press the
back button on the touch screen three times while slowly texting
(no querty keyboard?) you will lose what you have written so far,
after about 6 times of this happening and the call clarity being
very poor i have now returned mine in exchange for the Nokia 5800
which is about 10 times better. If you compare this to most of the
other touch screen offerings from all the phone manufactures its
specifications look impressive but the whole does not live up to
the sum of the parts. Plus Points = Good build quality Minus points
= No Wifi, poor call quality, clumsy user interface, poor image
quality for a 8Mpg camera, no third party software. Conclusion,
this phone fells more like an experiment to see if it could be achieved
than a finished product, just a gimmick and not very user friendly
at all. Rating:
Reviewed by Sabrina from England on
6th Apr 2009
I got this phone as an upgrade on Orange on Friday. It's a great
phone with lots of gadgets. I really wanted it because it allowed
me to have a touch screen phone and still have a proper keypad as
well as I wasn't sure how I was going to take to a touchscreen phone.
It turned out the keypad was actually quite annoying for texting
as you need to press the buttons quite hard to get them to work,
plus to delete a letter you had to go back to the touch screen anyway.
The other reason I wanted it was because I loved that it had divx
support as I loved the fact I could just put my downloaded films
and tv shows straight on the phone without having to convert them.
I put a few different avi videos on there and most of them played
well, others were a bit jumpy but overall the picture was great
and I loved that aspect of the phone. The camera was good but have
nothing to compare it to, so can't say how it shapes up against
other 8MP camera phone. When on the phone, the call clarity was
fine, not as good as my previous phone, but no problems. I still
decided to send the phone back to Orange today. My last 3 phones
were all Sony Ericssons so I am used to their brilliant predictive
text. The main thing I do on the phone are texting and using the
web browser for Facebook, Twitter, Email etc and as great as the
gadgets of the phones are, if the basics don't work (or not the
way I like them) then it's no use. It's little things like when
you enter a word with predictive text and choose the third option
possible it's all good, but if you need to add a comma or a dot
it will revert back to the first option, which was really annoying,
so you had a add a space, delete it and then add the comma afterwards.
It annoyed me that the browser wouldn't remember any of my passwords,
so each time I went onto facebook etc, I had to log in from scratch.
Installed Opera Mini and that took care of that though, so if like
me you use facebook and twitter quite a lot, forget the installed
browser, at least for those sites, and use opera mini instead. Battery
life isn't great though. Yesterday I spent about 15 minutes on the
phone, sent a few texts and watched half an episode of Lost and
the battery was down to one bar at 6pm when I only took it off the
charger at 9am that morning. If you design a phone with Divx support
you must expect people to wanna watch films on there, but I think
if you watch a whole film on a train journey somewhere, you're battery
is going to be completely wiped by the end of the film. But it is
still a very good phone. Would give it 5 stars even though it isn't
really for me, but the weak battery makes me wanna take a star off.
If you are used to Samsung's predictive text you are going to love
this phone, if you're not, it might be a bit annoying. And for me,
that, coupled with the weak battery, was reason enough to send it
back. Rating:
Reviewed by Tique from England on
6th Apr 2009
Andyman - how do you get the left handed settings please? Also am
I right when I say below there is no animation support in text messages?
I still can't find it. Also disapointed there is no option for a
QWERTY keyboard or use the phone on its side for texting - this
might give one more room to type. Having used it for over a week,
my major gripe is still the absence of a scroll back button (other
than delete) can't see how they could change this in a firmware
update sadly so stuck with that I guess. Rating:
Reviewed by Sandra from UK on
6th Apr 2009
Got this phone as an upgrade from Vodafone. Never had a Samsung
before so thought I would give it a go. Found the phone OK, did
not like the text facility but the main problem is that it keeps
switching itself off. No pattern to this it just randomly turns
off. So not impressed at all and will be arranging to send it back
today. Rating:
Reviewed by Jim from UK on 6th
Apr 2009
Got this three days after it came out from O2 as an upgrade (free).
Good points Design is lovely, feeels very high quality, call quality
was excellent, VERY good quality camera and video recorder. 'Poor
point' Nothing major, BUT, not as easy to text on as a nokia, this
seems to go for all samsung handsets. No Googlemaps even though
advertised as 'navigation'. Widgets are gimmicks until things like
facebook and or eBay turn up. Touch screen very nice but still not
an ipod touch! Get it as a fashion icon, but if you want the list
of features it claims, you will have to get a smart phone. Rating:
Reviewed by Alison from UK on
5th Apr 2009
Received this as upgrade on friday, have to say loved the look of
it, the reality on first use though was a bit dissapointing, found
the UI confusing but this could have been because I have been used
to the Nokia interface. Having now played around with it for a couple
of days, am starting to find my way around and beginning to love
it! The screen quality is really first class, very vibrant and bright.
