Customer Reviews

Samsung S5230 Tocco Lite Sim Free Mobile Phone - Black

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

I saw this phone advertised on Carphonewarehouse website and couldn't decide between the Samsung Beat DJ or Samsung Tocco Lite mobiles. So did some research on the internet.5 days ago, I got this phone on Virgin PAYG tariff for £99 at CPW, and glad I choose the Locco Lite. It's a touchscreen and easy to use, there is a widget section on left hand screen. Touch it, it opens up a range of shortcut icons, such clock,create messages, date, mp3 player, radio, youtube, alarm, calendar etc. In the Phonebook - "favourites" section you have a 12 speed dial section (inc. voicemail). When texting you can either type in normal mode or turn phone width ways and a full qwerty keyboard touchscreen comes up making texting easier. The phone also has Google maps in the games section. Download music to the phone is easy and can be played in speakphone mode. I would recommend this phone battery life is good lasting 4-5 days depending on 1 hr use of mp3 player and radio.

I got this phone a couple of days ago and I was very suprised about the phones high quality and features. I have owned touch screen phones in the past which i've had bad experiences with so I was a bit reluctant into buying the tocco lite but I am glad I did. The touch screen is very responsive which is very useful when it comes to texting, although you have the option to write by hand on the screen (which is amazing!).
The phone itself is light and very stylish and easy to use, and I would definately recommend this phone =]

I've had this 'phone for two weeks now and have just about got used to it.
There are a number of good and not so good features!
On the good side, it's easy to use, looks and feels good and has a clear bright screen.
Things I don't like are: The touch screen is ultra sensitive when scrolling so you have to be very careful. There is no on screen note to advise the arrival of a text message; it does beep when it arrives but if you don't hear that, then there is no other note and you have to check the In Box from time to time.
Also, there is no on screen note to advise of a calender event; you have to set a warning alarm to remind you at the time you set the event (hope that is clear)
My Samsung G600 had these features and I miss them (I've now given it to my wife)
One last thing, I haven't yet got to grips with the computer software but on the face of it, it does not look too user friendly.But I'm sure younger users will have no trouble.

Don't let these negative reports put you off, it's still a lovely phone and I'm sure I'm just being picky.

The Samsung S5230, a.k.a. The Tocco Lite is quite a user-friendly phone with lots of fun features and still manages to stay light on the wallet, making it the ideal first-time touchscreen phone.
Let me say it again, if you've never had a touch phone before and are thinking of taking the plunge, this is THE phone to start with.
If you're like me and wondering between this and the LG COOKIE KP500, I would say this is marginally better than the Cookie, and is only slightly more expensive.

The only catch is that there are a few minor annoyances that keep this from earning a full Five-Star.

The biggest pros are:

1.Has a very nice, large and responsive screen

2."Thumb-optimized" large icons are easy to use without a stylus

2.Slim design looks sexy and sophisticated.

3.Features accelerometer for neat effects like self-rotating picture gallery, tilt-to-slide photos etc.

4.Auto switches to full virtual QWERTY mode for texting, on rotating the screen.

5.Also features handwriting-recognition for texting; too bad there's no stylus included.

6.Excellent haptics give a good sense of 'feel' for the buttons.

7.Features office document readers (word, excel, powerpoint and PDF).

8.Good music player.

9.Nice selection of widgets and the triple homescreen means you don't even need to get into the menu for most common tasks.

Cons:

1.There's no wifi, 3G or GPS.
I don't particularly call them 'disadvantages' because at this price, you must be crazy to expect these!

2.No auto-focus on camera (despite the elaborate shooting modes it has)

3.No stylus on the Europe version. (fyi, a slightly different version of the same phone sold in Asia comes with the stylus!)

4.The supplied disc is a pathetic load of rubbish that wouldn't even start on Vista (SP1). You'd probably need to download 'PC Studio' off the net.

Now having said that, there are quite a few annoyances I've had using this phone (the ones that kept me from giving 5-stars.):

1.No timed profiles (Nokia users would miss this); and no way to rename profiles either.

2.The default keypad sounds are awful - they sound like toys. But if you're used to Samsung phones, you probably won't notice a difference.

3.While messaging, there is no way to set T9 'on' by default. Yes I know this is only one more key to press, but we're used to seeing it on all the time.

4.Terrible sunlight readability. I'm probably used to great sunlight usage from my old Nokia, but this is especially poor because the screen is also your input device.

5.MS office files are supported but large files don't open.

6.When locked, the display blacks-out completely and you need to press a button (any button) to see the time or to check if you've missed any calls.

