Review Samsung has been keen to tap into the touchscreen trend, with recent models like the F700, F490 and its Armani phone collaboration all following the iPhone’s lead into fingertip-tapping control.

The Tocco SGH-F480 is another compact touchscreen effort, smaller than its near-namesake, the F490, and consequently packs a 2.8in display rather then the F490’s big, 3.2in screen. Its screen is a 240 x 320, 262,000-colour job.

Samsung's Tocco: compact, stylish, daft name

The Tocco is smaller than the iPhone, measuring up at compact 98.4 x 55 x 11.6mm and weighing 106g. But this means you don’t get as much screen real estate for viewing, nor indeed finger space for tapping.

That makes the Tocco more pocket-friendly, yet it also packs in a five-megapixel camera and HSDPA 3G connectivity, though it lacks Wi-Fi. So far, so like the F490. But the Tocco does introduce some new touches, including a revamped TouchWiz user interface, which also adds applets to the standby screen.

The Tocco works the minimalist touchscreen look pretty well. Under a Samsung logo at the bottom of the black faceplate there’s a discreet rectangular manual control pad, featuring standard Call and End buttons, plus a central menu key. There’s a touch of chrome around the sides of the phone, and a brushed metal back panel.

Samsung includes in the box a slide-on back plate with a rigid leather-look cover attached, offering some added screen protection.