Samsung Tocco Lite review

Samsung has handsets littered all over the mobile phone spectrum from 8-megapixel toting behemoths to slight and simple mobiles for those whose preference is just to make calls.

The Tocco Lite is the third handset in the Tocco lineup, following on from the Tocco F480 and, more recently, the Tocco Ultra. Its main role is to bring touchscreens out of the realms of fantasy for those on a limited budget.

Our review sample came from Virgin Mobile where it can be had for a rather impressively low nothing-at-all on an 18-month £12 contract. On Pay As You Go it’ll set you back £130.

Now, for that kind of money you clearly aren’t going to get close to the behemoth end of the Samsung spectrum. And some serious corners have been cut in the specifications department. For example, the camera shoots at 3.2 megapixels which we’d say is pretty much mid-range these days. Furthermore the handset eschews 3G plumping instead for a rather less speedy quad-band GSM with GPRS.

While the former might be something you learn to live with quite readily, the latter may grate for a long time. Of course, it depends on what kind of user you are. But an all-screened, touch sensitive, Samsung Widget toting handset seems to us to cry out to be used for multimedia rich stuff like Web browsing. Think carefully before taking the plunge as browsing over slow old GPRS is not fun. There is no Wi-Fi, either.

As far as look and feel goes, the Tocco Ultra is a winner, if a predictable one. Black and silver chassis, all touch-screen front with three buttons under the screen. These are Call, End and Back. The touchscreen has the rest of the buttons you’ll need on a row along its bottom end. On the main screen these get you to the numberpad, contacts and main menu. What they offer varies when you are in apps.

The Tocco Lite is, er, light at just 92g. This is a function of its relatively small overall size - 106mm x 53.5mm x 11.9mm. The screen, then, can’t be particularly big, though at 3-inches across diagonal corners it is big enough. Its 240 x 400 pixels aren’t massively expansive, but they do very well and the screen is sharp and bright.

We’ve already mentioned the Widgets. Samsung has, as it likes to do with its touchscreened handsets, implemented three main screens that you can flip through with a finger-swipe. All three can be filled with Widgets dragged over from a sidebar. Some are even able to get info over the air, so you can have up to date weather or link right into Facebook or MySpace or pop over to YouTube. Others give you access to on-device controls such as music playback, an in to your contacts list and photos.

We love this system, but Samsung needs to do a bit more thinking before we’d say it is perfect. The main problem is that widget icons are large and there is only room for about three on a screen at once. That’s annoying when there are so many that are potentially useful. Even simply being able to resize them down so they are an appropriate size for your own fingers would be a step forward.

There is another problem specifically with the YouTube link. It simply shouldn’t be there. Using YouTube on a phone without 3G is a very disappointing experience with jerky, unwatchable video the order of the day. Its presence as a Widget is a constant reminder of the absence of 3G!

If you are into SMS the Tocco Light’s various methods of text input will appeal. An accelerometer turns the screen as you swivel the phone in your hand, and in wide mode there is a full QWERTY keyboard with predictive text if you want it. In tall mode there is just a number pad as there’s no space for a full QWERTY system. But there is also handwriting recognition. Frankly we found we had to work so slowly with this that it is redundant. Unless you like scraping at the screen with a fingernail, real slow, of course.

Consisdering this is a relatively low-budget phone Samsung has done well to include 50MB of built in memory. You can expand on it with microSD cards, but very annoyingly you have to remove the battery to get to the slot. Hotswapping is a no-no, then.

Music fans might be miffed at the use of a proprietary type, side mounted headset connector. Two cardinal sins there. The headset is one-piece so you can’t substitute a favourite pair of headphones, and the side-mount means that when Samsung’s headset is connected you run the risk of pocket snags.

The good news is that without Wi-Fi, GPS or 3G to trouble the battery it kept going pretty well. We were able to get through two days of use without feeling the need to dash to a charger. But on the other hand the touch screen design begs for 3G whose absence could rankle on a long term basis.