7.The browser is quite basic; many popular sites like facebook, myspace etc. are supported only on the 'mobile' version of the site; youtube videos play, but again, only on the mobile version and videos stream on the phone's media player rather than the site itself.

8.The phone is horribly loud:
I know a lot of people think this is a good thing, but its not if you work at an office. Even at minimum volume It is still slightly loud. I had to actually edit all my ringtones to reduce the volume before reloading it to the phone to use it.
If you like loud phones, then good for you!

There's also a few more things I didn't like, but I'm guessing its because I'm not used to touchscreens, and aren't necessarily a fault of the phone.

The bottom line is, if you're looking for a relatively inexpensive way to go the touchscreen way, this is your phone!

Edit:
14March, 2010.
Having used this phone for a few months now, I'm starting find the poor sunlight legibility a growing pain.
In bright sunlight, its nearly impossible to see what's on the display (unless you shield it) which is very inconvenient - especially for a touchscreen.
Bottom line is, if you're going to be outdoors a lot, you can expect the same problems. Otherwise, its a good, solid phone and I haven't experienced any problems, freezes or anything so far.

After my phone died a death I decided on the Samsung Tocco Lite, and what a good choice I made if I do say so myself. Opening the box (which was smaller than what I expected) there it was; the shiny new phone just itching to get out of its wrapping. Along with my shiny happy phone I had a battery charger, the battery itself, a travel adapter, headphones/hands free and the user manual. After fully charging the phone for the first time it was time to check out what this bad boy could do. Apologies for the long review but this is what I would want to know about if I was thinking about buying one.

~Size and Weight~
First off the dimensions (104 x 53 x 11.9mm) make it a pretty sleek phone sitting nicely in the palm of your hand. The weight (93.5g) seems just perfect, not too heavy and not too light. The Tocco (meaning Touch in Italian) is just that, a touch screen phone with a lovely bright 3" display screen. I do not by any stretch of the imagination have nimble fingers and I am usually more likely to be too rough with things but this phone is excellent. The screen is really responsive to touch, but beware if you have large hands as it can get quite fiddly. I have since picked up a touch screen pen that can be attached to the corner of your phone. The cost for these pens does vary, but they are very inexpensive.

~Features~
Contacts: Now sadly this is a feature that I use heavily and expect each new phone that I get to let me store a lot of info on each of my contacts. Luckily for me Samsung haven't let me down. You can store up to 2000 numbers on the phones memory. In addition to the standard numbers feature in your address book each contact can have up to three numbers against their name, a photo, a group (which you select, ie. Family), email address, address and even their job title.

Camera: The phone has a 3 mega pixel camera which in `Phone World' isn't that great compared to other brands that offer up to 8 mega pixel cameras. In all honesty though I have two cameras myself and I am not too bothered about the camera that comes with the phone. The quality of the pictures is good enough for snaps on a night out when I have invariably forgotten my camera. Like other phones that I have had this phone also lets you video record with one switch of a button on the camera function.

Music: This phone has an MP3 Player which plays multi-format music files. Music Recognition is a feature that recognises songs for you. What you need to do is record a few seconds of a song on your phone and then sends it to the server, and the song will be found. It has a Music Library which is very easy to organize and you also get an FM Radio. I don't use any of my phones for music as I use my own music player so to be honest would not be the greatest judge when it comes to features.

Widgets: No I do not mean the things that fly around annoying people. The widgets are a feature of Samsung's touch screen phones. The simplest way to explain is that you can touch an area on the front of the screen and all the icons that you want (you can personalise the widgets) will appear in front of you and can be accessed with one touch of the screen. I have on occasion used the widgets feature but don't rely heavily on it.

Internet Access: This is the one area that I feel the Tocco Lite is inferior to other phones. It doesn't have Wi-Fi or high-speed 3G mobile connectivity, relying instead on quad-band GPRS/EDGE mobile data. To be honest I am with Orange and haven't found accessing the internet that bad. No it isn't as quick as some others but I don't rely on this phone alone for internet access (thank goodness). You can however access Google Maps relatively easily via the games section of the phone.

Other Features: Obviously there are other features of the phone that maybe don't have as much explanation attached to them and they are: - Bluetooth, Games, Timer and stopwatch, calendar, memos, calculator, converter for currency length and weight etc. and task lists. You also have all the usual suspects like being able to check through an entire call history as well as using alarms and changing profiles for ring tones etc.

