Samsung F480 TouchWiz

Camera
Having a 5 megapixel camera in a mobile is not a big deal in this day and age. It’s the features in that camera that are the clincher. The F480 has a lot to offer in this regard, with features such as include face detection technology (that works quite well) and anti-shake.

I wasn’t too impressed with the colors, but on the whole the images do look quite good. I would have liked easier access to various settings like white balance etc., and a preview of the selected features before I took a picture. One would think this handset is only for those who are already good enough photographers who merely needed to know what settings to choose in any given situation.

My Night Mode test is to place the camera absolutely still and mounted and set a timer so as not to shake it before the shutter is released. The images looked too blurry and were not to my liking at all. The single LED flash did not help in any circumstances, and was barely noticeable in dark areas.

The lack of a Macro Mode made the camera a little less appealing. However let me say this – in normal point-and-shoot mode with decent lighting or in broad daylight, the image reproduction isn’t bad at all. At least the face detection works fine, so portraits look pretty good. �

Battery
The F480 really came through with the battery life. Although it wasn’t extraordinary it was more than merely adequate. On a single charge I was able to get a full two days of usage with calls, messages, net usage as well as a full a little bit of video. With regard to talktime I squeezed out about 3 hours. Not bad at all. The phone can be charged via USB as well.

The Bottomline
The F480 TouchWiz had every potential to be a superb touchscreen handset, if it weren’t for the Java-related issues and unusable preloaded applications and oddities. Unfortunately, till these issues are worked out, it’s running a little low in my list of i-Killers. Perhaps it could be a glitch in the handset I received, but it would be foolish to think Samsung would provide me with a tester that wasn’t fully functional.

At a price at Rs 20,899, this would have been a great phone if it weren’t for those silly issues. All I can say is I hope some of the features that didn’t work for me work for you.

Specs