36 replies to this topic

[oalex]

Hey all, a lot of us are really waiting for hands on, user impressions/reviews, so anyone that has got a TG01 since yesterday please share.

Tell us, what you think, like and don't like. Lets get the forum rolling and hopefully there might be some ROM kitchen too soon.

Cheers

P.S: also hands on videos link are welcome too, just not those one pre July 9th as anyone interested in these has watched them all

Edited by oalex, 11 July 2009 - 11:34 AM.

[SinSilla]

Hey Guys, 

seems as if i have just found one of the rare places where the TG01 hopefully gets some serious treatment. 

I´m from Germany, so i had the chance to get my TG01 quite early. I´m using it for about a week now.

If you have read the reviews, have seen the videos, you already know most of what you should know.

For the ease of it, i´ll copy and paste what i wrote in the Fpsece forum about the TG01.

"I´ve got the phone since a few days and i am very happy with it so far.
It looks great, it feels great, the touchscreen is great. And it´s got the dragon.

Jeah right, i´m in love with it.

But of course there are some downsides as well, some pretty serious downsides if you´re
considering yourself a "basic user" or want to give it to your mom as a bday present.

The preinstalled Toshiba Stripe Menue isn´t only ugly and impractical, it´s unstable too.
You have to fiddle a lot to get your phone working the way it should work out of the box.
The Sound Quality isn´t very good, there may be no noticeable noise, but the overall sound
quality is rather dull. The TG01 is no stamina beast, it packs a 1000 mha battery which only brings you so far."


There were no surprises, it´s the most powerful winmo smartphone with a pretty low battery life and not the best soundquality.

I have just noticed that you have already found and posted my video (the Fpsece one), thats great. There will be more, right now i´m trying to max out the quality for videoplayback on the TG01.

If you have any questions feel free to ask me, i´m more than interested that this phone gets it´s necessary treatment and development (i´m no developer, but i will try to help where i can).

Greetings from Berlin,

Sin

Edited by SinSilla, 11 July 2009 - 11:09 AM.

[oalex]

SinSilla, on Jul 11 2009, 11:09, said:

Hey Guys,

seems as if i have just found one of the rare places where the TG01 hopefully gets some serious treatment.

I´m from Germany, so i had the chance to get my TG01 quite early. I´m using it for about a week now.

If you have read the reviews, have seen the videos, you already know most of what you should know.
.....

Hey SinSilla, thx for the feedback, yeah, I am hoping that the Toshiba can kick off here. This place made the Original Omina what it is today, so MoDaco is a place to recon with (as XDA-dev does not support non HTC devices). I just hope the new TG01 user base will find their way here (please you too should help spread the word).

Now about battery life, which i believe is mine and a lot of others No.1 concern. How long does it last? Can it make i trough 1 day with BT and 3G turn on?

I agree with you that its not a novice phone as the UI is useless (very basic), but a little tweaking and SPB 3.0 or Mania port will take care of it pretty fast. Plus hopefully soon we will see the 6.5 on it.

BTW are you using SPB on it? or? How is the screen sensitivity (what device are you coming from?), especially keeping in mind the unavailable built-in stylus option?

Asper construction my main hassle with the is the same stupid mistake that Samsung keeps making. That is not having the MicroUSB at the bottom, for easy car and desk top docking. Omnia II will be a killer phone no questions there, but just the stupid charger placement (with the even more stupid plastic cover) might be a deal breaker for me. I don't see any advantage to not placing the charging port under, only disadvantages. I just cant get over it.

Edited by oalex, 11 July 2009 - 11:22 AM.

[SinSilla]

The battery life, i would be glad if i had something positive to say. 

I have to admit, the last week with the TG01 is not representative of the normal usage of the phone. I was playing a lot with it, GPS, Wlan, Gaming, Videos, Mailing, Surfing...

And i just managed to bring this thing home alive, so i guess if you use the phone as you described one should come over the day, but you definetely have to charge it overnight. There is no way, at least with my battery, that you can use it for two days without recharging.

Jeah, actually i´m using the SPB Mobile Shell which runs veeery smooth as one would expect. I´m coming from the LG KU990, so it´s easy to say that the touchscreen feels great and very responsive compared to that. Usability is great, even without the stylus.

Here is a photo of my baby. ^^

[ZenithUK]

oalex, on Jul 11 2009, 11:21, said:

Hey SinSilla, thx for the feedback, yeah, I am hoping that the Toshiba can kick off here. This place made the Original Omina what it is today, so MoDaco is a place to recon with (as XDA-dev does not support non HTC devices). I just hope the new TG01 user base will find their way here (please you too should help spread the word).

