Guest Paul (MVP) Posted January 21, 2008 Report Posted January 21, 2008 Well Mobile World Congress is nearly upon us (and we'll be there bringing you the latest coverage), and 'tis definitely the season to launch new devices (fa la la la la, la la la la) as demonstrated by the host of new hardware that seems to be appearing lately... and this time it's Toshiba's wares on show for all to see! Introducing, the Toshiba G710 and the Toshiba G910. Apparently originally detailed at PocketPCItalia but now conspicuous by their absence, these two Toshiba devices look to build on their underwhelming predecessors, the G500 and the G900. Like the G500, the G710 is a Windows Mobile Standard device, and like the G900, the G910 is a Windows Mobile Professional device. The specs.... Portégé G710 (estimated March availability) - Windows Mobile Standard - Quadband GSM / GPRS / EDGE - 128MB ROM / 64MB RAM - 2.4" QVGA landscape screen - GPS - 2MP Camera - Bluetooth 1.2 - USB 1.1 - QWERTY keyboard - microSD expansion - 1100mAh battery - 115mm x 62mm x 13 mm - 130 grams - Trackball (a-la-Blackberry Pearl) Portégé G910 (estimated April availability) - Windows Mobile Professional - Quad Band GSM / GPRS / EDGE + UMTS / HSDPA 3.6 - 3" WVGA screen (800x480) - 256MB ROM / 128MB RAM - GPS - 2MP Camera + VGA forward facing camera - Bluetooth 2.0 - Wifi - Fingerprint reader - 1320 mAh battery - 117mm x 64mm x 19.8mm - 183g Thoughts? To me the G710 offers little over the current range of HTC-Excalibur-alikes, bar the integrated GPS, and the lack of 3G (at least in the info we have) is disappointing. I won't deny it's quite an attractive looking beast, and the trackball is interesting. The keyboard reminds me of something too.... :) The G910 is a lot more interesting, and I have the privilege of being one of the few to actually see and hold the device. The form factor is interesting, and in person it weirdly reminded me of the stillborn Motorola MPX / MPX 300, not sure why! Perhaps it was the outside... The specs are top notch (bar the 2MP camera perhaps), but time will tell whether Toshiba and their ODM have over come the quality issues that plagued the G900. Can the new range of Toshiba devices finally deliver the experience we'd expect from the Toshiba brand? Watch this space to find out! :D P
Guest Monolithix Posted January 21, 2008 Report Posted January 21, 2008 G710 = meh G910 = nice if you're a universal-phile :) :D
Guest Menneisyys Posted January 22, 2008 Report Posted January 22, 2008 1. The trackball is indeed VERY nice news. On my BB 8800, I can scroll between icons / on lists with the trackball. It's only in games or where one and only one scrollling event is needed (scrolling a web page by page in Opera Mini, for example), it's pretty awakward, though - then, the traditional D-pad is better. 2. G910: it'd be cool IF AND ONLY IF a, it had a larger screen (the *active* screen area is pretty small) - it's not much bigger than that of the Asus joke Smartphone announced some weeks ago b, it has a nice CPU (either Qualcomm 7200 (WITH PROPER VIDEO DRIVERS!!!), a new-generation (!!!) TI OMAP (like the one(s) in the Nokia N95 / N82) or the Xscale PXA-3xx - no Samsung or PXA-270 crap, please). All in all, I'm not very excited about these new phones.
Guest Metoo Posted January 22, 2008 Report Posted January 22, 2008 The specs are top notch (bar the 2MP camera perhaps), but time will tell whether Toshiba and their ODM have over come the quality issues that plagued the G900. P Good News: For the few that persevered with the G900, many of the issues, including the inability to wakeup from standby (SoD) that made it totally unusable as a phone, look to have been fixed in version 3.07 of the firmware. Reports at myg900.com suggest that overall responsiveness, audio volume, and Activesync reliablity have also improved. Bad News: The update is, at this stage, unofficial, so is at own risk and no doubt will invalidate warranties etc.
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