Review - Samsung Tocco F480

Samsung F480 Review

Phone rating:

In a nutshell: The Samsung F480 Tocco is a high-spec touchscreen phone that offers fantastic features in a sexy ultraslim package. The features include a 5 megapixel camera, music player, FM radio, ultra-fast 3G web browsing and just about the most memory we've seen in a mobile phone! If the screen had been a bit larger we'd have given it 5 stars.
Best buy: *Free* with half-price line rental from Dialaphone.

Samsung are on a roll with touchscreen phones in 2008. First the Armani, then the F490 Nerva, now the F480 Tocco (Tocco comes from the Italian word for "touch".) Now the Armani was a bit of a flop, but the F480 is a great phone, and so the question is, what's the difference between the F480 and the F490 and which is better? (OK, so that was two questions.)

On the face of it, these are two very similar phones. They both have a touchscreen user interface using the "award-winning" Croix UI, with haptics (vibration) for tactile feedback. Both are good looking phones - the F480 has a brushed metal finish and is supplied with a leather case to help protect it from scratches. The F480 has a conventional QVGA resolution screen instead of the extra long screen used by the F490. Losing screen resolution is bad news for touchscreen phones, and the Tocco's screen is just 2.8 inches (the F490 has a 3.2 inch screen.) Both are ultraslim phones, with the F480 being a tiny bit thinner at an incredible 11.6mm.

The touchscreen interface works well in both phones. Most people seem to have no problems using the phones, although fast texting can be a bit of a mission. Both have great cameras. The camera on the F480 is very similar to the one on the F490 - 5 megapixels with autofocus, digital zoom and LED flash. The F480 introduces a new gee-whiz feature called "Smile Shot". According to Samsung, "Smile Shot is able to identify when the subject is smiling and automatically takes a picture." Reading that made us smile, but we're probably being too cynical. Seriously though, we actually believe that the more "stuff" that camera phones introduce, the harder it is for people to use them effectively. Still, the Tocco can take good pictures, but as with all camera phones don't expect to become David Bailey with this thing.

The Tocco has a good music player (as you'd expect) that can play most file formats and has the advantage over the F490 of having an FM radio included. We're also delighted to see the huge amount of memory supplied: 240 Mbytes of internal memory, plus the option to add up to 8 Gbytes of microSD memory. That's enough to store thousands of songs. We like it. On the music front, the Tocco also introduces a feature called Shazam (no, seriously) that acts like Sony Ericsson's TrackID™ service and can identify a song that you're listening to.

Another benefit that the Tocco has over the F490 is a souped-up 3G connection. The 3G implementation uses HSDPA at 7.2 Mbps, enabling download speeds faster than most home broadband connections. In fact the Tocco is a brilliant platform for the mobile internet, with its big touchscreen and dedicated Google application.

So to answer the question: what's the difference between the F480 and the F490? The F480 has better features (FM radio, faster 3G, more memory) but the F490 has a bigger screen. Which is better? That's tricky to answer and it's really frustrating that Samsung just didn't release one phone with a big screen and all the features. Let's answer the question this way: the LG Viewty (but only just!)eatures of the Samsung F480 include:

• 5 megapixel camera with face detection autofocus, image stabiliser, 4x digital zoom and LED flash
• Video recorder & 3G video calling
• Display: TFT, 240 x 320 pixels (2.8 inches), 262,144 colours
• Music player (MP3/WMA/AAC+/AAC+(e)/Real formats) plus FM radio
• Music Recognition (Shazam)
• 72-voice polyphonic ringtones / MP3 ringtones
• Speakerphone
• Voice memo recorder
• Messaging: SMS, MMS, email
• Document viewer
• Java games
• Memory: 240 Mbytes plus microSD memory card slot (up to 8 Gbytes)
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0
• Internet: WAP 2.0, web browser with Google search, GPRS, Edge, 3G (HSDPA 7.2 Mbps)
• Triband (900/1800/1900 MHz) plus 3G (UMTS 2.1GHz)
• Offline mode
• Size: 98 x 55 x 11.6 mm
• Weight: 106g
• Talktime: 3 hours
• Battery standby: 250 hours