Review: Samsung Tocco Ultra S8300

Overview
Samsung….always a company to release good-looking phones and it would certainly seem that they have not gone too shabby with this new release of the Tocco Ultra S8300. Launched on the 20th March this year, it has been out for just over a month today, and so what better time to do an in-depth post on it and giving you the chance to revel in some of it’s features.

Review
The Samsung Tocco Ultra (also known as the GT-8300 and possibly the UltraTouch in some markets) is a 12.8mm slider that comes with a duralumin anti-scratch and anti-fingerprint casing, it also boasts a pretty impressive 8MP camera with dual LED flash, autofocus and video recording. It has a 2.8″ 16M AMOLED Full Touch Display (WQVGA), which more than certainly allows you to make good use of Samsung’s new TouchWiz 1.5 finger friendly interface – which itself features a customisable home screen too.

It seems more than ever now that new released phones almost have to have 3G capabilities inside them to make them a contender in the mobile market and the Tocco Ultra S8300 doesn’t miss this as well as HSDPA support at 7.2Mbps.

Another strong point of the S8300 is the multimedia support. It can play back MP3, AAC and WMA audio plus DivX, Xvid, MPEG4, WMV, H.264 and H.263 movies. There is also stereo bluetooth incorporated as well as an FM radio. The S8300 is powered by an 880 mAH battery, which is surprisingly small for a phone with such a high specification, so quite how this works with the phone we just don’t know.

Samsung are also keen to show off what they call their ‘value adding features’, which include GPS with “door to door capabilities”, Online Widgets, Photo Blogging, Find Music, Auto Rotation and a 3×4 keypad for if you can’t get to grips with the touch screen.

The Gaj-It Verdict:
Design: 7/10
Features: 9/10
Value: 8/10

We Say:
So, overall a good-looking phone I think you’d agree, with a lot of catchy features to make this a top selling model. Perhaps it isn’t as flexible and usable as a smartphone but it certainly looks the part and is an impressive and powerful device. I for one am very tempted to splash out on this, as I don’t really need a smartphone but I do want a powerful, catchy, good-looking phone and so if your in this situation….definitely take a look at this phone as an option!

[Sources:  Samsung Tocco Ultra @ dialaphone ] [image source: PhonesLimited]