Toshiba TG01 review

It’s not easy to get things right first time. Just ask some of the early mobile players who served up big and chunky style ‘yuppie’ devices that probably resulted in many a hernia for users.

But being brave and trying something new does take guts and for all the mockery that ensues, you have to give such companies credit for trying too. Step forward Toshiba.

Although Toshiba has released Windows Mobile-based smartphones before, such as the G810, they've only been available SIM free, with pretty pricey repercussions.

Now the company has edged boldly into the world of speedy smartphones with its Qualcomm Snapdragon-based TG01, exclusively available on Orange.

Perhaps the boldest step of all has been choosing to run the marmite-like operating system Windows Mobile on the device.

Spec-tastic
If success was based purely on how many specs you could fit into a piece of hardware, Toshiba would be grinning like the proverbial Cheshire cat. It’s got a 4.1-inch (800x480 pixel) touchscreen, 1GHz Snapdragon processor, microSD slot (up to 32GB), 1000 Li-Ion mAh battery, 3.2-megapixel camera, GPRS, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, weighs 129g and boasts vital statistics of 70x9.9x130mm (WDH). Oh, and Windows Mobile 6.1.

The hardware itself and the features Toshiba has packed in are all innovative and pleasant enough. In all honesty, it’s the software that really ruins the otherwise fun party.

The large screen certainly has the wow factor and makes viewing video and pictures a joy. Although there are multiple video players bundled on the device and you can only swoosh through snaps a la iPhone if you’ve accessed them through explorer rather than pictures and videos. Switching from portrait to landscape mode also had us scratching our heads as, depending on what app you have open at the time, it was either seamless or suffered a three-second lag.

The rest of the aesthetics are class personified with chrome and black styling enrobing the handset, which, despite the mammoth screen, is still pretty light (129g). Although, it’s definitely suited to bigger hands and pockets and the back casing is a bugger to put back on once you’ve taken it off. Alas, that’s where you’ll find the microSD slot so it’s not like you can avoid removing it.

The touchscreen proved quite responsive in the main – although it would randomly decide to act like a spoilt child and ignore our commands. A stylus is also included for those who like that sort of thing, but there’s no room for it in the TG01 inn, so it’s forced instead to loiter outside the phone on a strange string and plastic ensemble.

Deja vu
Despite being a new kid on the smartphone block, Toshiba is also treading familiar territory and its TG01 ‘free pad’ is not unlike the Palm Pre in its behaviour. Sort of.

You simply summon the action up by swiping a finger upwards across the metal line between the home and back keys on the bottom of the handset and a small box appears with cursors, an OK button and the Windows logo.

The theory is it’ll behave like a mouse for you. Although we wanted to swipe it away as soon as it appeared on most occasions – which you do with the same gesture as used to bring it on screen in the first place.

While we’ve got our grumbles about the OS used here and some of the software’s quirks (we don’t like the interface, for example, but at least Toshiba has tried), the onboard apps are plentiful. There’s Mobile Office for starters (although we couldn’t find a shortcut for it other than the start menu), Orange Maps, time-stealing games like Solitaire and Bubble Breaker to name but a few apps, in addition to support for POP3 and IMAP4 email accounts.

Calls were of average-to-good quality using this handset, although conference calls proved a trickier affair due to its svelte nature. Callers sounded very quiet when speaking (even with the volume cranked up) and the speaker caused the base of the phone to vibrate in the hand.

All in all, it’s a valiant fattempt for Toshiba and multimedia fans who want to feed their appetite above all else will be pleased but, given the stiff competition in the market, it has got its work cut out and then some.

The TG01 is not going to set the smartphone world on fire. However, if someone could set Toshiba and Android up on a date, it just might happen.