Samsung Tocco Ultra review

Samsung has become an extremely ambitious mobile phone manufacturer in recent times, particularly in the Irish market. Its latest touch-screen device, the Tocco Ultra, is a follow on from the Tocco which was released late last year but rather than being a tweak it is safe to say the Ultra is a whole different beast.

The original Tocco was arguably one of the better attempts to compete with the iPhone and has been a solid seller in the consumer market in Ireland. Samsung’s other touch-screen phone, the Omnia, was aimed at professionals but lacked the usability and finished feeling of its mid-market predecessor.

To some degree the Ultra can be seen as a phone to sit in the middle ground between the Omnia and Tocco but it does offer certain features that neither provide.

Most notably the Ultra houses a slide-out keypad to compliment its touch-screen, which should help calm the fears of many who have avoided touch-based devices because of the lack of a tactile response. The Ultra also has an 8 megapixel camera, trumping the 5mp lenses in the other two phones.

Just like the Tocco and Omnia the Ultra is a very attractive device. Despite housing a touch-screen and keypad the phone is extremely slim and stylish while the screen itself is responsive. The operating system being used is a slight advancement on the one used in the original Tocco – thankfully as the Omnia’s use of Windows Mobile 6 made it a frustrating experience at the best of times.

Overall the Ultra is a well made phone. It looks well, runs well and has plenty of functions to keep people entertained.

Its use of both the screen and keypad can be a bit confusing from time to time, however, especially when composing a text message. The ‘delete’ button is on-screen, for example, while the actual keypad is used to type the text out, meaning you can find yourself jumping from place to another while trying to write.

The operating system itself, as usable as it is, can be a bit sluggish at times too making it feel as though the power of the phone is not matched with a suitable processor. The lack of a regular headphone jack is a slight niggle too as it means you need a Samsung attachment to listen to music or the radio – one is provided with the phone naturally but it does mean an extra wire that needs to be carried from place to place.

All of this said the Ultra shows that Samsung still know how to make a good touch-based phone and even though it feels a little over stretched it is better than many of the other devices in the market.

Oddly enough, however, the original Tocco did feel like a slightly more usable phone even though it did not have as much functionality – one can only assume this is because the Tocco knew its limitations but the Ultra does not.