Samsung S5230 Tocco Lite Review
The Samsung S5230 Tocco Lite is a competitively priced full touch-screen phone that has taken a goal squarely at LG´s extremely popular Cookie phone. If you were not aware, the LG Cookie is the best selling phone in the first half of 2009. The secret of its success was pretty simple; it was a touchscreen phone with loads of gadgets for just about £100. Now you can see what all the “competitively priced full touch-screen phone” is about. It has been designed for those who cannot afford the high end stuff like Samsung’s own i8910 HD, effectively bringing the touchscreen interface to a wider audience. The Tocco Lite is a progression in a long line up, in 2008 it was the Tocco Ultra Edition S8300 and before that, the original Tocco F480. Which do you think will win the battle? The LG Cookie or Samsung S5230 Tocco Lite? Read on to find out.
Design:
Not too funky:
Samsung has not strayed anywhere too radical with the Tocco Lite’s basic design. It has clean, minimalist lines, as have most touchscreens that came after the iPhone. It is black basically, with a glossy graphite trimming along the edges with some chrome detailing. If you are really bored of the black slab look of the basic model, you can also opt for Samsung’s offering of the Tocco Lite in stand-out pink or white options from certain retailers in the UK. It possesses some neatly rounded edges, and a bit of subtle texturing on the back adds a small amount of grip, so that you do not feel as if you are about to lose the phone mid-finger tap. It feels quite light in hand, weighing just about 92g, but its compact bodywork, at (H x W x D) 106 x 53.5 x 11.9mm, fits snugly in hand and slips without fuss into a pocket or handbag.
Display:
On the fascia of Samsung S5230 Tocco Lite Phone, there is the all important 3” display, which is a 262K colour WQVGA 240 x 400 pixels full touchscreen, taking the centre stage, with just three buttons underneath Call, End and Back, a chrome earpiece grille and a Samsung logo that breaks up the fascia. The display is not quite as eye catchingly zingy as the Samsung Tocco Ultra’s AMOLED display, but it is just fine for the sake of clarity and brightness. As you can expect from this kind of display, it is hard to be viewed in direct sunlight, but otherwise, puts on a good show.
On-screen Keypad:
The keypad responds fairly quickly to tapping, but without any doubts, the swift texters will find that it is slow and less intuitive to use than conventional handsets. Correction of texts feel more cumbersome than on a regular phone, and choosing from contacts on the phonebook through the touchscreen takes a little longer than on a mobile with a conventional display.
Buttons and Controls:
Around the sides, it is relatively uncluttered too. Below a volume and zoom rocker control, a standard issue Samsung multi-connector socket for USB cable, charger and earphones sits under a small cover. Unfortunately, there is no 3.5mm headphone socket on this handset. The display lock can be activated or deactivated by pressing this lock/unlock button, or alternatively by holding a virtual button on the screen. Occasionally, we found that the lock managed to unlock itself in-pocket and accidentally activate widgets, though we did not have any major problems, and the phone did not make any random calls. On the rear side are a camera button and a key for locking and unlocking the display.
User Interface:
TouchWiz:
As we had mentioned in the introduction, it works using a familiar Samsung Tocco TouchWiz touchscreen user interface, bringing with it on-screen widgets and finger tap and swipe control. You might be aware of this interface as this is the one that has been implemented before in the Tocco portfolio and other Samsung touchscreen handsets such as the Samsung Jet. Even though the feature set is light, Samsung has not stripped down the user interface, hence it is a neat and highly manageable finger prod- and swipe-controlled interface. Widgets for operating functions and applications are available for the standby screen too.
Menus:
The Samsung S5230 Tocco Lite Smartphone screen is a resistive rather than capacitive display, so do not expect the clever Multi-Touch smoothness of the iPhone; this phone has more modest aspirations than iPhone worrying. However, it feels quite comfortable to use; the layout of the menus and control button is generally spacious enough for fingers and you could do without stylus or pen-top intervention. Samsung has not opted for the “tricky for its own sake” touch gadgetry, it has kept it straightforward and simple.
Ease of use:
The structure of the menu system is broadly similar to that used on conventional Samsung mobiles, so newcomers to touchscreen devices should not have any issues getting their heads around what to do. As with previous touchscreen phones of Samsung, there are three alternative standby screens you can swipe between, with a swift left or right stroke. They are essentially the same, apart from the background image. One reason for having them is as a way of tidily organising on-screen widgets, which are nothing but the mini applications and functions you can select for display on your standby screen.
