The Samsung Tocco: So Close Yet So Far

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Samsung's newest generation of touch phone had a great opportunity to be the iPhone alternative but unfortunately it falls too far short to be any real contender.

UI and Design

This is where the phone excels. The physical phone looks fantastic with it's glass screen and brushed metal finish. The UI is equally impressive and exceptionally easy to use. The menu is bright and a breath of fresh air in a world of black and silver. When entering text messages or emails, or any other text for that matter, you can choose between an onscreen QWERTY keyboard, a two letters per key keyboard or the more familiar 3 buttons per key keypad. The first of the drawbacks of the phone however appear when entering texts. I used the 3 letters keypad because it was the least fiddly but even then I often hit the wrong key and ended up sending texts that were only half finished. This can get frustrating but once you get used to the keypad the phone performs well. The haptic touch functionality works extremely well on the phone and when you hit a button on the interface you get a slight vibration from the phone which actually makes you feel that you're using a physical keypad. An excellent achievement by Samsung.

I can't finish a section on UI without mentioning the widget home screen. This screen allows you to use some built in shortcuts in an interesting way and is a great novelty. I liked the way new texts and messages displayed as a little widget on this home screen. I'm not sure if the novelty will wear off and this will turn into something to show off to your friends and that's all but I liked it while I used it.

UI and Design: 4/5

Functionality

Unfortunately this is where the phone runs into major problems. I used the phone as my main phone since I got it and had no issues with messages. In the city centre it managed to pick up 3G with a strong signal. This meant that I had a great browsing experience even with the phones built in browser. You can download Opera Mini and this works nicely on the Tocco. However once I moved 1/2 a mile out of the city, where I was supposed to have a strong signal according to the coverage map, I lost 3G altogether and was stuck on a 2G connection. The experience was more painful and slow. This turned out to be an issue with the phone and not the network so if you want 3G then I would be cautious about choosing this phone.

Now the major flaw: phone calls. I made 2o calls on my Tocco and it managed to stay connected in 4 instances. It dropped 16 out of 20 calls and had a similar success rate with received calls. Remember this is supposed to be a phone and part of being a phone is making calls. For any parent out there considering a Tocco for their child this has the making of being a nightmare. The phone drops calls within the first 15 seconds. Any child phoning home and asking for a lift and suddenly the phone going dead during the call is a horrible flaw. According to 02 they have pulled the phone due to "major manufacturing issues" and this is one of those issues. Until this issue is fixed the phone is virtually useless as a phone.

Functionality: 2/5

Conclusion

The Tocco had the makings of being a great phone. For those people interested in a touch phone and not interested in the iPhone this could've been a great alternative. Unfortunately I cannot recommend it due to the dropping of calls and the inability to pick up 3G unless your sitting on top of the mobile mast. If Samsung get these issues fixed then this is certainly worth a look but until then I would urge people to consider something else.

Total Score: 6/10

Images from www.3g.co.uk

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Review - Hancock

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I went to see Hancock last night in the cinema and, while it's nothing to do with tech, I thought I might as well give it a quick review. So what's it all about? John Hancock, played by Will Smith, is a superhero who has completely forgotten the first rule of being a superhero, with great power comes great responsibility. While he does try to save the people of Los Angeles he goes about it in all the wrong way and ends up causing thousands/millions of dollars worth of damage. He even flies and lands with all the style of a 1990 Volvo, there's none of the smooth Superman stuff here. However it's during one of these acts of goodwill that Hancock meets a PR Executive Ray Embrey, who takes on the unenviable task of turning Hancock into a much loved man of the people.

This film was never going to be a Hollywood masterpiece but as far as being an enjoyable and at times funny little action romp it could probably be held in the same regard as Men in Black and Independence Day. Seeing Hancock in his supersuit was hilarious. The times when the tempo of the show slows and we start looking at the emotional side of Hancock are well handled. They don't spend too much time on it but there's enough to make sure that we understand the conflict and eventually understand it's resolution.

This is a great action flick made all the better by Will Smith's humour and excellent portrayal of the 'messed up' Hancock. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys Will's style of movie.

Image from Apple.com