Toshiba Returning With A Bang!

[Nurhisham Hussein]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://foro.todopocketpc.com/showthread.php?t=133602' target='_blank'>http://foro.todopocketpc.com/showth...ad.php?t=133602</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Toshiba is going to in a while give campanada in this present 3GSM with the presentation of a new Pocket PC Phone Edition in which nobody bet nor céntimo of euro to see a new device of the Japanese company/signature in the market. Although officially the important event 3GSM begins this next Monday, from All Pocket PC we can show like world-wide primicia the first images of the most interesting G900 with exceptional characteristics."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/Temporale-20070212-ToshibaFront.jpg" /><br /><br />When Toshiba left the Pocket PC market in 2004, we lost one of the more innovative manufacturers on the scene. The E800 was the first VGA device, and Toshiba generally built well-regarded (if ill-supported) Pocket PCs. With WM6, Toshiba has returned to the fray with a device calculated to garner some interest, not to mention they've managed to keep it a secret for so long. Spanish site todoPocketPC.com was on hand to get the scoop from Barcelona, where 3GSM kicks off today (Google translation <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fforo.todopocketpc.com%2Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D133602&langpair=es%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools">here</a>). The G900 (on the left; pic courtesy of <a href="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/index.php?action=expand,13571&sid=c6e1dffbd697e487fc02db00c061d6e0">smartphonethoughts.com</a> ) sports some ho-hum specifications (triband GSM, 64MB RAM and 64MB ROM, mini-SD) and a familiar form factor (side-slider), but adds on a WVGA screen (800x480!), USB host, a biometric scanner, UMTS (with video call) and some nice capabilities like PC Lock and Remote capabilities. More details as we get them!<br /><br /><b>Update by Darius:</b> More pictures after the break. <!><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20070213-g900a.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20070213-g900b.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20070213-g900c.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20070213-g900d.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20070213-g900e.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20070213-g900f.jpg" />

[Menneisyys]

64M ROM? Strange. And, no HSDPA? :(

I also wish it had at least an FM radio if not a TV receiver. And, of course, seamless call recording capabilties.

[saru83]

RAM &amp; ROM should have been 128MB each.. 64MB is just weird :!:

[signothefish]

While there may be others on here who may agree with you, I have to respectfully disagree about the "ill-supported" claim. I've had 3 different Toshiba Pocket PCs since 2002, and their technical support has been great over the years (with the exception of lately, since they got out of the Pocket PC business). I must have sent my e740 in over a half-dozen times, my e750 in a time or two, and my e800's another half-dozen times, and the service they provided has almost always met my expectations. The items always arrived within a day or two if being replaced, or had a quick turn-around (&lt; 1 week) when getting repaired.

Granted, I don't believe they always checked their repair to make sure it fixed the unit, since I had to send mine back one time because they failed to fix it, but an 11 out of 12 record is pretty good.

It's a breath of fresh air to see Toshiba get back in the arena. I just hope they continue the legacy of being innovators. Based on the screen size, it looks like they may very well.

[the_very]

800*480 is great, but lack of software supports it now :(

[Nurhisham Hussein]

While there may be others on here who may agree with you, I have to respectfully disagree about the "ill-supported" claim.

By all means - it's great that you had a different experience from what my impression was of Toshiba support. It certainly gives me more confidence that they can pull it off as a major player.

800*480 is great, but lack of software supports it now

The beauty of this resolution is that there's no real need to rewrite software to support it, unlike the transition from QVGA to VGA. 800x480 is just VGA with an extra 160 pixels in height (or width depending on your orientation). Any app that is high-res aware should be ok, with the exception of games.

[Paragon]

sports some ho-hum specifications (triband GSM........

There seems to be some confusion on this. If you read Toshiba's blurb on the specs, under data is says" triband 3G" Some folks are saying that it means exactly that, triband 3G, since it makes no mention of voice or GSM in particular....who know's for sure?

Dave

[Nurhisham Hussein]

There seems to be some confusion on this. If you read Toshiba's blurb on the specs, under data is says" triband 3G" Some folks are saying that it means exactly that, triband 3G, since it makes no mention of voice or GSM in particular....who know's for sure?

