Samsung UltraTouch S8300

Full Review

The Samsung UltraTouch S8300, also known as the ‘Tocco’ is one of Samsung’s newest touch-based cellphones to hit the Indian market. Apart from a more refined take on Samsung’s proprietary TouchWiz interface, the S8300’s stand-out feature is its 8 megapixel camera complemented by an LED flash. And this camera is so good that it makes the Samsung enter our Top 5.

First the S8300’s features: it is powered by a 500MHz Qualcomm processor and has a good-looking 2.8 inch AMOLED screen. This large and colorful screen really helps the touch-interface and makes videos and pictures look really good. The phone also has 80MB of internal storage but can be expanded up to 16GB thanks to its microSD slot. The phone supports 3G and EDGE but surprisingly, no Wi-Fi. This absence is hard to explain and for a phone that is priced above Rs. 20,000, it is an issue.

The phone looks good, there is no doubt about that. It has a brushed metal body that looks distinguished and more importantly, feels solid in the palm. It’s not the sleekest of phones, thanks to the alpha-numeric keypad that slides out from beneath the screen but nonetheless, it looks and feels right.

Coming to the camera, the S8300 has the best one we have seen in a phone so far. Yes, it might not match up to actual digital cameras, but be assured this is probably one of the best you will get in a phone. Photos came out true to source in terms of color and depth and there was minimal noise. Videos recorded were also quite good.

A few complaints we have with the Tocco is a sluggish interface, lack of Wi-Fi and its price (Rs. 22,550). Apart from these, the Samsung UltraTouch emerges as a really good camera phone. A good buy for certain.

Bottom Line

The new touch-based phone from Samsung sports a large AMOLED 2.8 inch screen and a superb 8MP camera.