Samsung F480 TouchWiz

Features and Performance
Interface and Navigation
The large and clear display makes everything come to life. The small section called Widgets (a way of saying shortcuts) is a tap away on the main screen. It folds neatly to the side when you don’t need it. It has a set list of shortcuts you can access from that section. You can’t add any shortcuts other than those pre-selected, but you can choose the ones you’d like to have previewed. I liked the smooth slide-out feature for dropping those Widgets on to the desktop for easy access.

The moment you start the F480 TouchWiz, I'd recommend that you immediately shut off the annoying key sound vibration feedback. Not only does it drain the battery; I also noticed it made character input rather sluggish. My initial response was that feedback was horribly sluggish till I changed this setting. Oddly, you wont find a setting for this in the Phone Setting option; just a sound change from annoying beeps to an annoying xylophone style. This can be controlled by using the volume keys on the side. Two options become available – one for controlling key sounds and the other for vibration feedback. This setting can ONLY be accessed when you’re on the desktop.

The OS itself is nothing different from what you'd have seen in other Samsung handsets. It was a little colorful for my taste. Sub-menus were easy to navigate, and finger-touch operation was smooth and easy. After the key sounds and vibration were shut off, typing messages and emails was a cinch. It’s all very clearly defined, and the keypad was large enough even for my stubby fingers.

Media
I’m happy to report that this has by far the best sound I’ve heard in any Samsung model that I’ve reviewed. The earphones are still annoyingly wrong for my ears though, and Samsung has not made any provision for using our own earphones. Nevertheless the music player interface is superb, with keys to activate EQ presets with a simple one-touch selection, and everything else you need at your fingertips, quite literally. These presets also include a Surround setting that I found to be really good for those songs that included a melodic beat with a lot of orchestra.

Even creating playlists is easy. You can also play your files directly from the card; only you won’t be able to do anything else, such as change EQ settings etc. I wish Samsung had thought of incorporating a manually adjustable EQ though. When talking about the overall quality of the player, let me just say this audio player will allow you uninterrupted peace even in a noisy commuter train. ‘Nuff said.

Just like Sony Ericsson’s TrackID and Motorola’s MusicID feature for recognizing music, Samsung has loaded the F480 with its own version, a feature simply called Music Recognition. Unfortunately it doesn’t work too well. This is just one of those extra preloaded features that are redundant. I’ll get to the others as we proceed.��