Samsung F700 review: Tap or type

The F700 is pretty much where it all began for Samsung and large touchscreens. It was their first mobile phone to feature a three-and-above-inch touchscreen display while back in the day 3 megapixel autofocus cameras were still high-end stuff. As time went by Samsung F490 and the Samsung Armani phone loomed into prominence, and there are a few more coming up. And guess what, none of them has the bulky QWERTY underside. That should tell you something. 

   
Samsung F700 official images

Anyway, we ended up reviewing the first full touch Samsung handset last among its kin. F700 packs the same touch user interface as the recently reviewed F490, but the old dog is clearly the underdog. Nevertheless, bear with us as we take on this slider for a ride.
Key features:
Stylish looks and high-quality build 
Tri-band GSM and HSDPA support with video calls 
Large 3.2" touchscreen TFT display of 240 x 440 pixel resolution 
Comfortable QWERTY keyboard 
3 megapixel autofocus camera 
Touch haptic feedback is present 
microSD memory card slot 
Stereo Bluetooth 
Standard 3.5mm audio jack 
Office documents viewer 
Snappy user interface 
Intuitive music player 
Fast screen autorotation when keyboard is revealed 
Main disadvantages:
Bulky size 
Awkward and slow web browser scrolling and panning 
Video recording maxes out at QVGA@15fps 
Unable to play widescreen user-encoded WMV and H.263 videos 
Slow image zooming in the gallery 
The three Java games are trial versions only 
The microSD slot is accessible only with the back panel off 

What we have here is another handset, which gets defined through how it handles the load of being an iPhone look-alike. We don't mean to say that every touch-operated handset wants to be iPhone when it grows up. It's just sometimes the comparison forces itself even on the most neutral observer.