Widgets in S5230 Tocco Lite:
Widgets are one of the more immediately eye catching elements of the TouchWiz user interface. These can activate phone functions, control features or provide access to some of the online services. You get to select exactly which widgets you want to display on your standby screen from a selection pre-stored on the phone, giving you fast access to the functions you want. The Widgets can be selected from a bunch of icons that can be found in a widgets toolbar; just open up the toolbar and drag and drop on the main part of the screen the icons representing the widgets you want to use. As in the case of the previous Tocco models, a vertical widgets toolbar can be pulled up on the display with a quick tap on an arrowed tab towards the bottom of the screen. You can scroll or swipe through the widget icons, choosing which ones you want to drag and drop. They can be arranged on the screen how you like and, once the toolbar is closed, they will stay displayed until such time as you want to remove them again, by dragging and dropping.
Shortcuts:
You will find three buttons in the bottom of the standby screen, one is for bringing up the keypad, other for a virtual numberpad that you can use for dialling or texting and the last one is for the phonebook, plus one for taking you into the main menu. The numberpad is spacious enough to avoid any type of mis-pressing the keys, and the screen is quick and responsive enough so that you do not double up with extra presses. A touch of haptic feedback just confirms the fact that you have pressed an onscreen key correctly.
Samsung S5230 Tocco Lite Phonebook:
In the phonebook, there are three methods of hunting down a number. First of all, you can scroll down with finger swipes downscreen, which is not nearly as smooth as iPhone scroll spinning. Alternatively, you can search by pressing a search bar and then typing in appropriate letters from the numberpad. You can even use a small arrowed button on the top left of the screen to whizz through sections by letter, pressing the screen and dragging your finger down till you find the right letter. It does not take much practice for this to becomes quick, effective and almost second nature to operate. The device’s main menu though will be familiar to any phone user. A grid of 12 icons offers you with a usual manner to access further sub-menu sections, which are usually listed in standard mobile fashion. These can be scrolled by finger stroke, with a tap selecting them. There is another control button among three at the bottom of the main menu screen that enables the users to pull up a list of Photo Contacts grouping together your recently used numbers in one carousel like panel, so you can flick to view and select when you want to make calls or send messages. If contacts have photos assigned, these appear on the carousel.
Features:
It has a stripped down set of features compared to its Tocco brethren, reflecting its Lite moniker and light-on-the-pocket price tag. The Tocco Lite does not have a high speed 3G mobile connectivity, and instead, relies on the quad-band GPRS/EDGE mobile data. You will also not find any Wi-Fi, which is something that is taken for granted on higher-end touchscreen phones. The Lite’s camera, is a routine 3.2-megapixel, fixed focus, flashless snapper, rather than the 5 and 8 megapixel shooters of the Tocco and Tocco Ultra Edition. Although light on higher-end features, it has some decent functionality for a down-range touchscreen phone. It has a good-sized 3-inch screen for its touch-operated user interface, with a few dozen widget mini-applications to choose from, music and video player functions, and FM radio, plus a selection of online-based apps and social-networking options to work with.
Text messaging:
It is true that the Touchscreen phones have not yet been noted for their excellent text messaging functionality, but Samsung does a great job with its Tocco Lite software. To begin with, it sensibly gives enough room on the virtual number-pad for accurate key pressing. The buttons range across the full width of the screen, and unlike the keypad, it is not squished up with unnecessary control buttons down the side. This setup reduces the errors and frustrating accidental control activation.
Using T9 on this handset takes a little getting used to too, as you can either toggle through options with a key press or use a touch scroll panel to find them; however, you will be able to soon figure out what suits you best. As well as the number pad, turning the phone sideways automatically activates a Qwerty keyboard option for typing. The letter keys expand as and when you are pressing, so you will know if you have managed to hit the right one. Most of the time, you will get it right, as the keyboard does not require miniature fingers for accurate typing. Alternatively, two handwriting recognition input options are available, which do the job if that is what you prefer. An improvement we would wish to see on this mobile and even on the other Samsung phones is showing while composing a text if you have reached the one text limit, we are surprised that even the iPhone does not have this. This device only shows once you are ready to send when you have gone over into two texts. As with most of the other touchscreen mobiles, texting can feel less slick a process than on a non-touch phone, but Samsung does better than most in reducing the unnecessary hassle factor.
