Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH review: Touch, slide, shoot

Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH, otherwise dubbed as the Tocco Ultra edition, joins in on the bandwagon of full touch handsets that seem to be occupying the upper range of the market quite successfully. Nothing can compare to the ease of use of a touchscreen phone - given the user interface is done right. And Samsung have put a lot of effort in their proprietary TouchWiz interface.

The Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH is definitely among the most exciting devices that saw daylight during this year's MWC. We took a closer look at its beta-version and were impressed but the final one is even more impressive. No-one's claiming it's perfect, but it certainly has plenty to show off about.

The handset is known under different names across the world. You may hear people calling it UltraTOUCH, Tocco Ultra Edition (or Tocco Ultra) or just the S8300. But regardless of the name it's hiding behind, there's still the same classy touchscreen slider with an alphanumeric keypad. 

   
Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH (a.k.a. Tocco Ultra Edition) official photos
Key features:
Classy touchscreen slider with an alphanumeric keypad 
Commendable build quality 
Quad-band GSM and 3G with HSDPA support 
8 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, geo-tagging, face and smile detection, image stabilization, wide dynamic range and D1 video@30 fps 
2.8" 16M color AMOLED touchscreen display with 400 x 240 pixel resolution 
Anti-scratch screen surface 
Accelerometer for screen auto rotate 
Proximity sensor for auto screen turn-off 
MicroSD card slot (up to 16 GB), 1 GB included 
Built-in GPS receiver with A-GPS support, Google Maps 
Stereo Bluetooth (A2DP) 
DivX/XviD video support 
Stereo FM radio with RDS, FM recording 
Document viewer 
Photo Contact 
Smart dialing 
Main disadvantages
User interface sometimes lags 
Slow initializing of large microSD cards 
Limited options for third-party GPS navigation software 
No virtual on-screen QWERTY keyboard 
Memory card isn't hot swappable 
No Wi-Fi connectivity 
Battery cover gets scratched easily 

It's been a year since the announcement of the first device of this kind, the LG KF700. The Samsung S8300 takes over where the KF700 left off and attempts a huge leap forward. Just like the LG phone, the S8300 UltraTOUCH is a slick touchscreen slider with an alphanumeric keypad allowing users to experience the joy of having a touchscreen-equipped device without giving up the comfort of the traditional alphanumeric keypad. Usability-wise, there is hardly any replacement for hardware keys for typing text.