Samsung Tocco Ultra Edition: Fake calls and real keys

The successor to the original Tocco keeps the touchscreen and adds a slide-out keypad, while an 8-megapixel camera and 'fake call' feature make the Tocco Ultra Edition highly stealable

Richard Trenholm

Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.

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Richard Trenholm

Feb. 9, 2009 12:59 a.m. PT

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With this year's Mobile World Congress just around the corner, Samsung unveiled its flagship phone in a secret London location. It's called the Tocco Ultra Edition, and we got our sticky fingerprints all over it to bring you these pictures. (Update - we've also now got a Samsung Tocca Ultra review on the site.)

Known as the Ultra Touch in the rest of the world, the Tocco Ultra succeeds the original Tocco, adding a slide-out keypad and keeping the touchscreen widget sidebar. Multimedia capability is a big part of the Tocco Ultra's appeal, with an FM radio and crystal-clear 71mm (2.8-inch) OLED screen for watching films. Although Samsung is keen to develop its position in the music sector, representatives were eager to point out that this aim is solely on the hardware side, with there being no chance of a service like Nokia's Comes With Music.

The Tocco Ultra features an 8-megapixel camera, complete with LED light, autofocus and face detection. The phone's GPS system combines with the camera for geotagging your snaps. A nine-shot continuous mode, six-shot panorama and smile shutter also feature, as well as the option to preset Flickr, Facebook and other photo sites for instant upload.

Other colour options besides the red version pictured here will be available. Some of these will be exclusive to certain networks. With a £5m advertising campaign on the way in April, the Tocco Ultra should fly off the shelves.

'Fake call' is a feature Samsung was positively giddy about, but, frankly, it left us scratching our heads. With this feature, you record yourself speaking, and then, if you are ever in a situation where you feel threatened -- say, walking home past some hooded yoofs -- you hold down the volume key and the Tocco Ultra will call itself. When you answer, the message plays to create the illusion that someone knows where you are. On the downside, you will have just put your expensive and desirable style phone on display to said hoodlums.

Take a look at our photos to see if you think hooded ruffians would consider the Tocco Ultra worth nicking.