Email:
The Samsung S5230 Tocco Lite Touchscreen Mobile Phone also supports MMS and email using your regular POP3, IMAP4 and SMTP email accounts. The Mobile network email settings are preloaded, but you can also input your own; a set-up wizard takes you through the configuration process, although unlike phones from some manufacturers like Nokia and Sony Ericsson, it does not automatically configure the server settings. For this to work, you will have to know your POP3/IMAP4/SMTP details as well as your standard password details. Once it is set up, it has been structured in the same way as the conventional Samsung mid tier phones. A document reader function allows you to view attachment files sent with emails. It also allows viewing of documents, such as Word files, jpegs, PDFs and Excel documents transferred over to the phone from other sources. We were quite happy with the voice calling performance of the Samsung Tocco Lite.
It produces lovely clear audio with plenty of volume and it consistently produces high quality both with marathon calls and quick chats.
Browsing:
One of the biggest let-downs of this handset is having plenty of screen space for browsing but not having high-speed 3G or Wi-Fi data connectivity to make the browser run faster. It is capable of full web browsing, but the GPRS or EDGE speeds it chugs on means many sites take ages to load. The Samsung browser used here has a very user-friendly interface for this category of handset. It is surely not as effortless as the iPhone’s browser, but it is certainly better set up than most of the mid-tier mobiles. There are touchscreen icon labelled buttons for selecting the home page, back and forwards, reloading and for calling up bookmarks. You will be able get a full screen view at just a button-tap, and view either in landscape or portrait mode, depending how you hold the phone.
The volume and zoom keys allow you to quickly zoom in or out of pages, which can be useful for selecting and pressing links. Alternatively, you can also zoom in or out by touching and holding the screen, and moving your finger up or down. As you browse new pages, they appear again in standard default size rather than zoomed in. Scrolling around the page is done by finger dragging too, and is suitably responsive. Occasionally, while scrolling, we found that a lingering finger will be able to activate the zoom unexpectedly instead of dragging. However, it is not a major annoyance on what is generally a well laid out browser. We were left wishing for more speed to make the browsing experience zippier. In order to complement the browser, there is an RSS reader function is built into the phone, so you can get regular updates from your favourite web services.
Social Networking:
Samsung has also equipped the browser with a Communities folder within the main menu options, into which users can bring together and manage options for accessing social networking, blogging and other content sharing services. Links that are currently available are for Facebook, Picasa, Flickr, Photobucket, Friendster and MySpace. The users will be able to store ID and password details for their accounts and upload content from the device to the relevant services. Naturally, it is going to be much slower to upload than on a 3G HSPA or Wi-Fi-enabled device, though you can set the phone to automatically re-size images so that file sizes are smaller and quicker to send.
GPS:
Although there is no GPS functionality onboard the Tocco Lite, Google Maps is a welcome addition. It utilises the full size of the display, with zoom buttons to zone in or out of maps and satellite images. Without satellite positioning, Google Maps uses cell site triangulation to approximate the handset’s location to within several hundred metres radius, shown on the map by a shaded circle. While that does not mean pin-point accuracy it can be very useful if you are somewhere unfamiliar and need to find your way around, you can get a rough idea of where you are and zoom in to your position with one or two button presses and finger scrolling. The full assembly of Google Maps options for searching for places of interest and addresses and getting directions information are all provided. You can plan routes for driving, walking or using public transport. You can also get Street View shown on the maps, which works with finger control. It all looks good on the display, though some options, such as selecting journey end points by pressing on maps did not work too well, and maps and Street View images are slower to load than on 3G.
Camera:
When compared with the original Tocco, Samsung has gone a little light with the camera capabilities of the Tocco Lite. Its 3.2 megapixel camera is a fixed focus shooter, with no autofocus system built in, and also lacks a basic LED flash. Clearly, imaging is not a priority on this model. The fixed focus lens limits the precision you can get when composing images, offering point and shoot snapping rather than anything more refined. Close range shots are particularly limited, but generally the quality you can achieve with this type of camera is compromised. The camera user interface is rather good, reprising a similar look and feel to other higher end Samsung touchscreen models like the Tocco Ultra Edition. With a press of the side button the camera is ready to go in a couple of seconds. It has a very intuitive touchscreen interface, with plenty of clear settings icons flanking the main portion of the viewfinder. It is uncluttered, and touching one of the icons pulls up further options, with most showing large, clearly labelled symbols to represent the settings available.