Yeah, I spotted that too - but triband 3G would almost imply HSDPA as well, and there's no mention of that. In any case, I'd rather err on the conservative side until we get more confirmation on the specs.

[Paragon]

Yeah, I spotted that too - but triband 3G would almost imply HSDPA as well, and there's no mention of that.
Good point.


In any case, I'd rather err on the conservative side until we get more confirmation on the specs.
Yeah, I don't blame you.

Regardless, it sure is a good to see Toshiba back. Perhaps they will light the fire again. They were the ones who were always pushing the envelope in the past. Windows Mobile need someone to do that again. Hardware has become very ordinary, and repetitive.

Dave

[kamikun]

You won't find a more rabid Toshiba PPC fanboy than myself. I am still more than wedded to my e800 as it comes up on 4000+ hours of in-use time. That machine was darn near the perfect stand-alone PDA (only the 830 came close to besting it but its wonky Bluetooth and lack of video acceleration still leaves the original 2003 on top).

And this new phone, with the 3.3 inch screen (or so) and improved resolution smacks of Toshiba taking the road less travelled. But the 64 Meg of "workspace" memory??

In a Vista / WM6 world that is so outdated... and a non-starter. People have been complaining about 64 Meg WM5 devices for over a year. What is your typical free RAM after a soft reset? 18 maybe 19 Meg free? And that's with most of your plug-ins deactivated right?

Toshiba, I want you to succeed with this. Please rethink the RAM specs. Don't send this thing out the door on crutches.

[SteveHoward999]

800*480 is great, but lack of software supports it now

There's little need to consider that an issue. Most software works fine in RealVGA mode and in the fake MS VGA mode these days. Those using this device will be able to endure a little blank area in the screen for the sake of such an improved overall visual experience.

Besides. It is entirely possible to build software that is resolution independant ... so that it simply expands or contracts to fill the pixel area available.

Not easy. But entirely possible.

Maybe as we see more and more variance from the standard QVGA screen size, more software will be available that does this. Obviously there is a lot that already does - at least to some degree - , since there is already plenty of software that adapts to real VGA and pretend VGA.

I'm pleased to see Toshiba back in the fight. I too have really engoyed my E830 device. It's time for some new innovations, and Toshiba has the history to show it can be one of the leaders when expanding the horizons of mobile technology.

[Foo Fighter]

Given the specs I would imagine this phone will cost $799 unlocked, perhaps even more. What about availability? I'm guessing sometime in Q2, which is going to place it in the same launch timeframe as the GodPhone (iPhone). That's going to take some of the potential this smartphone may have. Once Apple's hype machine goes into effect, an $800 Pocket PC phone isn't going to look as compelling. I hope I'm wrong of course, but unless this phone is affordably priced and available soon I don't see it taking the smartphone world by storm.

[Rod3]

I think I'd rather have it than the iPhone. I still have my e805, with the old OS on it (so I can use real VGA) and if it weren't so large, it would be with me all the time. I'm sort of a collector, and have too many devices, but this Toshiba will be on my short list. I'm assuming it will work on Cingular... hope I'm not assuming too much.

[Darius Wey]

I've updated the original post with new pictures (including press-quality ones), so you can see the WXGA display and QWERTY keyboard in all its glory. Yum. :alfdance:

[the_very]

upd: just tested some apps on 800*480 - it works! 8)

[Paragon]

There seems to be some confusion on this. If you read Toshiba's blurb on the specs, under data is says" triband 3G" Some folks are saying that it means exactly that, triband 3G, since it makes no mention of voice or GSM in particular....who know's for sure?

Yeah, I spotted that too - but triband 3G would almost imply HSDPA as well, and there's no mention of that. In any case, I'd rather err on the conservative side until we get more confirmation on the specs.

I never thought I would see the day that I would link to msmobiles, but he is reporting that it does in fact have HSDPA, and that it will be released in Europe and USA in early summer....plot thickens. :)

http://msmobiles.com/news.php/6050.html

[alese]

Comparing this Toshiba to XDA Flame, Athena and the iMate Ultimate series at least for me the Toshiba wins, the 3" W-VGA beeing the deciding factor.
Provided it has HSDPA, doesnt cost too much (like Athena) and that RAM/ROM and CPU are not a dissapointment.

