Samsung F480 Tocco

Two years and three months on (or thereabouts) from purchasing the Motorola L6, I’ve upgraded my mobile phone to the new touch screen Samsung F480 Tocco.

My Thoughts So Far.

I love the display. One of the main requirements during my search for a replacement to the L6 was a large display. While the display on the Tocco isn’t as big as that of the iPhone, it’s not too far off. Because it’s a touch screen phone there is no real need for any buttons on the front panel. Although Samsung have decided to put three buttons at the bottom.

The widgets are pretty cool too. Much like the sidebar on Windows Vista, you can drag and drop different widgets onto the main display. By default there are not a lot of widgets to choose from. I’ve yet to try downloading/installing more, but I’m sure there are (or will be) plenty to choose from.

It also has a 5 Megapixles camera. That’s more than my Kodak Easyshare C330 digital camera (pictured left). The Kodak is only a 4 Megapixles camera. So it looks like I won’t be needing that camera anymore ;)

I haven’t played with the camera on the phone properly yet so I can’t really say whether it’s any good or not. Maybe I should hold off on throwing/giving away the Kodak digital camera for now.

Another feature I quite like about the Tocco is the leather cover optional extra. I say optional because the phone comes with two backs. One plain and one with an attached leather cover (shown right). I will be using the cover because I don’t want to get any scratches on the display. Thankfully the cover does not hinder you in any way while using the phone. Even during calls.

Speaking of calls. I have to laugh at myself thinking back to my first received call on the Tocco. Being a touch screen phone you would think that when two options appear on the display itself that read ‘accept’ and ‘reject’, that you would press the them. Right? Well, like me, you would be wrong. That’s what the buttons at the bottom of the phone are for. Sounds weird doesn’t it? It certainly caught me out :)

Before I bought the Tocco some of the reviews I read suggested that sending text messages was somewhat cumbersome. I find the opposite. To me the process is very intuitive and because of the display all the letters and numbers are easy to read and select.

So do I have anything bad to say about the Tocco? No. OK, there is one thing. But it’s so small it’s hardly worth mentioning.

In order to lock and unlock the touch screen you need to press a button at the top of the phone. What I have noticed so far is that there is a slight delay in the screen unlocking itself. This has led me to press the button again thinking that it didn’t work the first time. Only now I’ve pressed it twice and the screen unlocks itself and then quickly locks back up. From what I can tell there is certainly a difference in the time it takes to lock the screen in comparison to the time it takes to unlock. Like I said, it’s a small thing and I’m sure that over time I will become accustomed to it.

Overall I’m very happy with the Tocco and I’m sure it’ll be more than two years and three months before I upgrade again.

Why not buy the iPhone you ask?

To be honest I would have loved an iPhone. But they’re just too expensive here at the moment. Maybe when the price drops I’ll consider it, but until then I’ll be very happy with the Tocco.

Why annual contracts?

If there’s one thing that really bugs me about the Broadband (DSL) packages on offer here in Ireland, it’s the requirement of annual contracts. In fact it doesn’t just bug me, it frustrates the hell out of me. Why can’t the Telco’s offer monthly contracts? Or quarterly contracts for that matter.

I mean come on… so much can change in a year! I might not be around this time next year, or I might decide to move house 6 months from now. I understand why there’s a need for annual contracts on mobile phones (cellphones). With them they make their money back on the price of the phone. The same could be said about Broadband packages offering a free modem with them, but all the Broadband packages here state that the modem remains the property of the Telco’s until the contract expires. So you’re not even paying for the modem!

So, why force someone into a 12 month contract when there is absolutely no need? And they (the Telco’s) can’t use the excuse that they have to have some way to pay for the upkeep of the lines because the cost of Broadband is extortionate enough (averaging around €40 per month – along with a bandwidth limit!).

Sick of 56K

I’m back on a 56k connection since I cancelled my broadband trial and I’m sick of it already! Not only is it painfully slow but I can only go online after 6pm – otherwise it costs me a fortune!

I could sign back up to my old IOL Anytime account – which means I could go online during the day – but I don’t plan on it. Why? Because even then I’m limited to approx. 6 hours a day and it’ll still be painfully slow.

At the moment I have two phone lines in the house. One for the Internet and the other for normal phone calls. I plan on cancelling one of the lines and getting broadband (dsl) on the other. It should work out cheaper in the end.

So why did I cancel the trial in the first place you ask? Because I had nothing but trouble with the company and the setup of the trial. So I plan on going with a different company the next time.