Now about battery life, which i believe is mine and a lot of others No.1 concern. How long does it last? Can it make i trough 1 day with BT and 3G turn on?[/i]

Hi oalex, thanks for the heads-up about this place.
Here's my first impression about the TG01 copied from XDA-Dev.

===================
You are all talking about how it sounds on paper.
Get out and actually TRY ONE!
IT EFFING ROCKS!!!!

I went to my local Orange shop this afternoon to see one and have a play with it.
The handset is about the size of the old XDA Exec (HTC Universal) but thinner than an iPhone. In fact the 4.1" screen is almost as big as my Polaris.
It's lightweight, but feels solid and well built. The screen was clear and bright, even under the shop's bright lighting. The phone comes with WinMo6.1, but I'll bet that Toshiba will have an upgrade to WinMo6.5 at some future date.

The touchscreen is sensitive and responsive, but the most obvious indicator of speed is the screen flip when you turn the phone on it's side. Most HTC devices take a second or two to flip the screen from portrait to landscape. This takes no more than 0.5s. The delay is barely noticeable.

There's no D-pad and only 4 small buttons on the bottom strip of the phone, so if you find it hard to use a phone without a D-pad, this may be a deal-breaker. That said, the screen is so large that you should be able to hit on-screen controls easily. The SIP keyboard is nicely sized and I was able to type quickly with no spelling errors (I didn't notice any obvious autocorrecting going on). The numbers layout is in a line though, and I would have preferred a "telephone" layout for the numbers.

The Orange version of the phone comes with an Orange Home screen which mimics the appearance and functions of the OmniaHD interface. Think of TouchFlo3D with the slider up and down the left side of the screen instead of across the bottom of the screen. I consider it to be nicer to use than WinMo6.5' Titanium UI which tends to fill the screen with text.

OFC, people are more interested in the new "Stripes" UI that Toshiba are presenting with this phone. Orange have kindly provided a simple way to switch between the Orange Home screen and Stripes from the Program list.
The Stripes UI is nice to look at and the rotation of the stripes is smooth, but it's insanely sensitive to swipes. If you want to swipe along one or two stripes, you have to use a small or slow gesture because a normal swipe sends the stripes *flying* along.
The stripes themselves are simply categories of functions. There's phone calls, SMS messages, audio/video, GPS and a few others as well. You can also change the colour scheme between about 3 presets. I'm just wondering how long it will be before some enterprising coder dumps the ROM and extracts the cab for the Stripes UI. I personally prefer the Orange Home screen, but that's just me.

The phone comes with CorePlayer out of the box and is the primary video player from Stripes. It also comes with a G.I.Joe trailer and it's fantastically clear and colourful for video playback. I don't think video playback will be a problem with double the usual processing power.

The one thing I didn't get to try was the internet or phone calls because I was hoping to try the "shake twice to answer" feature. The microSD slot is under the back plate where the battery and SIM go. It will also reliably take up to 32GB chips (if you can afford them).

All it would take is for someone to develop an LCARS theme Today screen and it would be just like the PADs from Star Trek:TNG. It's thin and light, but big enough to hold onto and read easily. If you like the Touch Diamond 2 but wanted a bigger screen, seriously consider the TG01.

As a former Xperia owner (I'm selling my latest replacement), the TG01 is functionally superior to the X1. It *feels* faster and the larger screen seems almost overwhelming if you're used to the 2.8" screen of the X1.
===================

My general impression of the opinion at XDA-Dev is that it sounds good "on paper" but then try to find some reason to run it down (presumably because it isn't a HTC device).  After actually handling one for nearly half an hour, my opinion has shifted from 100% TouchPro2 to 50:50 TP2/TG01.  If there is anywhere near as much support for this phone as there is for the Xperia X1, then the TG01 has a future with custom ROMs.
Critical point #1 will be a working Hard-SPL, so we'll have to see how it pans out.

Oh yes, I almost forgot to mention.  I thought that the battery lost it's charge quickly compared to what I'm used to.  It went from 65% to 40% while playing heavily with the features and I've since learned that it has a 1000mAh battery.  My personal opinion is that the battery won't last a full day with heavy use, wifi and BT all enabled.  If you're more of a light user with just a BT headset and ordinary call level then it will probably last out well.  It seems that it will be a daily charge-up phone unless an extended battery is made available for it.

There is also no headphone jack.  If you want to listen to music or listen to a film on headphones you'll need BT ones.  The ONLY slot I found was the microUSB for sync/charging and that was well hidden behind a cover.

[SinSilla]

Good hands on!

Regarding the headphone jack, there is a headphone adapter supplied in the box, so you won´t have to go for bluetooth.

And as you may have noticed, the TG01 comes with a USB Host Feature, you can connect keyboard, mouse or even a gamepad if you want to. 