[SteveHoward999]

http://msmobiles.com/news.php/6050.html

From the pictures, it has at least 128 MB RAM too, contrary to what was suggested at the start of the thread.

[MarcTGFG]

I have already commented there, that it will be available in May. No info on price yet.

Dimensions are 117 x 60 x 21mm, almost the same cubic size as the HTC TYTN. It weighs just 150 gr, 26 gr less than the TYTN! Incredible specs.

Standby 11 days, 4.5 h talk time in GSM, 3.5 h in UMTS.

Ans it looks so good :-)

But sadly: No autofocus!? :-(((

Why oh why cant Pocket PC manufacturers not inciorporate higher quality autofocus lenses in their units?

I currently have a Nokia N90 and I am tempted to buy the E90 communicator with 3.2 MP autofocus camera, 800 x 352 pixel resolution GPS, FM radio, A2DP, BT 2, Wifi. But its much heavier at 210 gr and slightly bigger overall and much longer at 132 mm.

Now, give me autofocus and I'll buy the G900 in a heartbeat.

[Paragon]

Why oh why cant Pocket PC manufacturers not inciorporate higher quality autofocus lenses in their units?

Because they are phones?

I'm pretty certain that camera manufactures include them though. ;) :)

Dave

[MarcTGFG]

Why oh why cant Pocket PC manufacturers not inciorporate higher quality autofocus lenses in their units?

Because they are phones?

I'm pretty certain that camera manufactures include them though. ;) :)

Dave

I understand where you are getting at, but fact is, Microsofts main competitor in this market is Nokia and they have better optics in their smartphones and put autofocus in all their latest high end phones. These are phones too ;-) but better ones in that respect.

2 or 3 MP with decent optics and autofocus could really relieve me of carrying a second gadget with me all the time. But the ones in WM phones are just half hearted attempts to satiisfy that need. Sorry to say so.

After owning a Nokia N90 I will never go back to a phone with an inferior optics and without autofocus. Period.

[JKingGrim]

Yess. They put a ctrl key on the keyboard. Maybe HTC will learn. Hopefully a CDMA variant surfaces. Moving the mail and calendar buttons to the top would be great for gaming in landscape on the gorgeous screen.

[Paragon]

But the ones in WM phones are just half hearted attempts to satiisfy that need. Sorry to say so.

Yes, you are absolutely right. Personally I'm not a fan of cameras in phones. I have no desire to take pictues unless they are of good quality. I do NOT want to have the price of a good camera tacked onto the price of my phone. I have a camera that does that...they don't make cameras that you can talk into, right? A phone is a phone, and a camera is a camera. :)

Anyway, I hope you find one that does. :)

[alese]

I have already commented there, that it will be available in May. No info on price yet.

Dimensions are 117 x 60 x 21mm, almost the same cubic size as the HTC TYTN. It weighs just 150 gr, 26 gr less than the TYTN! Incredible specs.

Standby 11 days, 4.5 h talk time in GSM, 3.5 h in UMTS.

Ans it looks so good :-)
...


Come to dady 8)
The more I read about this the better it looks...

[stllhogan]

The Toshiba Genio E550g was my first ppc, before I was amazed at palm but on clearence i saw that Genio and compared to my palm specs it was amazing, a 400mhz cpu compared to my 137mhz cpu (which I would race with the other palm owners and win :cry: ) and large screen but the best part was the entire thing was a screen and not cut off. So I invested in the little thing and it was a great deal to $100 USD. I admit it was a little confusing at first but it seemed like it could do so much and it could, I was only using my palm for tetris, clocking the cpu, and mp3 (which it was poor at) I fell in love with these little devices after find that they could do so much. but in a freak moped accident it was destroyed :cry:. after reading about how converged devices seem to be taking over i hoped on ebay looking for an old toshiba. now i have this to look forward to. that device was so amazing that this has so far cought my attention.

an individual gpu would be nice, like that new nvidia 5200 mobile and add the ability of connecting to a monitor or a projector it would be great. besides all those other things worked out like the triband and hsdpa and ram and rom, the last ones i'll hold my doubts about, I can't see toshiba doing somethign that crazy.

