5 Jun 2008Samsung officially introduced the F480, also called Samsung SGH-480, in February 2008. In various parts of the world, the phone is also called Samsung TouchWiz. In an effort to consciously adapt to differing regions, there will be differing names as it is marketed and sold throughout the world. In the UK, for example, the phone will be known more popularly as the Samsung Tocco. Aptly named, Tocco is the Italian translation for the word Touch. It was launched in the UK in May 2008.
Visually, the Samsung Tocco is a touchscreen phone in a subtly chrome-trimmed, aluminum candybar design integrated with a black silk finish. Because of its sleek external features, the Tocco is said to be at par with the
Samsung Armani and the
LG Prada phones. Users can opt to doll up the Samsung Tocco with leather cover to make it look like a fashionable accessory besides being a utilitarian device.
A bigger part of the Samsung Tocco's front part takes up the 71.12-millimeter QVGA 262,000-colour screen that is engineered with the sensing technology called TouchWiz on its user interface. The handset's touch-sensitive feature is driven by its reception of the user's finger rather than of mere touch. In this regard, the screen cannot be possibly activated by other objects besides the finger. In this light, closest comparisons have been between Apple's touchscreen iPhone and the Samsung F700. The Tocco belongs to the same mobile phone model or line as Samsung F490, sold as F490 Nerva in the UK.
This gorgeous touchscreen displays 240 x 320 pixels that ensure high resolution. It is a lightweight at a fixed 100.6 grams, which is considerably slim for a 3G-enabled mobile phone. The handset's dimensions at 11.8mm x 55mm x 95.9mm also make this mobile an ultra slim fashion phone. Expectedly, the device is easy to carry because it is essentially a pocket-friendly mobile phone. Moreover, its clutter-free design fits the user's hand just right. Its touch buttons are large enough for users to type, hence, the touchscreen feature is a breeze to use.
Appearance aside, the Samsung Tocco also boasts of other key features. It is 3G-enabled, with a downloading rate that reaches a maximum of 7.2 Megabytes per second, thanks to the HSDPA technology. It is also a triband mobile phone driven by Edge, GSM and GPRS technologies. It runs on a 1000 mAh battery that offers a standby duration of 300 hours and talk time of roughly 3 hours. It can also store an enormous number of files with a 240-Megabyte internal memory. This built-in memory can be expanded by adding a microSD memory of up to 8 Gigabytes.
The Samsung Tocco also houses a 5-Megapixel digital camera complete with LED flash, face-detection capability and autofocus. The built-in camera has a stabiliser which ensures steady photo shots that prevent hand movements from affecting the clarity and overall quality of the shots. It flaunts its video features that allow playback and recording of video footages. In addition, there are easy-to-navigate and user-friendly video editing applications for enhancing purposes of videos recorded. It even allows streaming of videos in MPEG4, H263 and H264 formats.
The Samsung Tocco also has a music player for user entertainment, which supports MP3, AAC and AAC audio formats. It also carries an RDS-enabled FM radio to boot. It introduces a certain feature it coins as Shazam, which resembles the TrackID system of Sony Ericsson handsets. The Shazam service identifies the track that the user is listening to. The Tocco's phone-to-compatible-device connectivity is possible with its Bluetooth 2.0-supporting feature that comes with the A2DP technology.
With its winning features that users expect of modern handsets, the Samsung Tocco has not escaped criticisms, although not too many. According to a user, it may be a deal-breaker that it is missing Wi-Fi connectivity. Others have said the phone would have better chances of emerging as a stronger product in the market if it functioned on quadband for better world roaming functionality.
Editor CommentsEditor: Andrew on 31st October, 2008
The Samsung Tocco has been a huge success for Samsung in the UK, and many months after its launch it has finally made its way to the US as the Samsung Delve. The TouchWiz widget based interface will continue to impress around the world.
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