Samsung Tocco Lite Review

Samsung Tocco Lite Review

The best-selling phone in the first half of 2009 has probably been the LG Cookie. The secret to the Cookie's success is simple: it's a touchscreen phone with loads of gadgets for just £100. So now Samsung have released the Tocco Lite to go head to head against the Cookie for best budget touchscreen phone. Which phone will win in the Cookie vs Tocco Lite battle?

Physically, the two devices are exactly the same size, to within a millimetre! The screens are identical in type, size, colour definition and pixels. With a good size screen (3 inches) and high resolution, Samsung's TouchWiz user interface works well on the Tocco Lite. TouchWiz can now be regarded as a mature technology, and it seems to be pretty much universally popular. Mobile widgets let you customise your home screen and give easy access to apps such as the clock, weather forecast, etc. There are also widgets for popular web apps such as MySpace, Facebook and YouTube. The built-in accelerometer sensor will automatically rotate the screen when you turn the phone on its side, so you can easily switch between portrait and landscape modes. The virtual QWERTY keyboard is easy to use, and we think that you'll have no problems using the touchscreen. The addition of "real" keys for call, send and select make it even easier to use than a full touchphone. The user interface also supports handwriting recognition and gesture lock.

The spec of the Tocco Lite is virtually identical to the Cookie's. There's a 3.2 megapixel camera with digital zoom. Samsung's "Smile Shot" feature lets you take a photo when the camera thinks your subject is smiling. You can also edit your photos on the camera itself. A basic camcorder is available too. There's a music player, FM radio with RDS, and support for downloadable MP3 ringtones. Audio quality is good, with a virtual 3D surround effect, an equaliser and support for DNSe. The memory is similar to the Cookie's, and is expandable to 16GB with a microSD card. When it comes to connectivity, the Tocco Lite supports Bluetooth and USB. Like the Cookie, there's no WiFi and no 3G, which means that features like YouTube are going to be on the slow and jerky side. But remember that this is a budget phone - you can't have everything, and this seems like a reasonable compromise.

The web browser is very good, making excellent use of the large screen and with easy access to RSS feeds, Google Mail, Google Search and Google Maps. The lack of 3G does hamper the web browser though in terms of download speed.

Battery life seems to be pretty good. The Tocco Lite doesn't have the heavy duty battery of its big brothers, the Tocco or Omnia, but it has fewer gadgets to power, so it seems to be up to the job. Just don't expect it to last as long as your ancient Nokia and you'll be OK.

Taken on its own terms, the Tocco Lite is a fabulous phone. Whilst it lacks some of the features of high-end phones (3G, GPS, 8 MP camera, WiFi, etc), it does offer a lot for your money: a beautiful touchscreen user interface with 3.2 megapixel camera, stereo FM radio with RDS, accelerometer sensor, handwriting recognition and up to 16GB microSD expandable memory. It's available at launch with some fabulous contract deals: free line rental, or free gifts such as an XBOX 360, etc, and it comes in a choice of pink or black. The big question for many will be whether to choose the Tocco Lite or the LG Cookie. We have struggled to find a real reason to prefer one over the other, and frankly we can't. It seems that Samsung have made a phone so similar to the Cookie that there's virtually nothing to choose between them. But don't get the impression that we dislike the Tocco Lite - quite the reverse. It's an excellent phone offering outstanding value. Whether you choose the Tocco Lite or the Cookie you'll be getting one of the best phone bargains of 2009. On balance, our user reviews seem to be giving a slightly higher score to the Tocco Lite.

Update: a minority of users have reported a problem with the audio cutting out every few seconds, so that you can't hear the caller. As far as we can tell this happens on O2 only. Mike B has a possible fix for this problem for O2 users: Try going to Menu - Applications - O2 - Get Settings. Install the settings you are sent and reset the phone. Since I did that, and received the settings for PAYG from O2 I haven't had any problems with calls, (at least for the last 2 days). Hope it helps ! Thanks to Mike B, and if you have tried this, please write a review to let us know how it worked. Please also report this problem if you experience it on any other network. John L has an alternative fix for O2 users: go to settings, network settings and for network mode select GSM 900/1800.

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It's logical then to talk about the camera next. This has been dramatically improved, with an 8 megapixel sensor and an LED flash (which was incomprehensibly missing from the original Galaxy S.) The camera has plenty of features taken from Samsung's digital camera range, including autofocus, touch focus, face detection, smile shot and image stabilisation. As already mentioned, the video camera has been uprated so that it can now record at Full HD resolution - that's 1080p format. Only the LG Optimus 2X can match that, and the Samsung does a better job with a sharper, more detailed picture quality. A secondary front-facing video camera is available for making video calls. There's a pre-installed image and video editor too.

The media player brings a great deal of functionality to the table and is capable of playing DivX and XviD format movies. The Super AMOLED Plus screen and the dual-core processor are a match for any video you might want to watch. 5.1 virtual surround sound is also supported. There's also an FM radio with RDS for listening to music on the move. Naturally a 3.5mm headphone socket lets you plug in your choice of headphones, and you can also connect the phone to a Full HD TV via DLNA and play movies or even games on a big screen.

Another area where Samsung have taken a great leap forward is in internet connectivity. The Galaxy S2 has an uprated implementation of HSPA enabling downloads of up to 21 Mbps where a network supports it (3 have just rolled this out.) That's faster than home broadband! This really is a phone created by speed junkies. And when it comes to web browsing, the fast internet access combined with a crisp, large display, multi-touch zoom and the super-fast Android web browser with Flash support and BBC iPlayer compatibility make it top dog.

Signal strength and call quality are good too (hey, it's a phone as well?) and battery life is excellent. For a device with so many features, you'll probably be playing with it all day and night, but Samsung have recognised the need for a monster battery and have stepped up to the mark. The S2 has a 1650mAh battery, which is the largest we've seen as standard in any mobile. Amazingly it doesn't seem to add any great weight to the phone (have Samsung secretly captured an alien spacecraft and stolen their technology?) Nevertheless, as any smartphone user knows, overnight battery charging will be required for the first couple of months at least. Once the battery - and the user - have been properly conditioned, the battery may last 2-3 days. That's pretty good going.

We're totally in awe of the Samsung Galaxy S2. To our minds, this is without question the best phone on the market today. The only reason not to buy it is the cost. But as of June 2011, it's available for free on contract for around £30 per month, which is gallons less than the iPhone 4. There will be more dual-core phones released later in 2011, and the next iPhone of course. But if you want our opinion, you should choose the Galaxy S2 - you won't have any regrets.