~Opinion~
I buy a phone for just that, a phone. It is nice to have some extras along the way but I don't yearn to have all the latest and greatest. I have a perfectly good music player which I am happy with and an even better camera meaning I don't rely on my phone for the extra features that the new iPhones have. The phone itself looks really nice as it not too bulky but also not so tiny I can't find it in my bag. It takes a while to move from `buttons' to touch screen especially for the heavy handed, but I'm doing okay after a couple of weeks and the touch pen definitely helps. The navigation around the menus is very easy and I would imagine that it's pretty straightforward for most people, even the touch screen novices like me. If you are after a fully packed gadget type phone with all the extras then maybe the Samsung Tocco Lite is not for you. However if you want a phone that does most but not all things and is a reasonable price then maybe try it. I think Samsung have tried to corner the market for a cheaper price but this is only if you are in the market for a Pay as You Go. Most phone contracts will offer this phone for free with an 18 or 24 month contract. I am enjoying using this phone and think it suits my needs perfectly but before considering a purchase you need to weigh up how important all the relevant extras are to you.

When i was looking for a new phone, i was a bit hesitant about getting a touch screen phone- when trying out my friends', i found them difficult to use. However, i'm so glad i decided to get the Tocco Lite, it's so good! If you're new to touch screen phones, it's so easy to get used to. The screen is big and clear and when texting you can choose between a normal keypad and a qwerty keyboard by turning the phone on its side. However, the keys on the qwerty keyboard may be slightly small for people with larger finger, although the normal keypad has perfect-sized buttons.
I love the widget menu- you can choose from a variety of widgets and place them wherever you want on the 3 screens you can slide through, offering shortcuts to facebook, youtube & messages, and allowing memos to be stuck on your screen.
It has a really good camera & loads of different ways to edit photos to get them looking really good.
i also love how long the battery life is; i usually go about a week before i have to charge it, i never turn it off and im constantly texting on it, so the battery life is fantastic!
i could say so many good things about this phone, i really recommend it!

As my first touchscreen phone, I can honestly say it's a little gem, providing you don't compare it with Apple products.

PROS:
- easy to navigate, icons are clear and everything is easy to understand
- doesn't rely solely on the touchscreen, includes 6 buttons (the volume buttom can also be used to scroll up and down but only for a few lines at a time)
- the screen resolution is bright, sharp and colourful
- vibrating feature is strong and easily detectable
- camera is good quality for the price you're paying
- the little customisable widgets at the side are fun to muck around with and can be placed on your starter screen
- fairly customisable throughout
- little quirks such as photo contacts, 'smart unlock' and widgets keep the phone entertaining
- ringtone is as loud or quiet as you want it to be

CONS:
- touchscreen is more easily used with your nail or even a stylus rather than the tip of your finger
- it can be easily unlocked which proves annoying in your pocket (would be easier with a code unlock)
- if you organise the files into thumbnails rather than a list, this only lasts once and you need to keep reapplying this setting
- changing the ringtone took quite a while to crack
- the back comes off quite frequently I found, but my friend says hers doesn't have that problem
- internal memory is small meaning a memory card is almost necessary if you want to use the phone for photos or mp3 music
- the small message memory - my last phone (a Sony Ericsson) held 1000 messages altogether whereas this one holds 200 in the inbox and 200 in the sent messages folder which proves annoying when you're the kind of person who likes to keep certain messages

Overall, this phone is a lightweight, stylish gadget which is simple to use but has a few features which Samsung really needs to look into. Hope this review helped!

I have got to say that I was torn between the Tocco lite and the LG cookie at first, but I'm very happy that I chose the Tocco. Its so responsive and has loads of great features. All I can say is that its the best touchscreen phone for those on a bit of a budge, but you will be more than surprised with its performance and features.

Definitely recommend!!!

i bought this phone 4 days ago and i have to say it is one of the best phones i have owned, i had the samsung soul before this phone and i thought that was a good little phone, but the samsung toco lite is very easy to use and has some very neat and easy to use features,music sounds great and conects to my external speaker ware the soul didnt,and when conected to the external speaker it sounds even better, all in all its a great looking and very easy to use well priced little phone i would recemend this phone to everyone fantastic...............

I'd had my old Nokia for too long and it was looking shabby and beginning to play up, so I thought I'd treat myself to a new phone. I spent a lot of time looking at phones which I would be able to use and which perhaps had a few more features than my Nokia. After much deliberation I settled on the Samsung Tocco Lite and was influenced by reviews on this page. I have not been disappointed. I love the sleek look of the phone and have found it easy to use. I like the large screen and have enjoyed playing with the features of this phone. I'm not one of those people who is glued to their phone but find it very practical and fit for my purposes. I was highly impressed with the supplier GSM-Fonz who processed my order very quickly. I would thoroughly recommend this phone and it's supplier.