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Samsung has mastered the art of the slide phone. Handsets like the i8510 and F400 have shown it knows how much spring to add, how to balance the phone in the hand whether it’s open or shut and, most importantly, where to position the camera.
This is all bodes well for the Tocco Ultra Edition, which adds a regular keypad to its touchscreen predecessor. By giving you the option of dialling on the capacitive display or busting out the fetching red keypad, it’s hoping to appeal to everyone.
Super-sharp screen
The 2.8in screen certainly makes a good first impression. It’s of the AMOLED variety, which makes it bright, pin-sharp and vivid.
Naturally, video playback looks great, but the display is also handy for framing shots from the 8MP camera, which is tucked away behind the slide.
Mixed camera bag
The camera itself is a mixed affair. On the plus side, shutter lag is minimal and there are some advanced camphone features like anti-shake and ‘blink detection’ to make sure your subject doesn’t look like they’re sleep-walking.
It’s also easy to upload images to the sites of your choice, like Flickr, Facebook and Picasa, thanks to the option of presetting sites for instant uploads.
Sadly, though, there’s no Xenon flash, though like the i8510 you do get a dual LED light which does help illuminate things a little up to a couple of metres. Video recording is also a fairly standard 640x480 at 30 frames per second – not exactly in the same league as the Omnia HD.
Widget, it’s got a widget
Like the original Tocco, the Ultra Edition has the Samsung widgets sidebar hidden just offscreen. Tap the screen and the stripe slides on with its easy access to icons for the music player, calendar and other options. Swipe them on to the main screen and they'll take up residence there.
You can even display or hide the network operator name this way. It works well, particularly with the haptic feedback to greet your every touch, though some may prefer the conventional menu screen.
Curious interface
Below the touchscreen are three buttons – the usual ‘start’ and ‘end’ call and then, curiously, a ‘go back’ button. It’s where you’d expect to find a direction pad, so takes some getting used to.
Samsung has also squeezed in a GPS receiver, though it’s disappointing to see that it couldn’t also find room for a 3.5mm headphone jack and Wi-Fi. The Tocco Ultra Edition might not be a smartphone, but these are fairly standard toys for a multimedia mobile.
In the end, the Ultra Edition inhabits a similar space to its predecessor – not quite innovative or accomplished enough to worry the iPhone, but a solid enough alternative if you’re looking for a touch-phone with a capable camera and a healthy smattering of widgets.
Comments
racking
1 year ago
s good and very difficult to bend. Beam connects with upright by connector.
racking and shelving
The connection is reliable and easy to disassemble. There is safety pins in the upright frame, which can protect the beam from jump out by forklift. All the surface of pallet racking is acid wash, phosphating and so on.. It’s suitable for big warehouse and logistic center.
stevehp
2 years ago
Dire phone - does what it likes, goes on internet when you put it in your pocket, tocuh screen fiddly, autotext comes up with starnge defaults ood for one! Had Samsung before... maybe not when contract is finally up
Cole26
3 years ago
I upgraded to this phone from the Tocco. I absolutely love this phone to bits. The camera is excellent, with or without the flash and the widgets just make everything so much easier because it saves you having to navigate through the entire menu. A great time saving phone. The touch screen does take getting used to but once I got used to it I found everything, especially predictive texting, was fantastic. For those who were annoyed with the punctuation mark issue (T9 changes the word etc) select the word you want from the drop down list and then add your punctuation. Still very quick and easy once you realise this! This phone is very light, slim and fits in my jeans pocket brilliantly I sometimes forget its there! The only thing that let me down was the battery life but that was remedied by turning off the phone sounds and vibration (which I dont like anyway). The one thing I think this phone could've done without was the slide out key pad. Its hard to hold the phone and text with it all in one hand. Overall, for people who arent sure about touch screen phones shouldnt get this phone unless they're willing to learn and get to grips with it. A much better version than its predicessor the Tocco. A fantastic phone!
BenMehigan
3 years ago
After just getting this phone 3 days ago, i am so far pleasantly surprised. Unboxed, the Tocco Ultra looks great with the red keypad. And turning it on for the first time to reveal that screen is brilliant. Sharp and crisp it really shows colour well. The widgets at first seem laggy to scroll through but soon pick up and become smooth. The main menu seems easy enough with only slight lag when opening settings or music player. Overall the touch screen works well enough. Texting can be a hassle, sometimes changing a full stop to a question mark or other symbol ends up changing the whole word. Hmm. But otherwise the mix between keypad and touch screen is a great way to save time. the camera is great on the Ultra, the 8 mp is clearly better than the previous c905 i had, and the ability to shoot in slow-mo is also amusing. Overall its a good phone, with strong camera and interface, and it looks great. touch screen can be slightly annoying in (very) rare cases, but works well enough.
trinity85
4 years ago
i just upgraded to the samsung tocco ultra, and although its larger than some of the phones i have had before its a rather nice looking phone. its easy to navigate and the widget feature comes in handy if u dont wish to go into the proper menu. camera is better than previous phones i have had and the geotagging feature is good if u belong the groups it sends to. bad points i would have to say is its quite heavy and if using the internet it doesnt respond too well on the touch screen when pressing a small link. also the only preloaded games are demos lasting a minute each. overall its a nice looking phone with some useful features but could have been doing with better more responsive software.
AJL44
4 years ago
The only thing I liked about this phone is that it's slim and looks quite nice.It's now packed up ready to send back to O2 and will be changed for an Eriksson C905 The single biggest problem I have with it is that the text facility is very fiddly and unnecessarily complicated. When composing a message the word you are writing is always highlighted so when you want to change a full stop to a question mark, for instance, you end up changing the whole word. There is no facility on the keys to skip back through the word to change a letter or two, you have to touch the screen at the point you want it to go back to which invaraiably means you get it wrong several times before the cursor gets to the right place. Additionally, it dosen't seem to save muliti-media messages - they just disappear after you have read them, for some reason. The touch screen is immensely annoying. If you touch it while opening it (which you often do) it keeps bringing that stupid widget out when it's not needed. The widget is just pointless anyway and lends nothing to the phone, in my opinion. Also, it's not that responsive, sometimes requiring two or three touches to activate a particular feature. Don't even think about using it in any remotely sunny conditions because the display just disappears. Is an anti-reflective coating too much to ask for? The camera seemed okay until I tried to take a pic with the flash. The camera simply dosen't work with flash - all the pics come out blurred, for some reason. The phone will not sync it's contacts with O2 Bluebook, either. Looks nice though.