Toshiba Portégé G710
Announced last month and due to hit the streets in the next couple of weeks, theToshiba Portégé G710 is a BlackBerryesque device running Windows Mobile 6 and featuring a built-in GPS receiver.
It doesn't just look a bit like a BlackBerry, the Portégé G710 is aiming at exactly the same market as devices such as the BlackBerry Curve 8310 The 2.46" 320 x 240 pixel display is pretty standard for this type of device, although the lack of a touchscreen may prove irritating when used with a satellite navigation package. On the back is a 2 megapixel camera, and the G710 supports microSD expandable memory, it also comes with Bluetooth 1.2 and USB 1.1 connectivity.
It isn't a 3G phone - the Toshiba Portégé G710 is a quad-band GSM device with GPRS and EDGE data. There is no WiFi either. Although high-speed data is a nice thing to have, it isn't really necessary for email and the Toshiba G710 should behave just fine when it comes to messaging.
It's not clear if there is any kind of SatNav application bundled with the G710, but there are a variety of commercial Applications
At 115 x 62 x 13mm and 130 grams in weight, the G710 is pretty similar to the competition, although a little slimmer than most. The 1050 mAh battery can drive the G710 for up to 3 hours of talktime and 8 days standby time. Windows Mobile does tend to drain the power cell quite quickly, so the battery life on the G710 is not as good as some of the non-Windows competition.
The Toshiba Portégé G710 does seem to be one of the most promising handsets in its class - if you are looking for a BlackBerry style device but you want to run Windows, then the G710 certainly looks to be a good option.
No exact release date is known, but we understand that the G710 should be available in early March for around €220 / £150 before tax and any carrier subsidy.
Toshiba G450
Without doubt one of the strangest mobile phones we have ever seen, the Toshiba G450 is a surprisingly well specified and very lightweight 3G device that just does things rather differently.
This Toshiba G450 weighs just 57 grams, about half the weight of a conventional 3G phone. Measurements are 98 x 36 x 16mm, so it's slightly shorter and about two thirds of the width of a conventional monoblock handset. Instead of a keyboard, the Toshiba G450 has two circular multifunction pads.
The biggest compromise is the display - the 0.8" 96 x 39 pixel panel is certainly never going to be any use for web browsing, but it should work just fine for basic handset operations and the multimedia player. The Toshiba G450 includes stereo wired headphones, but it does not support Bluetooth.
One of the primary design goals for the Toshiba G450 was to act as a modem - it comes with HSDPA support allowing download speeds of up to 3.6 Mbps, and it also supports UMTS, EDGE and GPRS data. Voice calls can be made at the same time as data calls. Because the G450 doesn't support Bluetooth, the handset has to be connected to a laptop with a USB cable, but as the USB cable also keeps the G450 charged then this is probably a good thing.
When connected to a PC, the Toshiba G450 appears as a standard USB memory key. MP3s and other data can be transferred to the handset. Internal memory is a maximum of 160 MB, but this is not expandable. Music playback automatically pauses when a call is made.
As well as having an MP3 player, the Toshiba G450 has an alarm clock. This may seem silly, but as a mobile phone alarm clock is probably its most used PIM function, then it's reassuring that it is there. And it's worth mentioning because really, apart from MP3s and the alarm clock, the Toshiba G450 doesn't really do anything else. OK, you can make calls, send texts and manage your contacts list too.. but really you wouldn't want to try doing anything else on the G450's tiny screen.
Toshiba say that the maximum talktime on 3G is just 70 minutes, with up to 140 minutes talktime on GSM. Standby time is 7-8 days. The short talktime is due in part to the small 600 mAH battery. You can tell by this that the natural environment for the G450 is to be plugged into a laptop with a USB cable.
This is a very odd device. But we give credit to Toshiba for trying something different with the G450's design. Think of it as an alternative to a standalone USB cellular modem, and you might be close to figuring out the G450's target market.
Toshiba say that the G450 should be available from the first quarter of 2008 across Europe, in Black, Red and Silver colour combinations.