Camera Options:
The Scene Mode even offers a line about what type of shot each setting is for. There are plenty of shooting options available if you want to override the auto metering system. As well as exposure control and a variety of white balance settings, users have six Scene settings to choose from, and a selection of Shooting Modes. They include continuous multiple shots, a neat panorama mode that uses a movement sensor to help frame a stitched together shot in low res, a mosaic mode, a ‘fun’ frames mode, plus a Smile Shot option that delays the shutter until the camera detects the subject you are shooting is smiling. The latter works surprisingly well over a few metres. You can even add colourisation effects, and there is a timer option too.
Picture quality in S5230 Tocco Lite:
Pressing the volume or zoom keys on the bottom in camera mode can activate the 2x digital zoom, and if you choose to view the photo gallery in camera mode, it can be used to zoom in or out, or pull up at a selection of pics in your gallery. Even though the interface works intuitively, the image quality is pretty average for this grade of camera phone. The shots do not have the level of detail you can get with a higher quality camera phone, and with a fixed focus lens it is always going to be shoot-and-hope. Mostly, the images are acceptable, and the close up shots are not impressive either. Though the colour is generally acceptable, though some of the brightly lit images were over cooked, with some colour bleed, which is not the best we had seen from a Samsung mobile. Without a flash, low light shooting performance indoors in dark conditions was feeble, with shots murky. From the main camera interface, you can nip quickly into the image gallery by pressing one of the on-screen buttons.
Editing:
Samsung combines finger and accelerometer based scroll-through, which can be irritating when images flow past as you tilt the phone, though you can stop them with a quick finger press. It is easy then to zoom in or out, or even edit pics. Touch editing is relatively easy, and you can add effects, crop and even draw or scrawl over the images. It is also simple to select and send images, whether by email, Bluetooth, MMS or to upload online.
Video:
You will also be able to select the camcorder option from the main camera viewfinder. The Tocco Lite S5230 shoots at maximum QVGA quality at up to 15 frames per second, so you get typically mediocre quality, low resolution mobile phone footage that is a bit jittery. Watching video clips on the phone, you get a good sized display for a mobile phone. Slow data rates means, you are unlikely to spend much time streaming content, as video clips from services such as YouTube can be blocky and disjointed. Video transferred to the phone via memory card or copied over look much better on the display, running smoothly and utilising the landscape full screen mode. On-screen controls can be used to forward or rewind video, or the timeline can dragged by finger; these controls fade after a couple of seconds but can be brought up by brushing the screen.
Formats supported:
The Tocco Lite supports H.263, H.264 and MP4 files, and files copied are automatically processed into the appropriate video folder. The onboard music player is also similarly effective. With around 100MB of onboard storage to play with, you’ll need a MicroSD card if you want to make full use of it. Cards up to 8GB are supported, and slot in next to the battery pack.
Media Player:
The music player interface is functional rather than flashy, so do not look for any iPhone touch coverflow gadgetry. Still it is attractive enough, and the on-screen controls are intuitive and effective for working the tune player including a draggable timeline. Songs loaded up on to the phone or memory card are automatically sorted into the relevant music player categories. These are familiar MP3 player stuff like all tracks, playlists, recently played, most played, artists, albums, genres and podcasts, and the Samsung Tocco Lite S5230 PDA Phone can be synced with Windows Media Player 11 on a PC using the supplied USB cable. Songs can also be dragged and dropped, Bluetoothed to the phone or loaded up straight on to a memory card. No Samsung PC Studio software is supplied in box, though it can be downloaded if you prefer that syncing option.
The music UI allows you to control the player and for a selection of equaliser effects to be added during playback; though they do not appear to make a huge difference to the sound. Perhaps that is partly due to the average sort of earphones supplied, an in-ear headset that delivers reasonable but not outstanding audio quality. The performance is adequate, though it does sound a bit compressed. Bass is subdued and there is a bit too much high-end for our liking, particularly noticeable at loud volume, which this phone can do well. It is a shame that there is no 3.5mm headphone socket or adapter supplied to upgrade earwear, as the sound quality could otherwise be improved by swapping headsets. We were also unimpressed by the side location of the multi-connector earphone sockets, which results in easier in-pocket tangling of earphones.