The colours stand out. The touchscreen is mostly responsive to the
touch, occasionally seems not to respond till you touch it again,
but not frustratingly. The one thing that did initially drive me
nuts was the noise everytime you touch something on the screen,
couldnt find a way of turning this off at first. Am not used to
Samsung phones and even my husband who has the G600 couldnt work
this out at first. Anyway we have figured it out and its actually
quite simple, was just a case of finding where it was. The handset
is very slim, and well crafted, looks cool in its black and red
trim. Have not had a chance to try out all the functions yet, but
first call I recieved was from my son who had just landed in Hong
Kong and the call was crystal clear. I have used it for texting,
and like the choice of fonts. No problems there. The ring tone is
loud, have not as yet downloaded any music, comes with a 1gb card.
Like widgets, think they add to the functionality, drag and drop
works well. Played with the camera today, looks good on the phone,
again have not had the opportunity to transfer to PC.Overall I think
this is a very good mobile, its not quite a smartphone but not far
off it! Rating:
Reviewed by skamph from uk on
4th Apr 2009
This phone is pretty cool. Am not especially loyal to any particular
brand, having had nokia, sony, motorola, samsung etc over the years,
but have to say am so far pretty impressed with this one. If you
are used to Samsung phones then the way the messaging works is no
surprise and I've never found that to be much of a problem. Have
no problem with its predictive text, or the onscreen keyboard (you
just gotta get used to how it works). Overall I would rate it as
a 5, but still playing with the menu's etc - so yet to decide if
it deserves outstanding. If you're considering whether to go with
this or not - best thing you can do is go to a store and have a
play. Rating:
Reviewed by David from Scotland on
4th Apr 2009
Amazing phone I just got it from orange and its much better than
my LG Viewty...however be warned it costs me £146.50 to upgrade
on orange with a £35 contract. A tad pricey in my opinion but a
great phone none the less. Rating:
Reviewed by anon from uk on 3rd
Apr 2009
AMAZING AMZING AMAZING Rating:
Reviewed by Stephen from England on
2nd Apr 2009
Firstly, this phone looks and feels solidly built and weighs in
at (a hefty) 122 grams. Switching on, the screen looks stunning.
The colours are really vibrant and images crystal clear. The touch
screen is responsive and easy to navigate with a little practice.
Navigating the menus is relatively straightforward also. The camera
is excellant and has loads of settings in which to play with. MP3
and radio quality are all top notch and easy to use. As this is
first and foremost a phone, making calls is a slight chore. Far
too many (seemingly pointless) options. Sometimes less is more Samsung.
Quality of the earpiece is slighty disappointing. It often sounds
like the person is on the other side of the planet. Texting is the
worst part of using this phone. Using the mechanical keys is like
getting a workout for your fingers. They are very heavy to press
and for some unknown reason, the delete key appears on the touch
screen. This makes rapid texting very difficult. Using the touch
screen for texting is slightly better but by no means perfect. If
you have big fingers then the whole task becomes frustrating. And
as previously posted, the extra step needed to send your (eventually)
completed text is totally unnecessary. Also of note is that occasionally,
after adding a full stop, the phone alters the prior word eg "amazing."
becomes "coaxing." Hopefully Samsung will provide firmware updates,
for those who are keeping this handset. With a few tweaks, this
could be a very good handset, but I won't be holding my breath so
mine is heading back to O2. Rating:
Reviewed by DJ Gordon from Israel on
1st Apr 2009
Except for the fact that there's no zooming in the camera, and the
speaker is rediculously weak, this is by far the best phone i have
ever earned by far. best mp3 sound quality, best design, best camera
quality and the touchpad is awesome. highly recomended Rating:
Reviewed by Cheryl from England on
1st Apr 2009
This phone has had a massive impact on my life. Mainly making me
think that my what I believed to be relatively normal sized fingers,
are in fact the size of sausages!! Although a nice looking phone,
unless you have pins for fingers even the simplest of functions
become a chore after accidently pressing the wrong option half a
dozen times with your chunky digits!! Texting is a nightmare and
the earlier review by Tique pretty much covers it all for me.I was
unsure about pre ordering this phone and really wanted to love it
when it arrived but after 5 days its being parceled up and returned
to Vodafone with my love! Rating:
Reviewed by Andyman from Scotland on
1st Apr 2009
I think this is a great phone and if you spend time looking at the
options (like left hand right hand settings) you'll discover how
good it is. For me the first phone in years I can say outstanding
about. Rating:
Reviewed by Gary from England on
1st Apr 2009
I got this phone for my wife as an upgrade on o2. She was a bit
wary of the touch screen at the begining but after 1 day she was
fine with it, i've tried to nick it off her but she wont have so
i will have to stick with my i8510. Rating:
Reviewed by Fran from England on
1st Apr 2009
I got this phone with vodafone and I think its really good! The
screen is good quality and the keypad is good for those who do not
like touchscreen. The graphics are excellent and playing music on
it has a good sound quality too. The only bad thing about it is
that the touchscreen can be a bit annoying when viewing pictures. Rating:
Reviewed by Anna from Scotland on
31st Mar 2009
I have had this phone for a few days now and after being a little
wary about buying another Samsung (had D900 and found it so annoying
to use) I have been really enjoying it. After getting used to where
functional buttons are when in different apps, the phone is easy
