Samsung Tocco Ultra Edition (GT-S8300
/ UltraTOUCH)
Discontinued 9th February 2009
The Samsung Tocco Ultra Edition
(also known as the Samsung GT-8300 and possibly the
UltraTOUCH in some markets) is an eight megapixel touchscreen
phone with a slide-out numeric keypad.
Although it borrows the "Tocco"
name from the Samsung
F480, the Samsung Tocco Ultra Edition is a completely
different and much upgraded handset.
At a time when touchscreen phones were
beginning to look identical, the design of this S8300
handset is a little bit different, the "stretched
slider" design gives the handset a distinctive
look - albeit a tall look at about 139mm when
the handset is open.
A tour around the features of the Samsung
Tocco Ultra Edition show that this is an impressive
looking device. One notable feature is the 8 megapixel
camera with dual LED flash, autofocus, face detection
and geotagging using the Tocco's built-in GPS. The S8300
can also record video at 640 x 480 pixels at 30 frames
per second.
The display is a 2.8" WQVGA (240
x 400 pixel) touchscreen panel with haptic feedback,
using Samsung's Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting
Diode (AMOLED) technology to deliver a clear, bright
display. In terms of capabilities, this is certainly
more advanced than the original Tocco, but it lacks
the high resolution of the Nokia
5800 XpressMusic.
The user interface has been upgraded
to TouchWiz 1.5 which seems to be a very usable way
of controlling the phone. It's worth remembering that
the Tocco Ultra Edition is not a smartphone, so software
upgrades will more limited than for some of the competition.
However, it's likely that the built-in software will
be more than enough for most users.
Samsung
say that the GPS on the Tocco Ultra Edition provides
navigation with detailed maps that can take users "from
door to door". The precise features are not clear,
but the large display has the potential to be an excellent
aid for SatNav users.
Multimedia support is a strong point
of the S8300 / Tocco Ultra Edition. It can play back
MP3, AAC and WMA audio plus DivX, XviD, MPEG4, WMV,
H.264 and H.263 movies. There is also support for stereo
Bluetooth, and the Tocco Ultra comes with an FM radio.
We don't know whether or not the S8300 comes with a
3.5mm audio jack or not.
Underneath it all, this is a quad-band
GSM phone with dual-band 900 / 2100 MHz UMTS. The Tocco
Ultra also supports HSDPA with a maximum download speed
of 7.2 Mbps. There appears to be no WiFi support. The
S8300 is powered by an 880 mAh battery, which is surprisingly
small for a phone of this high specification. Internal
memory is 75MB, expandable up to 16GB using a microSD
card.
Other features include photo blogging,
video editing and a high degree of customisation using
repositionable widgets.
So, overall this appears to be a good
looking phone with a lot of features. Perhaps it isn't
as flexible as the Samsung
Omnia or a smartphone, but it is certainly an impressive
and powerful device.
No word was given on price, but we expect
to see the Samsung Tocco Ultra Edition to hit the shops
from March onwards.
|
Samsung
Tocco Ultra Edition (GT-S8300)
at a glance
|
Available:
|
Q1
2009
|
Network:
|
GSM
850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
+ UMTS 900 / 2100
|
Data:
|
GPRS
+ EDGE + UMTS (3G) + HSDPA
|
Screen:
|
240
x 400 pixels, 16m colour
|
Camera:
|
8
megapixels
|
Size:
|
Large
slider 110 x 52 x 13mm
|
Bluetooth:
|
Yes
|
Memory
card:
|
microSD
|
Infra-red:
|
No
|
Polyphonic:
|
Yes
|
Java:
|
Yes
|
GPS:
|
Yes
|
Battery
life:
|
Not
specified
|
|
|