Speaker:
The Tocco Lite’s loudspeaker playback is loud but average phone-style quality. It is ok though for FM radio playback; the headset needs to be plugged in as an antenna, but you can listen through the speaker.
Radio:
The FM radio is a doddle to use; it is quite simple to tune and switch stations. Similar to the music player, a separate widget panel can be used on the standby screen to control tune playing. Complementing the tune players, the Samsung Tocco Lite has a Music Search function for identifying tunes. You can record a piece of music you hear playing and automatically via a remote database, the service names that tune and provides cover art. It manages a high level of accuracy for nearby sounds.
Organising:
Samsung has provided a fairly standard set of organiser tools for the Tocco Lite. It features calendar, memo and task, functions and offers world clock, timer and stopwatch apps, a calculator and convertor. A voice recorder is also included. The touch user interface makes some of these features more visually appealing on the large screen; for instance, being able to swipe through a world map in the World Clock feature, or pressing virtual calculator buttons, feel quite intuitive. Having a bit more room space to view the calendar may be good for some, but essentially it does the same job as a mid-tier Samsung. Similarly, most text-based functions offer pretty much the same functionality as on a conventional handset, with the input method the main difference. Samsung does not include its new PC Studio software in the box, though this can be downloaded from Samsung’s website. The phone does support PC syncing, with a USB cable supplied and Bluetooth connectivity supported, plus SyncML remote syncing. A handful of games are pre-loaded onto the phone, including a motion-operated dice roller plus some trial-before-you-buy software.
Battery life:
The more power-hungry gadgetry that is onboard, the higher the potential to eat up battery life, so the lack of 3G, Wi-Fi and GPS may be a good thing as far as extending battery performance. Samsung estimates battery life for the Tocco Lite at around 10 hours talktime or 600 hours in standby mode. Although it is a touchscreen phone, the Tocco Lite manages to run comfortably for more than three days on a full charge, with normal amount of calling and texting. Using the music player regularly will reduce battery life, but overall the Tocco Lite gets good marks for power handling.
Warranty:
The Samsung S5230 Tocco Lite comes with one year warranty for parts and labour.
Verdict:
Despite going light on the big-ticket features, the Samsung Tocco Lite offers a decent way to get into touch control on a limited budget. It has its limitations, with its data connectivity hampered by a lack of high speed 3G and Wi-Fi, and there are compromises on other features. If you want a phone that offers bargain-priced touch operation and do not mind these limitations, this is a decent handset that is pleasant to handle. Other users with more demanding requirements in the functionality department are likely to head further up range.
Samsung S5230 Tocco Lite – Technical Specification Details
| Manufacturer | Samsung |
| Model Name | Samsung S5230 Tocco Lite |
| Model Number | S5230 |
| Dimensions (W x H x D) | 104 x 53 x 11.9 mm |
| Weight | 93.5 g |
| Colours available | Black, White, Pink |
| Display Type | 3.0 inches TFT resistive touchscreen, 256K colours |
| Display Resolution | 240 x 400 pixels |
| Display Features | Accelerometer sensor Handwriting recognition Smart unlock |
| Camera resolution | 3.15 MP, 2048×1536 pixels |
| Video | QVGA@15fps |
| Camera features | Smile detection |
| Card slot | microSD, up to 16GB (verified) |
| Memory | 50MB |
| Phonebook | Yes, Photo Contact |
| Messaging | SMS, MMS, Email |
| Browser | WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML |
| Supported Digital Audio Formats | MP3/WMA/AAC player |
| Supported Digital video Formats | H.263/H.264/MP4 player |
| Radio | Stereo FM radio with RDS |
| Alert types | Vibration; Downloadable polyphonic, MP3, WAV ringtones |
| Speaker phone | DNSe (Digital Natural Sound Engine) |
| 2G Network | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 |
| 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 |
| Battery | Standard battery, Li-Ion 1000 mAh |
| Battery life | Talk time: 10 hours Standby time: 800 hours |
| Warranty | 1 year |
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