You’re no one in 2009 unless you’ve got a smartphone in your arsenal. And the TG01 is Toshiba’s effort to muscle in on ground gobbled up by Apple, Nokia and HTC. Unfortunately, in spite of a spec sheet that makes most other smarties blush with embarrassment, the Toshiba TG01, with its outdated Windows Mobile 6.1 OS, doesn’t cut it against the big boys.
If smartphones were measured on specs alone, the Toshiba TG01 would be as far ahead of the field as Usain Bolt on the running track. It’s the first phone to cram in the Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, has a Samsung i8910 HD–bashing 4.1–inch screen, an iPhone–matching 3.2–megapixel camera and workhorse Microsoft office apps.
But smartphones aren’t just about what you can cram in. The Qualcomm Snapdragon might be billed as super speedy, but the TG01 is slower than an incompetent learner driver. The accelerometer is sluggish and opening apps takes an age. The latter is not helped by an ugly, low res rendering of the widget as it expands when you tap it.
Screen issues don’t just end with ugly icons. While the 4.1–inch screen is impressive, offering up to 800×480 resolution, the South Park video we downloaded from Orange’s video store was just 320×240 and looked hideous and pixellated. Add to that the fact it cost 95p for just a one minute clip and you can only deduce that Orange needs to try harder in order to get its video house in order for the TG01.
The video app itself is hamstrung by Windows Mobile 6.1. You don’t tap clips to play them, rather a button hidden in the bottom corner. Toshiba has promised us that the TG01 will get Windows Mobile 6.5 as an over–the–air download later this year. Windows Mobile 6.5 is a vast improvement, but you can’t help but feel Tosh should have stuck Google Android in instead. Right now, Windows Mobile doesn’t appeal to anyone who want easy–to–use smartphones. The HTC Hero already understands that, perhaps the TG01 needs to too.
Unfortunately, the problems don’t end there. The resistive touchscreen is awkward and requires persistent prodding. Typing with the on screen QWERTY threw up countless problems and we struggled to send any messages without having to make wholesale changes to the text. That 4.1–inch size doesn’t help the TG01′s cause either. Unless you’re rocking trousers designed for childlike skaters or nu metal fans, it causes untold discomfort. Measuring a pancake thin 9.9mm deep though, we can see the potential benefits it could offer to business types with jacket pockets.
Toshiba’s TG01 is a case of so near and yet so far. The big screen offers a decent on–the–move video solution as long as you feed it with the right files, but the lack of a capacitive touchscreen and the presence of Windows Mobile 6.1 means it just doesn’t measure up to its high profile rivals.
