Samsung has a confused Italian touch

Last week we had word there will be a launch of a Samsung mobile on Monday, looks like we were right as they announced the Tocco Ultra Edition. In what’s one of the most misleading product naming of all time, it bears little or no resemblance to the original Tocco handset.

Tocco is Italian for touch, making the first version’s branding OKAY in our books – as it was a full touch screen handset. Why then would Samsung name a slider phone Tocco? It’s not as if tacking on the words ‘Ultra Edition’ goes anyway to clear up the confusion. Most would assume it would be a greater handset than the original with that naming alone, how wrong they would be.

The original Tocco came along with a 2.8-inch QVGA LCD, this so-called updated model has the same screen size but comes along in WQVGA display. This puzzled us, seeing as both screen sizes are the same and the “W” just means wider but the new handset has a smaller width.

Samsung has also downgraded the memory on the phone from 240MB, to just 75MB. Another strike against them having the audacity to call this handset ‘Ultra’; it’s starting to become very strange as to why they would even consider giving it this name.

They’re calling this the world’s first touch screen phone to have a 3 x 4 keypad; we’ve looked around and are willing to give them that. Samsung has also upped the coverage from Tri band to Quad band in this newer Tocco, along with increasing the camera from 5 to 8megapixel.

To their own admission, they are calling this their flagship handset of 2009, due for a release March. They haven’t really started off on great footing, let’s just hope it picks up for them later. A rebranding of the product would be a good start.