[WorksForTurkeys]

Toshiba generally built well-regarded (if ill-supported)

ill-supported? you're being overly kind - try officially and intentionally unsupported. anytime a manufacturer informs me that the defective-on-delivery WiFi SD card they shipped is considered to be in the same category as floppy discs, ie. "disposable" and therefore not guaranteed, they qualify as unsupported products.

While I understand that some small group of users insist they had fantastic support, I find these claims interesting as the period of time they report receiving this wonderful service is after Toshiba formally left the PDA market.

Prior to my 7 months of horror with Toshiba (Toshiba abandoned the PDA market and refused further support before the 12 months of their manufacturer's guarantee on my PDA expired) I had many Toshiba products in my home - now I have none, and I am not interested in obtaining any in the future.

[MarcTGFG]

Now, respected german computer website Heise Online www.heise.de reports somewhat different specifications for the G900:

Slightly bigger at 119 x 61 x 22 mm (compared to 117 x 60 x 21 mm)
Quite a bit heavier at 198 gr (compared to 150 gr)
Less talk and standby time (10, not 11 days, 3 hours, not 3 1/2)

But they say the display is only VGa, so they might have the other specs wrong as well... lets try to confirm the correct specs from Toshiba!

[Nurhisham Hussein]

After owning a Nokia N90 I will never go back to a phone with an inferior optics and without autofocus. Period.

I hear you - I love my SE k800i, and one of the reasons I still haven't plunged for a WM5 device is the poor quality of the cameras. AF is great, but what I find more compelling is aperture size - that's a better judge of how good a photo's going to turn out then MP. Most of the WM phones I've seen have pinholes for their sensors.

[stllhogan]

Toshiba generally built well-regarded (if ill-supported)
While I understand that some small group of users insist they had fantastic support, I find these claims interesting as the period of time they report receiving this wonderful service is after Toshiba formally left the PDA market.
.

I found that I had little and no support available except from users but the construction and function of the device was amazing and I think that's what draws so many back. some were quiet revolutionary to, not to make them sound like god but it was the first to support vga, and it had many sleves but back then many did. I like the idea of the expansion for usb support and presentation, i wish more devices would have these nowadays and they were so cheap. What's the point of power point mobile if you can't present it using the device?


But they say the display is only VGa, so they might have the other specs wrong as well... lets try to confirm the correct specs from Toshiba!

I think we have to much information saying to many things to make any strong opinion, I'm waiting till we have something more official things are getting blurred. what's really amazing is the hype that is generated over a device with poor specs, great screen, and most importantly it's the name i think that's got people going. Toshiba joins the market again and people explode and they were known for such poor support so it's a mystery to me why we love them so. It's got me excited.

I hear you - I love my SE k800i, and one of the reasons I still haven't plunged for a WM5 device is the poor quality of the cameras. AF is great, but what I find more compelling is aperture size - that's a better judge of how good a photo's going to turn out then MP. Most of the WM phones I've seen have pinholes for their sensors.

Phones to me will never be camera's but I also look at professional end of cameras. a phone camera is when i need to take a picture quickly and it doesn't have to be great or clear. like at a store when i need to show a product to someone with price and so. I don't need an amazing camera since i don't see there is such a thing (price beats performance and wastes money) I just need something that can record a decent shot.

[MarcTGFG]

[quote="stllhogan"]I think we have to much information saying to many things to make any strong opinion, I'm waiting till we have something more official things are getting blurred. what's really amazing is the hype that is generated over a device with poor specs, great screen, [quote]

*cough* *cough* poor specs? What are you smoking? ;-)

Tell me, what does the G900 lack besides GPS?

Highest resolution screen ever on a PPC. 2 MP camera. Biometric security. Full QWERTY keyboard (with CTRL key!). 128 MB RAM as seen in the screenshots. Best design every (IMHO).

Neither the TYTN nor the Universal offer as much. The G900 is the class leader until HTC comes up with the rumored Omni device.