[oalex]

SinSilla, on Jul 11 2009, 12:40, said:

Good hands on!

Regarding the headphone jack, there is a headphone adapter supplied in the box, so you won´t have to go for bluetooth.

And as you may have noticed, the TG01 comes with a USB Host Feature, you can connect keyboard, mouse or even a gamepad if you want to.

So its basically like i900 Omina, you can't charge it and plug in a headphone at the same time?


Sin, how about a home made cradle (that will hold it sideways and be pluged in from there)? Same for car-holder. Do you think its an option or is the stupid microUSB cover in the way? I hate those things so much.
I am thinking something similar to the picture you have above, to work, only difference is the PDA would be the other way around (pic upside down) and have the USB charger glued/fixed some how in to the dock. Also same for the car option. What do you think?

Could you make a pic close up of the microUSB slot, with the cover open and post it? thanks

Edited by oalex, 11 July 2009 - 01:15 PM.

[SinSilla]

Here you go.



I hate macros, my phone isn´t that dirty. 

I don´t think i know exactly what you´re talking about...

But regarding the cover, there is actually quite some room to bend it behind the phone or wherever you want it to go. 

Edited by SinSilla, 11 July 2009 - 01:16 PM.

[oalex]

SinSilla, on Jul 11 2009, 13:15, said:

I hate macros, my phone isn´t that dirty.  

LMAO

[SinSilla]

I did a benchmark with GLBenchmark the other day, the results are still unprocessed, but you can have a look at it here.


Whats really strange about the results (which you can´t see in the unprocessed public result) is the follwoing:

Quote

Lights: Ambient x 1 : 99 kTriangles/s
Lights: Omni x 1 : 98 kTriangles/s
Lights: Parallel x 1 : 97 kTriangles/s
Lights: Parallel x 2 : 99 kTriangles/s
Lights: Parallel x 4 : 98 kTriangles/s
Lights: Parallel x 8 : 97 kTriangles/s
Lights: Spot x 1 : 96 kTriangles/s
Swapbuffer speed : 99
Texture Filter: LINEAR : 99 kTriangles/s
Texture Filter: LINEAR_MIPMAP_LINEAR : 99 kTriangles/s
Texture Filter: LINEAR_MIPMAP_NEAREST : 99 kTriangles/s
Texture Filter: NEAREST : 99 kTriangles/s
Texture Filter: NEAREST_MIPMAP_LINEAR : 99 kTriangles/s
Texture Filter: NEAREST_MIPMAP_NEAREST : 98 kTriangles/s
Texture Size: 1024x1024 : 96 kTriangles/s
Texture Size: 128x128 : 99 kTriangles/s
Texture Size: 256x256 : 100 kTriangles/s
Texture Size: 512x512 : 99 kTriangles/s
Texture Size: 64x64 : 99 kTriangles/s
Triangles: Flat Shaded + Color : 99 kTriangles/s
Triangles: Smooth Shaded + Color : 99 kTriangles/s
Triangles: Textured : 99 kTriangles/s
Triangles: Textured + Color : 99 kTriangles/s

The Z430 is theoretically capable of 22Million Triangles/s...i don´t know how it comes that the phone limits at 100k (which is obvious, 1 parallel light giving the same result as 8 parallel lights)?! That sucks pretty hard, there´s no way i can smoke a 3gs with these results (the 3Gs is getting results 35x Times !!! better than the TG01). It´s a damn shame, we need better drivers!

Edited by SinSilla, 11 July 2009 - 01:38 PM.

[oalex]

SinSilla, on Jul 11 2009, 13:15, said:

I don´t think i know exactly what you´re talking about...

I mean something like this, but obviously not as agly and made from plastic. So you can just drop it in and take it out (to charge and hold) with easy.

see post number 10 in this topic to get an idea. Also something similar for in car mount.

[oalex]

SinSilla, on Jul 11 2009, 13:36, said:

It´s a damn shame, we need better drivers!

I am not that into benches, so I will just nod and pretend I understand everything you said just there

On the other hand I am convinced that the failure or success of this device will come down to driver optimization and Rom development. If it its ignored then toshiba can bury it, for it will meet the faith of the G900 and all other Toshiba PDA's so far. Hell even HD-DVD was mainly pioneered by Toshiba .

Edited by oalex, 11 July 2009 - 09:17 PM.

[Hlov]

Hi there? where can I buy It? is there any unlocked version, I'm in Sydney,
cheers,
Hlov

[oalex]

Hlov, on Jul 12 2009, 08:33, said:

Hi there? where can I buy It? is there any unlocked version, I'm in Sydney,
cheers,
Hlov

As soon as such (unlocked) are available, you WILL see them on ebay. For the mean time, some type of turbo-SIM should do the job with an Orange version.