Toshiba Portégé G910 / G920
We saw Toshiba's first Portégé branded phones last year, and now Toshiba have followed up with a couple of very different devices. The top of the range is the Toshiba Portégé G910 / G920, a folding smartphone with a touchscreen and a QWERTY keyboard.
Before we start, let's clear up any confusion about size. Yes, it saysToshiba on the cover, yes it looks a bit like a laptop, but it really isn't that big. At 117 x 64 x 20mm and 183 grams, the Portégé G910 is in the same class of devices as the Nokia E90.
The other slightly confusing thing is the model number - both the Portégé G910 and G920 feature built-in GPS, but on the G920 this has been upgraded to A-GPS (Advanced GPS). Since this is a carrier dependent feature, you may see some networks offering the G910 with others offering the G920. Quite why Toshiba didn't just bundled A-GPS as standard is a mystery. Toshiba say that both models offer Qualcomm's gpsOneXTRA Assistance™ technology to improve fix times and accuracy in urban areas. Toshiba indicate that there is a navigation system built in, or you can add your own favourite SatNav package if you wish.
Like the Nokia E90, the Portégé G910 has an 800 pixel wide display which is ideal for web browsing. However, the Toshiba display has more screen real estate at 800 x 480 pixels (compared with the Nokia's 800 x 352 pixels), and crucially the G910 has a touchscreen as well. The Toshiba's 3" display is one of the highest resolution screens around, most competing devices only manage 320 x 240 pixels, with a handful of 640 x 480 pixel displays around.
As you have probably guessed already, this is a Windows Mobile 6 device, so it comes bundled with pocket versions of Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player. Security has been enhanced by a fingerprint reader, the Opera web browser has been included, but other than that it seems that Toshiba haven't tried to jazz the interface up in the way that HTC tends to.
TOf course, this is not just a standalone pocket Computer he primary camera on this Toshiba is a 2 megapixel unit with autofocus, plus a secondary camera for video calling. This is pretty typical for a Windows Mobile device.
Close the Portégé G910 up, and you'll see that it has a very attractive and businesslike exterior, combining smooth good looks with a partial leather effect covering. There's a small external display and some very minimal controls.. perhaps a bit too minimal, but overall the G910's looks will certainly impress your business colleagues.
The 1320 mAH battery provides up to 5 hours of talktime and 19 days of standby time, but remember that the more features you use, then the quicker the battery will drain. Toshiba say that the Portégé G910 and G920 should be available during Q1 2008, but did not give any guidance on price.
Toshiba Portégé G810
In the past year or so, we have compared an awful lot of phones to the Apple iPhone, a device that we don't even like that much. So perhaps it is getting a bit tedious to mention the iPhone again, but with the Toshiba Portégé G810, the comparison is kind of inevitable.
So here's the deal. Every time we mention the iPhone when talking about the G810, we will donate five pounds to The Alternative Animal Sanctuary in Luton, UK. That's three mentions of the iPhone already.. oh wait.. four. Well, they have just had a major fire, so they could probably use the money.
The Toshiba Portégé G810 ticks all the boxes when it comes to competing with the iPhone. It has a touchscreen display, in this case a 2.8" 240 x 320 pixel display. That's much smaller than the 3.5" panel on the iPhone, but around the same size as the Nokia N95 8GB.
The Toshiba G810 might not have the drop dead gorgeous looks of the iPhone, but underneath it has a very impressive feature set. Remember, the iPhone is a GSM phone with EDGE and WiFi and lacks any type of 3G, but the Portégé G810 comes not only with 3G, but tri-band UMTS plus HSPDA with a maximum of 3.6 Mbps download speed, and on top of that the G810 is one of only a very small number of handsets that supports HSUPA with upload speeds of up to 2 Mbps.
On the back is a 3 megapixel camera with autofocus. The G810 also features GPS, with A-GPS support where available. There's an FM radio with RDS, microSD expandable memory up to 4GB, USB 2.0 and Bluetooth 2.0 plus the Windows Mobile 6 operating system. The iPhone lacks GPS, doesn't come with a radio and the two megapixel camera has been criticised as being pretty basic.
The Windows Mobile interface looks a bit dated compared to the iPhone, so Toshiba have customised the look and feel of the device to make it a little more contemporary. There are also plenty of Windows Mobile Applications For those people who care about what is under the hood, the Toshiba Portégé G810 has a 400 MHz Qualcomm MSM7200 processor with 128MB RAM. It's a tri-band UMTS/WCDMA phone operating at 850/1900/2100 MHz plus quad-band GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz with GPRS and EDGE data. The large 1530 mAh battery can power the G810 for up to 4 hours talktime and 8 days standby time. The G810 weighs 120 grams and measures 110 x 58 x 14mm.
So, the Toshiba Portégé G810 has a smaller screen than the iPhone, but it is more compact overall and has a much better hardware specification. The operating system may not be as slick, but it will be interesting to see what Toshiba have done with it. The G810 supports GPS where the iPhone does not, and because it is a Windows Mobile 6 device, then you can add your own SatNav application to it.. for a price.
Compared to the iPhone then, the Toshiba G810 is broadly competitive but has different strengths and weaknesses. Crucially, the Toshiba badge on the front does give it a few points for coolness too.
Toshiba say that the Portégé G810 should be available during Q2 2008, most likely coming to market in June. No pricing information was available at the time of going to press.
By our count, we owe The Alternative Animal Sanctuary the princely sum of £70. Perhaps some other Mobile Gazette readers would like to help out with this worthy cause by Donating too?
Toshiba TG01
Toshiba first gave people a peep at the Toshiba TG01 a few days ago, and they have now announced the full details of this powerful Windows Mobile phone. Unusually, the headlining feature in the TG01 is the processor. This is a 1GHz Qualcomm QSD8250 which Toshiba say is twice as fast as the processors usually found in Windows phones. The memory is larger than most too, at 256MB RAM. In a lot of ways, running Windows Mobile on a phone is like running Windows on a pc .. the more memory and processing power you can throw at it, the better. The big 4.1" touch-sensitive display has a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels in 262,000 colours. This is ideal for web browsing or just about anything else you might want to do with the TG01. The display has been enhanced using Toshiba's REGZA technology lifted straight from Toshiba's well-regarded TVs. Toshiba are very keen to tell you that the TG01 is incredibly slim for a phone of this type, coming in at just 9.9mm. What they don't tell you is that the rest of the phone is huge. Measuring 129 x 70 x 9.9mm, the Toshiba TG01 has a 25% bigger "footprint" than the Apple
iPhone, and it is almost identical to what Windows
phones looked like in 2003, although about half the thickness. Despite this large size, the TG01 weighs only 129 grams which is a shade lighter than its Apple rival, probably due in part to the magnesium alloy casing. On the back of the TG01 is a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, which is nothing particularly special. This is a GPS-enabled phone with support for A-GPS. It's not clear what personal navigation options are included, but there are a number of add-on application available for Windows Mobile devices. The large touchscreen will also be idea for any kind of satellite navigation tasks. All the standard features are here: the TG01 has a web browser, multimedia player, supports push email, it comes with Bluetooth 2.0, microSD expandable memory and a micro USB connector. There are an awful lot of good touchscreen phones due for release in 2009. What sets the Toshiba TG01 apart from the rest of the pack is the large, high-resolution screen. It also helps that this is a very attractive looking device that is significantly sexier than some
older Toshiba smartphones. Toshiba have not said exactly when the TG01 will become available, or how much it will cost. The two available colours at launch are "deep black" or "vivid white",and interested customers can preregister .
We have lost count of how many custom interfaces that we have seen running on top of Windows Mobile 6.1 recently, but Toshiba have added yet another one. This uses "three stripes" on the menu and has animation going on as you navigate through the various options. Whether or not these custom interfaces will survive the new Windows Mobile 6.5 is an interesting question.
The Toshiba TG01 is a quad-band GSM phone with support for 2100 MHz UMTS with HSDPA download speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA upload speeds of up to 2 Mbps. Alternatively, you can use the phone's built-in WiFi connectivity. Talktime is quoted as a maximum of 5 hours, although it is not clear if this is on 3G or GSM.
