Samsung F480 Tooco - a great little phone! (Samsung SGH-F480)

Member Name: purple81

Product:	Samsung SGH-F480
Date:	10/06/09 (83 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Touchscreen Interface, 5 mega pixel camera, great music player

Disadvantages: Easy to touch the wrong button, photos can turn out a little blurry

The Samsung F480 or Tocco as its also known is a great little phone with a touchscreen interface similar to that of the Apple iPhone.

Having owned the Samsung F490 before upgrading to the Tocco I was more than used to the touchscreen experience although it did take a while to get my head round not being able to use the phone with anything other than my fingers. Unlike the F490 which came with its own 'pen' for ease of use the Tocco touchscreen interface is unique and can only be used with your bare hands. Unfortunate during the winter months when even gloves prevent you from sending a simple text to complain about the cold!

It doesn't take too long to start using the phone with great ease although I still have difficulties, even after a year, when typing text messages. The 'buttons' are somewhat small and close together and its easy to accidently change the language or make spelling errors, texting isn't quite as quick as it used to be.

The F480 comes with all the standard functions which we have all come to love and rely on such as bluetooth, a camera, organiser, games and the world wide web. It also has a music player, fm radio and mobile tv. There is even a handy little scroll tab at the side of the main screen which gives quick and easy access to many of the phones functions and is great for quickly accessing your music player or the radio on the move.

The 5 mega pixel camera is very user friendly and there is a quick button on the side of the phone so you never have to miss a photo opportunity. There's even a slot for a micro sd card for extra storage and to transfer photos and videos both to and from your phone. The camera has an anti-shake function, flash, a variety of special effects and frames and can be easily changed to video mode to capture those special moments. The only downside is that unless both the camera and the people or objects you are trying to photograph are perfectly still the images often turn out quite blurry. It can also take a few moments for the camera to take a picture so its easy enough to miss every now and again. That being said when your photo turns out the quality is very good.

The only other downside to the phone compared to earler models is that there are no free games or applications already loaded into the phone. You get a few games which you can play for a very short trial but once thats done with you have to buy that game or purchase and download others from the web. This can be a little frustrating if you don't want to spend money on games and are looking for something to pass the time on journeys, although this is where the music player comes to the forefront in my opinion.

You can buy music through the web but I took my own MP3 player files and loaded them onto the phone. The sound quality is very good for such a small device and you also get headphones with the phone. There is also the added benefit of being able to use your song files as your ringtone for that real music effect.

If you want a phone that does it all then the Tocco really could be for you. You can add photos, birthdays and any other information you require for your contacts turning your phone into the worlds best address book. If you use the scroll tab you can quickly view birthdays and events lists so you will never forget those important or memorable dates from your diary.

The Tocco is small, life and the battery life is great and doesn't need charged as often as I thought it would for a touchscreen phone.

All in all the Samsung F480 is a great little phone that's well worth the money!

Summary: A compact and light user friendly phone similar to the iPhone without the expensive price tag.

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