The newest Samsung phone in this place is the Samsung GT-S5260 Tocco Icon and it’s got me hooked on the Samsung phones again.

We had this sent just recently to give it a testing. I already have had some experience of the Tocco line, having owned a Tocco Lite for several years now that still serves as the mobile for our business. This new Tocco Icon is a huge step forward from that earlier model!

The Samsung Tocco Icon holds a massive amount of tech in its tiny, slim line, body. You can make calls, the sound is really clear here, and it’s a quad band system. You’ve got the basics plus their widget based system with widgets for all occasions. This one has WiFi, which is the only reason I switched out of the Lite when I did as that older phone did not have WiFi at the time. We have a better camera in the Samsung GT Tocco Icon too, taking pictures side by side the Icons images were of a much better quality than the older phone, though they still do not have a flash. You have some shortcuts too, such as pressing two keys that will then create an image of what is on your mobile screen at that moment, or screen capture as we call it. This can be a very useful feature for catching a quick shot of something on your screen that you may need proof of later.

With a “Quick Manual” available right there on the home screen, multiple screens (I’ve got up to 5 at the moment), and even a screen capture trick so you can save what’s popped up on your screen as an image, there are a lot of little tricks in this little dynamo. It's handy, small, not too light as to make you forget it's there, and has enough widgets for most needs. Again I am more of a person who likes her phone to be a phone, anything else is just going to suck battery, so this really has enough toys on it for anyone like that. If you want it reliable and easy to use well, voila!

In brief:

• Capacitive touch screen makes it a lot more sensitive than the previous incarnation of this phone.
• Battery life is really good, lasts a lot longer than most of the phones we have in here.
• Not overly sensitive to the touch but just enough to make it much more useable.
• Locks quickly and easily, and staid locked even while in my pocket, which was a problem for me with my old Tocco Lite.
• Price is very reasonable!
• Camera is also much improved over the older version.
• TouchWiz UI works smoothly
• Pull down bar for notifications also includes your basic WiFi/Bluetooth/Silent modes so switching is fast and easy too. No more going into classes, shows, films, or meetings and having to fiddle to turn off the sounds, only 2 touches and it’s silent time.
• Widgets for Facebook and Twitter are again simple and easy to use but beware, there is no 3G. Maybe that too is a good thing though.

3G is a good thing to a certain extent but with such patchy coverage of the 3G kind in the UK I much prefer using open WiFi networks. WiFi is faster in any case so you won’t be killing your battery trying to locate a 3G signal then slowly, painfully, uploading your Twitter update. Just find a cafe, sit with a cup of your coffee of choice, and Tweet away that way!

Technical Specs:

• 3.15 megapixel camera with 2x digital zoom
• Video recording (QVGA 15fps)
• Display: TFT, 262K colours, 240 x 400 pixels (3.0 inches)
• Music player (MP3/AAC/AAC+/AAC++/WMA formats)
• Stereo FM radio RDS
• 64-voice polyphonic ringtones / MP3 ringtones
• Integrated hands free speakerphone
• Personal organiser functions
• Document editor
• Memory: 30MB plus MicroSD memory card slot (up to 16GB)
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, USB 2.0, 3.5mm audio jack
• WAP 2.0, GPRS Class 10, EDGE
• Quadband GSM
• Size: 108 x 54 x 13 mm
• Weight: 94g
• Talktime: 8.3 hours
• Battery standby: 900 hours

Priced from £10 a month on a pay monthly plan or from as little as £59 to buy the phone from a retailer.

***

AbriiD