When it comes to electronic devices, generally Japanese manufacturers are top of the list when it comes to popularity. But that isn’t necessarily the case when it comes to mobile phones. In fact, such illustrious names as NEC, Sharp and Mitsubishi have really struggled to break into the European market. Even Sony was nothing special until they threw their name in with Ericsson. But despite past failures, the European market remains a strong target; the maturing European market is now open to more advanced phone features, and the European mobile user is a lot more discerning than in the past. So, Toshiba are ready to give the European market another bash, with the Toshiba TG01.
Coming into a market that is quickly becoming the main focus of many other phone manufacturers, the Toshiba TG01 is a highly specified Touchscreen phone, and is set to do battle with the likes of the LG Arena, Samsung Jet and the Apple iPhone. To look at, the TG01 isn’t that great, which has kind of been the issue with many a Japanese phone beforehand. Kind of square and normal looking, in a bland sense, the Toshiba TG01 is dominated by the screen. It measures in at a healthy 4.1 inches, and is a TFT resistive style Touchscreen, supporting up to 256,000 colours, although in usage it will be effectively just 65,000 colours. We can safely assume that any attempt to use the device outdoors in direct sunlight is therefore going to suffer. The handset measures in at 129mm long by 70mm wide, and looks rather large in the hand. Thickness is however only 9.9mm and it weights in at an acceptable 129g.
The 3D user interface is pretty funky, but nowhere near as usable or pretty as the other handsets named above. Every touch of the screen to select a menu option is responded with a rather swish 3D animation; the screen seems to be separated into 3 stripes, and flicking your finger across the screen rotates these to allow you to dig further into the menu to reach the menu function you are looking for. Items, such as calendar, can be dragged onto the top of the screen, and changing calendar from month to month is graphically represented by the page ‘lifting’ up and turning over, just as you would change the page on a traditional paper calendar. These little graphic representations are all well and good, but somehow the UI just doesn’t seem to cut it, and has a cumbersome feel to it. The OS running underneath the Toshiba Stripe UI is Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, so will be open to additional features being added to the phone, as with any open OS device.
Feature wise, the Toshiba TG01 is pretty well packed with most features a person could want from their mobile device; a 3.2 Megapixel camera is included, which has autofocus to enable sharper images. There is a front facing camera, for video calling, and video recording is also enabled on the device.
A GPS receiver is built in, allowing the TG01 to operate as a mini SatNav device. The huge screen on the phone allows for a pleasurable user experience for SatNav, but even so, I’ve yet to see a phone that is an adequate replacement for a bespoke GPS unit. It is much better to consider the TG01 as a complimentary device to any existing GPS package used.
Internally, the TG01 has 512MB of memory available, which can be expanded with the addition of MicroSD memory cards, with up to 16GB cards supported, offering extensive capacity for storing music, pictures and videos. The TG01 media player can handle MP3 and AAC music files, as well as MPPEG4 and 3gp video files. Not quite as many options as other handsets in its class, it has to be said.
Data wise, the TG01 is pretty well covered, with 3G and HSDPA support included, as well as WiFi, along with Bluetooth 2.0 for local connectivity requirements.
Overall the TG01 is a solid device, if a little big; the 3D interface looks ok, but is nothing special, and there are nicer alternatives around. The TG01 will probably gain itself a strong userbase, but it is unlikely to threaten the established market leaders.
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3:20 pm
Just received my TG01. Slim and sleek, the only problem I have is you cant hear the phone ring or the voice in the sat nav, I have turned the handset volume to max but still no good. Surely Toshiba hasn't spent so much money on developing an iPhone beater to fall down by the simple fact you just cant hear the ring or media applications. Does any one know of any application settings that might solve this issue?
7:26 pm
Don't discount the possibility that the loud speaker used by those features may be faulty. Would probably be a good idea to get that checked.