Samsung Tocco F480 Review

Overall Rating

Clear ringtone sound, sharp and bright screen, leather screen/battery cover, Gaelic/Irish language support (first phone to do so by default), excellent functional design and build quality

Slow UI, widgets broken and practically useless, sub-par camera quality nowhere near the quoted specs, bad call audio quality, poor JPEG image handling, lack of video ringtones, slow Bluetooth data transfer, only simple application support, terrible camera flash, not-so-great t9, lack of QWERTY, lack of screen orientation sensing, high price for what is essentially a beta product that should not have made it to market

Replaced my Sony Ericsson K800i with this phone. I regret it. The Carphone Warehouse guy who sold it to me (instead of the Soul) told me that it was a unique phone that not many people would buy (a major selling point for me - nokia 6260 anyone?), but within the month everybody and their dog had one.

That aside, the phone isn't bad at what it does, but it does have some serious faults. The early firmware is totally broken. At that stage the phone was really a beta for the Omnia, and once that came out, Samsung basically said "What Tocco?". No apps. Sluggish OS. Unable to open JPEG images of larger than 100DPI, no matter how small. Even my free, obviously-cheaply-made Skype mobile that came with my 3 3g modem can do better than that. The 5mp camera takes blurry, 2mp resolution photos but at a 5mp size - and, as part of a point I'll bring up later, the phone's UI sometimes has trouble opening and displaying images it captured in its own image viewer, quoting "Image too large". A terrible LED flash that illuminates everything a glaring, unflatteringly bright blue. Blaring sound out of the speaker in calls, meaning I have to ask everyone to repeat themselves because "how are you" comes out as an incomprehensible wall of noise. Also, when in Silent mode, if the battery is low it vibrates with a serious force for a good two seconds every five minutes. Incredibly annoying, and, in my opinion, undoes all the work done to conserve the battery by the equally infuriating "no media" low-battery lockout. That's right, if the battery's low, the phone will not allow you to view any images or videos or use the camera. Useless.

Also, coming from a K800i, the complete lack of video ringtones is a serious turnoff. There are people who use them. I miss having my favourite TV show's opening video coming from my screen when it rang...

Having said that, the screen is nice and sharp, and fonts are easy to read and clear. Haptic feedback is superb, an excellent idea. A QWERTY keyboard would be nice, but I only have trouble with the t9 board when I'm just after waking up. The layout isn't the best, but most of the problems I have here are just bad co-ordination on my part. I've had none of the problems other users have reported with dropping calls, late texts or bad signal: I get an excellent UTMS signal almost 90% of the time. Internet speed is great at 7.2Mbps, no complaints here. And the second battery cover that comes in the box, which comes complete with a leather cover affixed to it to protect the screen, is a wonderful and welcome addition. The Tocco was also the first phone to support the Gaelic/Irish language, although this is of no use to me being English in Ireland and having never learned or spoken the language. (To those buying the phone in Ireland who, like me, do not speak the language, be warned - it is set to the default, making first-time menu navigation near impossible unless you can blindly hunt around.)

The Bluetooth could also use work. Once more coming from a K800i and a Nokia 6260 (which didn't have Bluetooth 2.0EDR+ as far as I know) with transfer speeds of about 50Kb/s, the 25-30Kb/s BT transfers on the Tocco are disappointing.

Overall, I would not recommend this phone to smartphone or high-end phone users. I am very disappointed with the Tocco's performance in this area.