Published in Mobiles

Toshiba announces iPhone competitor

by on04 February 2009

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Based on Windows Mobile 6.1

Toshiba has never been a strong player in the Smartphone market, despite some rather decent devices, but their latest addition to its handset line-up might change that, as the TG01 is set to bring a lot of attention to Windows Mobile devices.

Design wise the TG01 looks very snazzy and at 9.9mm thick, it's by far the thinnest Windows Mobile devices that we're aware of. The TG01 also has a massive 4.1in display with a native resolution of 800x480 pixels, which sets it apart from every other Windows Mobile device on the market.

However, it seems like Toshiba has pulled out all the stops with the TG01 as it's also got a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor at its core, which makes it the fastest Windows Mobile device out there by some 200MHz. The features doesn't stop there though, as the TG01 also packs HSDPA (up to 10.2Mbit), aGPS, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, a 3.2Megapixel camera, a front facing camera for video calls and a built in three dimensional accelerometer which Toshiba calls the G-sensor.

There's no word on how much RAM or ROM the TG01 has, but it does come with a microSD card slot for memory expansion. The TG01 also has support for Flash website and DivX video. Some might find the resistive touch display a downside, as it means that you're stuck using your stylus, but as Windows Mobile, skinned or not, isn't exactly an ideal OS to use without a stylus, this might not be bad choice by Toshiba.

None the less, it's a shame that Toshiba didn't look at alternative operating systems, as Windows Mobile is quickly losing support from consumers and the TG01 looks a lot more like a consumer device rather than a business device. Hopefully Toshiba will consider making a version with Android or maybe even Linux in the future, but for now, we're stuck with Windows Mobile 6.1. For those that are happy with Windows Mobile, the TG01 might just be the handset they've been waiting for and to a degree, this handset is an iPhone beater, at least on paper.

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