[jamjamjam]

Oalex, I'm really hoping this is the case!

Is this just speculation of your behalf?

[oalex]

jamjamjam, on Jul 12 2009, 16:23, said:

Oalex, I'm really hoping this is the case!

Is this just speculation of your behalf?

Sorry, I am not sure what statement you are referring to. This is what the quote are for BTW.
Please let me know, so I can clear up.

Anyway I am guessing you are asking about my last post. So:
If it is about the ebay availability, then its not speculation its a fact. Every device gets available to ebay sellers once unlocked versions are available. This could be professional seller or just unhappy/unsatisfied user.
If on the other hand you were referring to turbo-sim working on it or not, then it was just speculation. But its almost 100% sure. There has never ever been a locked device in the world that didn't get unlocked so far. So its just a question of time.

If its to some of my other comments, then let me know.

Anyway look at the bright side. You don't have to make a hasty choice , the Omnia 2 might be available by then (august) and that one's UI is at least usable. Also they have a history of good Rom development, support and update after publishing a new device, unlike Toshiba which does not. Don't forget AMOLED screen too. Very noticeably better.

Edited by oalex, 12 July 2009 - 04:36 PM.

[biztraveler]

SinSilla, on Jul 11 2009, 07:16, said:

Jeah, actually i´m using the SPB Mobile Shell which runs veeery smooth as one would expect.

SinSilla- So glad to see someone using a different UI on this phone. I've been wanting to see how SPB Mobile Shell would run on it. From your comments it seems to work fine. I would love to see a short video of the tg01 running SPB if you or anyone else who has it wants to upload one. Also, do you lose the on screen d-pad or the touch/hold to zoom feature when running SPB, or do those still work? Thanks much!


edit- I found a video of the tg01 running spb thanks to the forum. The link is below for anyone who needs it. If anyone wants to post another one though, please do. Also, I'd still like to know about the features in my question above. Thanks!

Edited by biztraveler, 13 July 2009 - 05:49 AM.

[SinSilla]

No, you can still use the virtual d-pad (but i have deactivated it,what the hell is this thing supposed to do for me?)

The other feature, this little slider between the two other softbuttons, has never worked for me (or maybe i tried it in the wrong apps).

And SPB didn´t change that at all. xD

[ando]

Do you know of a DirectX benchmark tool for Windows Mobile?

Is it posible that they released only DirectX drivers ?


I am afraid that we are going again in the loop of
HTC <---> Qualcom 'we will not give you drivers because you don't need them'  stupidity (

SinSilla, on Jul 11 2009, 16:36, said:

I did a benchmark with GLBenchmark the other day, the results are still unprocessed, but you can have a look at it here.
Whats really strange about the results (which you can´t see in the unprocessed public result) is the follwoing:
The Z430 is theoretically capable of 22Million Triangles/s...i don´t know how it comes that the phone limits at 100k (which is obvious, 1 parallel light giving the same result as 8 parallel lights)?! That sucks pretty hard, there´s no way i can smoke a 3gs with these results (the 3Gs is getting results 35x Times !!! better than the TG01). It´s a damn shame, we need better drivers!

[thebigshazbowski]

So I got mine on Saturday - and 1st impressions - it's sexy. Tall, and thin - like a stretched version of the iPod Touch. Construction wise - it's a definite eye-popper. Everybody at work is man handling it with their grubby hands.  If anyone knows where to get screen protectors or a case - please let me know....

The screen so far has resisted any scratches -and although there are smudges aplenty - they wipe off fairly easily. Size wise - a bit wide for me - not really a one handed phone. Decent Touch responsiveness but I find I use my nail more than a thumb sweep. Very good screen despite it's reflectiveness (Regza technology I hear)

Speed- yeah amazing. Dump your Stripes or Orange UI for SPB Shell 3.0 and you probably have one of the best interfaces out there.  Usability is not on par with the iPhone or Android but definitely up there with TF3D. I've not had a chance to play with a Pre so can't comment on that! Better than Omnia/Omnia HD/Jet and Nokia 5800/n97.

Battery - yes the bane of any smartphone user's existence. With a few calls and texts and a bit of menu fiddling - I used about 30% battery. Today on full battery - I used 45 mins of video over bluetooth and that took it down to 55%!  It's now dwindled down to 40% because I forgot my usb cable and these new mini-B USB's are non existent in my office.

Right, anything else to say - the demo games - NFS for example - awesome. Video playback via Core - awesome (24fps xvid encoded). Even opening apps and multi-tasking on winmo has gone without so much as a 0.5 second delay. snapdragon rocks.

Now will the new snapdragon SE Xperia running Android top all this? Palm Pre? the new LG 4inch touch phone (chocolate 2?). HTC Hero?