Samsung UltraTOUCH S8300 Review

Introduction:

Initially announced at the MWC event this year, the Samsung UltraTOUCH S8300 (also known as the Tocco Ultra Edition) is the manufacturer’s latest flagship model. Despite numerous phones were showcased at the expo, the UltraTOUCH definitely managed to attract much attention. Being an Ultra series phone, it brings along many of the advantages of other, more narrowly specialized devices in a nice and good-looking body, making it appealing to the common consumer. It combines several key features. First off, the Samsung UltraTOUCH sports a 2.8-inch touch-sensitive display which allows it to take advantage of the TouchWiz user interface and a rich number of widgets, automatically turning it into an adequate, modern device. On the other hand, it is also equipped with an up-to-date 8-megapixel camera. You would say it is a high-end camera phone?! Not exactly. In addition, it has a slim and attractive body with a numeric keypad, designed to turn heads from the ground up. Still, its various features and capabilities prevent us from referring to it as just a fashion accessory. So what exactly is the UltraTOUCH? As we mentioned in our preview - it is a multifunctional, all-purpose, high-end device, designed to satisfy the needs of a widest range of choosey users, while still being a phone in the first place.

Design:

The Samsung UltraTOUCH S8300 is the successor of the Soul, but in contrast to it, the navigation touch display is no longer present, which allows more space for a larger, 2.8-inch touch-sensitive screen. The manufacturer has incorporated the AMOLED technology, which provides an incredible image quality when indoors, in spite of the not-so-high WQVGA resolution. The colors are vivid and the contrast is high. Once you step into the open however, “incredible” is no longer a valid adjective for what you see on the screen, but you will still be able to use it. There are only three buttons below it – send, end and the unique-looking back button, which introduces a new rhomb-like shape with a metal frame.



You can compare the Samsung UltraTOUCH S8300 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

Wondering how to dial a number? Simply slide the phone open to reveal the standard numeric keypad. As a whole, the keys are large enough, but what we really find appealing is the striking red color solution. This is definitely one of the UltraTOUCH’s strong sides. The keys are small, but pressing them feels pleasant. Like it or not, the keypad is flat, so distinguishing the keys by touch is not a piece of cake. Also have in mind that the first row of the keypad is too close to the front body, so your finger will often inconveniently press against the edge. In addition, the weight of the device isn’t very well balanced, so typing doesn´t come in very handy.

Other features include a loudspeaker and camera for video conversations, both positioned above the display. The left side houses only the volume rocker, while the camera shutter, the hold key and the microUSB port (fortunately, there is one) are on the right. These also feel really good to use and should not give you any trouble.


Turning the phone turtle reveals a simple design, with only the Samsung logo standing out against the black housing. Opening the slide provides a bit more flare; the 8 megapixel camera shows up on a vivid red finish, geared with a dual LED flash and a tiny self-portrait mirror.


As a whole, the phone looks good enough and due to its cool red elements you cannot take it for any other device. We aren’t fully convinced, however, that the slider is handy enough to use as it lacks the protruding edge (unlike the Soul) allowing you to flick it open and closed more easily. On the other hand, the Samsung UltraTOUCH S8300 has been designed with touchscreen use in mind, so you won’t need to open it too often anyway. Although using the screen feels acceptable, it could´ve been better. It gives nice vibration feedback and is accurate enough, but keep in mind that gets messy the second you start using it. In addition, scrolling feels like a real pain. No matter where and what you are scrolling in, the home screen or any submenu, the phone simply reacts inadequately. We think this is a drawback of the TouchWiz interface itself, but more on this on the next page.

Interface:

Samsung UltraTOUCH S8300 utilizes Samsung’s TouchWiz user interface. You can call up your phonebook or main menu directly from the home screen through the icons at the lower end, but keep in mind the main menu can also be accessed by sliding a finger right to left, while sliding in the opposite direction takes you to the Photo Contacts, which allows you to store shortcuts to your favorites. Actually, these are images that can be tagged with people´s faces in a Facebook style and assigned contact numbers.


In the preview, we said that the interface needed some finishing touches. Indeed, Samsung has already updated the software, but we are not entirely sure the end result is more satisfying really. Dragging around widgets is now smooth, but other actions are just too slow. Moreover, animated transitions between the Widget, Photo Contacts and Menu screens are gone now, probably because the developers couldn’t figure out how to get rid of the lagging. Well, it would be way better if they had been fixed, rather than just removed, but maybe the time schedule of the developers did not allow that.

Widgets:

Everyone knows widgets are cool, but in most cases there are just a few of them. It looks like the Korean manufacturer has done their level best and we cannot complain that they lack here. Most of them aren’t very original and are actually shortcuts to different phone functions, but this only applies to preloaded ones. We now have a special new widget with the sole purpose to allow download of more widgets! However, placing more than three or four on the screen at the same time is not such a bright idea as it may look, mostly because there is little room and scrolling up and down your home screen is an uphill battle, since the interface has not been properly optimized.

