Toshiba TG01 Boasts Slim Design, Large Screen, 1 GHz Processor
Toshiba has just taken the wraps off a Windows Mobile smartphone that could be a strong iPhone competitor. The TG01 boasts a slim design but still finds room for numerous high-end features, including a large WVGA touchscreen.
It will be powered by a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor,and will also have 3G (HSDPA), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth,and A-GPS.
A microSD memory card slot will add up to 32 GB of storage.
It's All About the Screen The centerpiece of the TG01 will clearly be its 4.1-inch, 800by 480 pixel, resistive touchscreen. Toshiba promises that this will"revolutionise the mobile entertainment world".
Instead of the standard Windows Mobile user interface, this smartphone will run a 3D one created by its manufacturer.
The large display doesn't leave room for a D-pad, but this model will include an on-screen virtual trackpad.
Slim but Powerful Toshiba is bragging that theTG01 will be just under a centimeter thick, or 0.39 inches.
It will run Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro, and will therefore come with Microsoft's standard suite of entertainment and productivity software.
This was a pre-announcement, and afew details are still unknown, such as the resolution of the camera or its battery capacity.
Pricing and Availability The Toshiba TG01 will be on display at next week's Mobile World Congress tradeshow, but isn't expected to hit the market until this summer.
There is no word yet on pricing, but this is likely to depend on whether this product is picked up by any wireless carriers. If it is subsidized, it will likely be relatively inexpensive; it it isn't, it will likely only be in the price-range of the pro-sumers.
Looks like this is the first significant player to announce a WVGA screen device after the Pharos Traveler 137. Things are looking UP for those of us who have been yearning for a high-resolution device with a decent-sized screen.
It will be interesting to see how this device (and others likeit) develop and are marketed.
One cannot have too many choices, and to date, there have been too few...
Tony
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Current PDA: iPod Touch
Past PDA's: Palm Personal, Palm Pro, Palm IIIx; HandEra 330; HP Jornada 525, 548, 568; Treo 90; Sony Clie NZ90, TG50, Toshiba Genio e550G, Sony Clie TH55
I don't feel positive about this device. If the picture is real, this devices must be HUGE. Considering the 4.1 inch LCD and a LARGE space above the LCD, this PDA will be longer than HP ipaq 4750.
Why does the processor need to be so fast? Unless I am missing something and SnapDragon does some speed switching, all of that power is pretty much unncessary unless one is doing video decompression (does WinMobile even do that).
Why does the processor need to be so fast? Unless I am missing something and SnapDragon does some speed switching, all of that power is pretty much unncessary unless one is doing video decompression (does WinMobile even do that).
Since every Windows Mobile device I've ever used has had REALLY pokey response times, I'd say any bit of power a WinMo device can get can be used. ;-)
Why does the processor need to be so fast? Unless I am missing something and SnapDragon does some speed switching, all of that power is pretty much unncessary unless one is doing video decompression (does WinMobile even do that).
The more, the merrier! More speed never hurts! (However, I wonder how this CPU compares to the recent Cortex-A8s found in the OMAP3430 and others, which are only clocked at 550 MHz or so, but can still beat out a lot of faster ARM CPUs based on older architecture revisions. Don't forget the megahertz myth!)
While 4.1" is getting somewhere, it's WVGA, and thus the screen is still probably a lot smaller overall than the 4" VGA screen on my hx4700. On the other hand, there's some extra, much-needed pixels in one direction.
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Current Mobile Computing Loadout:
HP iPAQ hx4700 + HP TC1100 Tablet PC
I for one welcome the arrival of higher-res screens (assuming they're energy-efficient enough not to shorten battery life beyond existing values).
But as soon as you say "competitor to iPhone", then you'd better have a pleasant user interface and a good user experience. In the recent past, my experience with WinMos has been that it is clunky, clunky, clunky. One example is the whole network / wireless setup. So, I'll be wanting to take a close look at Toshiba's custom 3D interface. Can they bury the native Microsoft crap deep enough that no one has to look at it or use it?
Update: there's a short video preview of the device on megawhat.tv. Looks like the Microsoft ugliness is down only one layer. YouTube has a longer preview, in which the text-overs provide more info than the english-challenged presenter.
Considering the 4.1 inch LCD and a LARGE space above the LCD, this PDA will be longer than HP ipaq 4750.
Yes, but I'll bet it's not as wide and I know it's much thinner. Slim devices are in vogue, but you have to have room to put in all the necessary hardware, including a decent battery.
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Toshiba TG01 Boasts Slim Design, Large Screen, 1 GHz Processor
