Samsung Tocco Lite S5230 deals & review

Overall

A competitively priced full touchscreen phone that´s taken aim squarely at LG´s extremely popular Cookie phone.

The Tocco Lite has jettisoned several functions and features that some may think essential in this day and age, but we think will not be missed by more than a few. You should definitely be aware that there´s no 3G or WiFi onboard here, but you also shouldn´t let it worry you as these might not be necessary for any but the most internet-active out there.

Thanks to the trimmings on the features, this phone is also extremely light and comes in a perfect little body that´s as thin and dinky as you´d hope.

Specs

• GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
• TouchWiz interface
• Dimensions: 104 x 53 x 11.9 mm
• Weight: 93.5 g
• Display Type: TFT resistive touchscreen, 256K 240 x 400 pixels, 3.0 inches
• Accelerometer sensor
• Handwriting recognition
• Gesture lock
• DNSe (Digital Natural Sound Engine)
• Card slot microSD (TransFlash), up to 16GB
• GPRS Class 12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
• EDGE Class 12
• Bluetooth Yes, v2.1 with A2DP
• USB v2.0
• Camera: 3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels
• Video: QVGA@15fps
• WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• Java MIDP 2.0
• Shazam Find Music service
• Battery: Li-Ion 1000 mAh

Details

Although that lack of 3G and WiFi is one of the biggest things to note about this phone, Samsung have done everything in their power to ensure this doesn´t detract from the phone too much. To this end, they´ve included a customisable widget function that allows you to choose and place a variety of widgets around your homescreen or menu. Want one click access through to updating your Facebook status? Then put the Facebook widget where you want it. Like to check the weather before you leave the house? Again, drop that weather widget where your fingers want it!

All this is made possible thanks to the wonderfully intuitive TouchWiz interface that now features on all Samsung touchscreen phones. Built from the ground up with the touchscreen user in mind, this is quite simply one of the best User Interface´s we´ve ever used.

Aside from all that widgeting, the Tocco Lite does a pretty decent job with everything else it has to offer. There´s a mediocre camera that offers some nifty smile recognition and video recording; there´s a bunch of shortcuts and link-ups with Google´s software (Mail, Seach, Maps, etc.) and best of all is that all this comes in a chic, neat little handset that will slip into even the tightest of pockets. Some might sniff at the 3” screen but we think this is more than enough for everything this phone offers and allows it to be perfectly sized.

Conclusion

As long as you´re happy to acknowledge that you´re not going to be using this phone for high-end internet-access (isn´t that what laptops and desktops are for anyway?!), then the Tocco Lite could be a very, very smart (and very, very budget-friendly!) choice. Scout around for the best deals because we think you´ll be able to find yourself an absolute bargain on this thing.