to use. Touch screen takes very little getting used to also. Camera
is brilliant - so many different things to do with photos bringing
endless fun. Only slight niggle is the amount of options you have
to go through to send a text. Had been a little worried about viewing
photos, videos etc as I had a sony ericsson k850i before and loved
how photos which were saved on phone could be viewed along with
photos saved to the memory card. This is not the case but it is
still very quick to view and they can be moved from phone to memory
card quickly and easily. This along with the "photo browser" app
which shows all photos on the phone make this something which isn't
even really worth mentioning. The phone is top notch, really funky
and easy to use. Rating:
Reviewed by Tique from England on
31st Mar 2009
EDIT: I have now found that you CAN change the message alert tone
but it's not too easy to find. Its in the drop down menu in the
top corner of the Profile screen. One other thing (with texting
again!) is the phone doesn't seem to support animations in text
messages - unless I've missed that too. Rating:
Reviewed by Dennis from England on
29th Mar 2009
I have owned this phone for less than a day and have already decided
to return it. Why? Many reasons really. Firstly the phone lock button
is a real pain. Especially if your left handed. It took up to 5
attempts to unlock, not a good start eh! The touch screen is i think
worse than the lg kf700. The lg being a year old should not have
a superior feel to it. Playing with the photos you have taken is
a tedious affair. Whilst photo quality was good, it is not in the
same league as the sony ericsson c905. This is a phone that tries
hard but falls down when doing the basics like picking your ring
tone and message alerts. Very slow and not much choice either. Just
not worthy of the hype at all. Oh whilst i did say the camera was
decent enough it is awkward to use with the slide open, and because
of its slim chassis it does not feel secure in the hand. Look past
the hype before you committ is my best advise. The nokia 5800 or
the prada 2 whilst having lower spec in some (a few) departments
offer a much nicer and fluid user experience. Rating:
Reviewed by Tique from England on
29th Mar 2009
I got this phone yesterday and to be honest it's simple things like
texting that are driving me nuts already. The whole text messaging
experience is painful. Starting at the beginning - when you tap
on 'add recipient' it doesn't bring up the most recently used contacts
straightaway, it brings up a menu, on which one of the options is
'recent contacts' - that's an extra unnecessary button press if,
like me, you mainly send texts to the same few people most of the
time. That's only a minor gripe tho I guess. When you go to input
your text data, for some totally inexplicable reason the default
when using T9 is to begin with lower case - like you want to start
a sentence in lower case!!! So you have to change that every time
before you start typing a text which is damn annoying. Once you
start typing, whatever you do don't make a mistake because there
is no scroll back key on either the touch screen or the keyboard
other than the backspace delete on the touchscreen. So if you notice
you made an error in the middle of your text, you have to try and
press on the word in question on the touch screen and use the delete
back space. This is nigh on impossible even if you have matchsticks
for fingers and takes ages to get the cursor where you want it to
make the change. The major selling point of this phone is that it
has a keyboard and touch screen for those people that aren't sure
which they prefer. Except the ONLY backspace delete button is on
the touch screen and is located some distance from the keyboard.
This means it is practically impossible to use the keyboard one
handed for texting. The backspace delete button is also located
directly above the space bar button on the touch screen and so you
often hit the wrong one. Oh and there's no QWERTY keyboard option
on the touch screen either which is a pity. The keyboard is not
the greatest in the world either and the buttons need quite a firm
press making quick texting difficult. Another issue with texting
is that there is only one option for the tone when you receive a
text and you can't alter the volume independently of the call ringtone
volume - another silly omission. The phone looks and feels great
and the camera and MP3 player etc are all decent (no 3mm headphone
socket though) but it's simple things that are going to make this
phone very hard to live with - and the annoying thing is that I
can't take the thing back as Vodafone don't do exchanges except
for faulty handsets, so I'm stuck with this for 18 months! I hope
some software updates come out to improve things but not sure how
they can get around the lack of a scroll back button the absence
of which is madness. Rating:
Reviewed by Paul from England on
28th Mar 2009
Had the phone for 1 day now and I have to say I'm really quite impressed.
The only 2 issues I have are, the quiet ringing start (it gets louder
after a few seconds) and there appears to be a software glitch with
puts a 'no events' alert window on the screen at start-up, however
this can be moved to the slide widget and hidden. Both of these
issues may be rectifiable and I imagine when I get used to the phone,
I'll be in a better position to judge it's performance. Anyway,
on first impressions... probably the best mobile I've owned to date.
Get one! Rating:
Reviewed by george from england on
21st Mar 2009
i jus dont feel it is worth the money i paid and i recomend the
samsung pixon Rating:
Reviewed by ben from england on
17th Mar 2009
Looks are anazing and the technology is even better Rating:
Reviewed by thomas steven pipkin from
scotland on 15th Mar 2009
this fone is actually very good had a little play on my friends
and its very good but i will not be getting it for a while because
i have the lg cookie and ive had no problems with that but this
phone is definetly worth the money Rating:
Reviewed by andy from uk on 14th
Mar 2009
this phone is the best phone i have ever owned!!!! Rating:
