14 replies to this topic

[PaulOBrien]

Back when the Toshiba G900 was announced, it created quite a stir. 128MB RAM / ROM, 3G, 800x480 screen, fingerprint reader, sliding QWERTY... there was quite a buzz around the device. As the device hit the stores however, serious quality issues with the ROM build became apparent, and the device was declared by most (quite rightfully) a lemon.

Now a bit of time has passed, and several software updates later, version 3.07 is the current ROM.

Do you have a G900? Are you running the 3.07 ROM? Are the issues with the device fixed? It still stands alone (until the XPERIA arrives at least) as the sole Windows Mobile 800x480 screened device, so i'm interested to know whether the problems are behind it and it's a viable purchase now.

Let us know your experiences

P

[ripnet]

Paul (MVP), on Feb 22 2008, 13:57, said:

Back when the Toshiba G900 was announced, it created quite a stir. 128MB RAM / ROM, 3G, 800x480 screen, fingerprint reader, sliding QWERTY... there was quite a buzz around the device. As the device hit the stores however, serious quality issues with the ROM build became apparent, and the device was declared by most (quite rightfully) a lemon.

Now a bit of time has passed, and several software updates later, version 3.07 is the current ROM.

Do you have a G900? Are you running the 3.07 ROM? Are the issues with the device fixed? It still stands alone (until the XPERIA arrives at least) as the sole Windows Mobile 800x480 screened device, so i'm interested to know whether the problems are behind it and it's a viable purchase now.

Let us know your experiences

P

Do I still have one? hell no!

I sold it on ebay as soon as it became apparent that Toshiba were saying we couldnt flash the rom ourselves. Even if id known an updated rom was going to become available, the device was still fatally flawed because of hardware issues.

I shudder to remember my experience with this phone - i soooo wanted to like it, because of the physical design (nice) and the wvga screen (very nice), but it had the unholy triinity of problems:

1. Low rom space - i couldnt even sync with Exchange - i seem to rememember something like 20 megs free on a clean install on WM
2. Battery life - absolutely crap. The worst i ever seen on a device
3. Reception - again, absolutely crap... failed to pick up a signal where my prior phone (the Hermes i think) worked perfectly

add to that the fact the screen didnt work in sunlight... and it crashed. A lot. And you couldnt flash the rom yourself (i sent it off to Toshiba for re-flashing - their support center lost it for a couple of weeks, and eventually it turned up again in their lost property box!!!! how crap is that?

What was wierd was that the battery life was quite good for wifi - its only when u used the phone that it started to suffer. I rememebr on holiday using it for hours on a wifi point, and epecting the battery to die as any moment. When I finished it was still 70%+ full...

I think it was the poor radio causing it to keep re-registering with towers that did it.

And toshiba sent me a padded envelope with 3 normal stamps on for returning it...

I lost about £100 by buying it and selling on ebay, but i dont miss the damn thing at all...

Ive now finally joined the VGA club again by buying a ETen M800 - this thing is great (touch sensitive buttons aside). It seems to suffer from none of the problems the damned G900 had, and is actually a very nice, usable VGA version of the Kaiser (which I also have). The 64meg of ram thing doesnt seem to hurt it any, and id far rather have 256m rom and 64m ram that 128 of each !

George (ripnet)

ps. Ive attached a photo of my G900...

Attached Files

•  images.jpg   2.31K   31 downloads

Edited by ripnet, 23 February 2008 - 12:21 PM.

[Metoo]

The 3.07 ROM fixed all the instability issues for me, and it finally became usable as a main phone (I did the DIY upgrade, but I see Toshiba have now made upgrades available through CPW).
What didn't change was the appallingly poor 3G radio - it struggled to get any signal when my other 3G devices were showing full strength. That was obviously the main reason for poor battery life. Switched it to GSM only and the battery life was perfectly acceptable (i.e. lasting all day, with nightly charge, as you would anything of similar spec.). The main upgrade everyone is crying out for now is for the radio firmware (which isn't touched by 3.07).

Storage space is another major issue - I had to install everything I could on SD card and even then was constantly hitting low storage warnings and slow-downs/crashes unless I cleared out all caches and temp files every day (SKTools is a must). My PIM.vol runs at around 17MB - so there's not a lot left from the G900's paltry <30MB user storage. Seems a real oversight given they went to the trouble of providing 128MB RAM.

The eventual deal breaker for me though was speed - not of the main CPU and internal operation, but of the user interface, i.e. initial wakeup and menu response. Coming from an old school Palm background I still demand to be able to do instant lookups on my PDA and anything that makes me wait 5 seconds or more to open an application or menu just doesn't cut it. SatNav was sluggish too, with regular 500 yard lags on Copilot and GarminXT. Nice as the WVGA etc features are, it just got too frustrating to use as my personal information store, so we parted company. It remains to be seen whether the G910 fares any better.

Having said that, if you need something for applications like remote desktop, it's still worth considering now that you know it will at least wake up everytime you need it (another option could be an N800 and normal 3G phone).  Just make sure you obtain it from somewhere with a decent returns policy in case the other issues, like 3G performance,  become unbearable.

Edited by Metoo, 25 February 2008 - 02:21 AM.

[PaulOBrien]

Hmmm, sounds like it's still a 'steer clear' then!

Good to see you're enjoying your M800 ripnet, the VGA screen is great, those touch buttons are annoying tho

P

[ripnet]

Paul (MVP), on Feb 25 2008, 12:16, said:

Hmmm, sounds like it's still a 'steer clear' then!

Good to see you're enjoying your M800 ripnet, the VGA screen is great, those touch buttons are annoying tho

P

The touch buttons are without doubt annoying - i think i will remap them to nothing to disable them, and just use the touch screen (i dont think i really used the hardware buttons anyway). I do find myself hitting (touching) them when I dont intend to...

VGA really rocks...

g

[PaulOBrien]

There's a button to 'lock' the touch buttons IIRC?

P

[Metoo]

Paul (MVP), on Feb 25 2008, 11:16, said:

Hmmm, sounds like it's still a 'steer clear' then!

Perhaps, unless WVGA is a must-have. Even then the screen is pretty small so you need good eyesight. If you want to lessen the risk of trying one out, there are a couple listed on a certain Manchester retailer's 'B' Stock list, which would be covered by their usual no-quibble refund policy (although I note this has recently been drastically reduced from 21 days to 7).

[wwaveydave]

At work we have 3, they have the 3.07 ROM on and work fine.  No issues that I don't have with a Hermes (battery, size etc).
As already mentioned they are second to none for Terminal services.

Edited by wwaveydave, 27 February 2008 - 12:46 PM.

[Monolithix]

It only occured to me when i was taking another look over the X1 specs, that screen is the same res as my EEE's screen!

[ripnet]

I reckon that promised Sony device will be the one to watch out for... sounds like a dream machine, if only they actually release it (im looking at you IMate!)

Im getting used to the touch keys on the M800, but ive had a couple of standby-of-death situations. Not impressed, because that was one issue i didnt have on my g900... and everybody else did

g

[Metoo]

Monolithix, on Feb 27 2008, 13:23, said:

It only occured to me when i was taking another look over the X1 specs, that screen is the same res as my EEE's screen!

Might the same res, but text on the Eee is a damn sight easier to read than the X1 and G900ś tiny 3-incher!
If the X1 uses the same screen tech as the G900, it will be rubbish outside too...

[Monolithix]

Yeah there is that   Still, good for the new wave of web browsers starting to crop up....

[fraktal]

I'm really, really looking forward to the emergence of the X1. Even if I don't have one. one thing that sonyerricssons always are is slick - the interfaces are always complete and intuitive - one thing that windows mobile typically isn't. I'll be really interested to see the X1 in action because I think it will redefine how a WM phone can behave - and I think this might affect other WM applications/devices/software in the future.

This is similar to how I felt when the iPhone came out - that it would set new standards for all competing devices - but the X1 is closer to home.

Also - I'll be interested to see what apps xda-devs can extract from it to make universal cabs  

[uczmeg]

Despite the negativity around the G900 I'd still like to have a play with one if I can get a good deal.

If anyone fancies trading or selling one let me know....

[pozabi]

uczmeg, on Aug 20 2008, 12:56, said:

Despite the negativity around the G900 I'd still like to have a play with one if I can get a good deal.

If anyone fancies trading or selling one let me know....

I want to sell G900, check Private Messages

BR