Phonebook and Organizer:

The phonebook features a drop-down menu with three available functions: Contacts, Groups and Favorites. There is a search field below the drop-down menu that, if the phone is closed, brings up the on-screen numeric keypad with its large, easy to use keys. Unfortunately, you can only see up to three or four contacts at the same time, which means that the only reasonable way to find one is to use the search option. Well, you can still scroll to the desired letter, but this may feel somewhat annoying in case you´ve got too many contact names starting with the same letter (don´t forget the unhandy scrolling).



The manufacturer has also provided a really smart feature – fake call. Some of you may be of the opinion this is something rather useless, but it could prove a life saving feature in case you want to avoid a boring conversation or the presence of someone you´d rather not be with. Just hold the volume down button pressed for a while and your phone will simulate an incoming call.



In order to gain access to the organizer, you need to navigate to the main menu first. Do not expect something truly exciting here. Organizer functions are numerous and good enough for a non-smart phone. Samsung has included everything that may come in handy: calendar, memos, tasks, world clock, calculator and unit convertor. Aside from these, there is also a voice recorder, timer and a stopwatch, all of these in the applications menu.

Camera:

We have already mentioned that the phone is a real camera powerhouse, utilizing an 8-megapixel, autofocus sensor. Photographers will find out, however, that good things do not end here, as the camera interface has also got some advanced options, including exposure control, white balance, effects, ISO, Anti-Shake function and Wide Dynamic Range. Video recording is also present, though at only DVD resolution and not HD as on the new OMNIA. In terms of speed, the camera puts up a great performance. Starting it takes less than 2 seconds, focusing objects is about 2.5 seconds, while saving the actual image is done in another 2 seconds. The images we did in the open are somewhat noisy, but at least the colors are real and vivid. We are most satisfied with our nature-themed shots, as they turned out lively and artistic. Unfortunately, do not expect breathtaking results when taking pictures indoors. Snapshots in this case were quite reddish, noisy and blurred, especially in low light conditions.




Multimedia:

In terms of entertainment, the new handset offers pretty much the standard stuff. Its music player puts the touch screen to good use. Being fully optimized for finger input, it has large, easy to press keys and an equalizer with quite a few presets. The loudspeaker sounds really good, although it´s not as loud as we would like. Overall, you won´t have any troubles hearing the phone as long as you keep away from too noisy environments. In case you’re tired of listening to the same songs, you can also rely on the FM radio that looks really nice and upbeat, or you can even watch full-length movies thanks to the DivX and Xvid support. Luckily, the phone managed to play our test videos smoothly and we were pleasantly surprised to see them running in high resolutions (especially DivX and Xvid), so you should be able to play most of the videos you download from the Internet.



Internet:

Speaking of the Internet, the Samsung UltraTOUCH has a decent web browser. It doesn’t offer an overview layout, but at least panning around is somewhat better than scrolling menus up and down for example. Fortunately, we did not encounter any issues during our tests and complex pages rendered almost perfectly. Depending on font size, you may find it hard to read the text on some pages, in case you have fully zoomed out on a page (which you would probably do in an attempt to see a larger portion of the site).



GPS:

The Samsung UltraTOUCH S8300 comes in two versions: with or without GPS package. The former includes a GPS license and special GPS interface submenu, along with a Route66 PC Sync CD, 1GB microSD card, preloaded with maps and a Navigation Quick Start Guide. On the other hand, you still get a Google Maps submenu with the non-GPS package.

Performance:

In our view, being a phone is pretty easy these days, especially if you pack a lot of features. This way, stuff like bad voice quality or crackling loudspeaker often gets more easily accepted. However, there is no question of give-and-take in our reviews. After all, you are about to buy a phone and not just a high-end toy, right? So, you also expect it to perform pretty well in its phone capacity too. Listening through the UltraTOUCH S8300 earpiece is not the best thing to be subjected to. The sound is loud, but its sharpness is way above what is necessary to the point of voices sounding unrealistic. The overall quality is very bad. If you care whether the others enjoy the conversation, well, we would say the phone performs slightly better on the other end. Still, there is a lot of noise accompanying the voices and they are still way too sharp, but at least they sound more natural. Well, like it or lump it, it is a fact – the UltraTOUCH is no good when it comes to calling people.

Conclusion:

As a whole, the Samsung UltraTOUCH S8300 is definitely a stylish piece of hardware, equipped with advanced features that should help it appear contemporary and relevant. However, we do not like its slow software, which seems to be like years behind. If you are thinking of getting a regular, good-looking high-end cell phone, you should certainly add the UltraTOUCH to your list of possible options before heading for the store. Still, we do not recommend that you rush right away, but rather wait until the LG Crystal comes out, as it will also sport an (even more) spectacular design and similar features, but running on the better S-CLASS 3D interface.