Samsung S8300 gets official: Say hello to the Tocco Ultra Edition

Following the leaked images a few weeks back, the phone formerly known as the S8300 has now been officially announced as theSamsung Tocco Ultra Edition. While admittedly quite a mouthful of a name, the Tocco Ultra earns its moniker as a marriage of two of Samsung’s most popular phones to date; the Samsung Tocco and theSamsung Soul. The Tocco Ultra features a 2.8 inch full touchscreen display which promises to deliver an unparalleled visual experience thanks to AMOLED technology. The touchscreen is further complimented by haptic feedback which confirms your actions with a light vibration, Accelerometer for auto screen rotation and a proximity sensor which puts the screen on standby when you’re on a call. The Tocco Ultra Edition takes its styling from the Soul; at just 12.8mm thick, this incredibly slim phone still manages to pack in an alpha-numeric keypad in a slide phone form factor. The worlds first full touchscreen phone with a slide out 3×4 keypad.

So a slide phone with a traditional keypad and a proper fulltouchscreen, but what about features? Well, this is where the Tocco Ultra truly comes into its own. The Tocco Ultra includes an impressive 8.0 Megapixel camera with Autofocus, face and smile detection, Flash and support for Geo-Tagging thanks to an on boardGPS receiver. And if moving pictures are your thing, video capture at 30 frames per second is complimented nicely by a wealth of video editing options such as audio dubbing and the ability to trim videos. Perfect for budding Spielbergs. In terms of video playback, the Tocco Ultra supports DivX and XviD as well as MPEG4 meaning the Tocco Ultra is a powerful Multimedia phone.

Elsewhere, we find HSDPA connectivity offering up to 7.2 Mbps for lightening quick browsing and downloads, the aforementioned GPS SatNav receiver plus A-GPS support for an even quicker satellite lock, Bluetooth v2.1 for faster file transfers and streaming music to a compatible headset and of course an MP3 player supporting a wealth of file formats.

So let’s recap; Good looks? Check. Touchscreen interface? Check. Traditional keypad? Check. Cracking camera? Check. Wealth of multimedia and connectivity features? Check Mate. The Samsung Tocco Ultra Edition, known as the UltraTOUCH elsewhere in European markets, is set for launch in mid to late March (so next month!). If those stunning good looks haven’t won you over, the formidable features surely will.