[Gerard]

Provided the RAM proves to be at least 128MB, I have only two reservations with the 900; the screen is too small, and I have zero interest in wasting valuable battery space on a thumb keyboard. My Toshiba e800 is a workhorse, and with WM2003SE and using OzVGA to get real VGA, the 640x480 screen is great to work on in practically all applications. No, I actually cannot think of any software I now use which isn't made more enjoyable by using true VGA on a big 4" screen. Going to a smaller display would be a hard lump to swallow.

Thumb keyboards continue to infest so many new devices. I wonder, do these things actually see a lot of use? For quick notes, a stylus is surely more efficient and satisfying to use, and for anything more in-depth an external keyboard is the proper answer. I now use a standard USB keyboard at home with my e800, and with the 4" screen (and my good eyesight) this makes a fine desktop computer for word processing, browsing, and email. When I go out, there are foldable keyboards if needed. Otherwise I am happy to carry the Toshiba alone, with a honkin' big 5800mAh battery so I never have to worry about running out of juice.

So my hope is that if Toshiba is serious about getting back into the PPC game they make another model, with a bigger screen, no thumb keyboard nonsense, and a bigger battery (or at least an upgradable battery, as Mugen batteries rule!).

The camera looks great to me - is that a manual focus ring? If so, cool. I doubt the flash would be much use... unless the camera can focus down to macro range. The body design looks realy good, comfy for pockets without the sharp-ish corners of the e8xx units. I wish the thing would offer bigger and more memory slots (I still like CF, but at least SD would be good), but could live with mini-SD if that's all they're offering. I'll sit back and consider, see if Toshiba makes anything closer to what I want... then maybe in a year if there's nothing else offered pick up one of these at a lower price.

[stllhogan]

Highest resolution screen ever on a PPC. 2 MP camera. Biometric security. Full QWERTY keyboard (with CTRL key!). 128 MB RAM as seen in the screenshots. Best design every (IMHO).

I was refering to the 64mb of ram and 64mb rom mentioned by one source. and isn't it time that with wm6 we step it up a bit? I haven't heard word of the cpu yet. I'm not putting this device down by all means, I want one but 64mb ram and rom arn't too intresting. And I don't see that much improvement from my Hermes except it's a toshiba which captures my heart.

Tell me, what does the G900 lack besides GPS?

It could use that new nvidia gpu or the old intel one. not that it's needed.

[alese]

... And I don't see that much improvement from my Hermes except it's a toshiba which captures my heart.
...


It has 5x the resolution of Hermes and USB Host.
Even if CPU and RAM/ROM are the same as Hermes the USB Host alone makes it better choice for me. And the screen is just icing on the cake.

[Gerard]

I wonder if the specs are set in concrete yet, as in... is anyone from Toshiba listening to folks like us? If so:

- Please make the CPU a 624MHz thing at least, with a properly implemented graphics chip for smooth video besides

- Give us the best possible battery life you can manage, given the huge resolution and the preferably better clock speed

- Memory is cheap these days; integrate at least 1GB of storage - it'll cost you a few dollars per device, $10 tops, so why not? If it's 4GB or 8GB the cost would be a bit more, but think how many would-be iPhone buyers might stop and take notice if you marketed this as an all-in-one communications and media device! No need to scrimp on memory when it's so small and so cheap this year.

- Get someone talented to write the photo/video software. Too many PPC add-on and integrated cameras have been utterly crippled by inadequate support at the software end. Might I suggest Frank Weseloh of WinCESoft (http://www.wincesoft.de/html/cecam.html)? His CECam application already does amazingly superior things for a handful of accessory CF and SD cameras, and given the source I feel certain he'd manage to write a great video component as well, to make your humble 2MP camera fairly sing with quality. He typically doubles image quality for existing cameras, compared to OEM software results. And hey, he's German, and Toshiba already has a history in Germany!

- Think about a non-thumboard version. Not everyone wants one. Sure, they seem to appeal to businessmen and the odd other end user, but many of us would rather see enhancements in other areas, or even just a slimming down and improvement in mechanical reliability from removing this cumbersome and limitedly useful accessory. If you made the battery fatter, for instance, it may be possible to provide circuitry to enable a full 5volts to the USB, making it possible to run unpowered external hard drives for a while (an hour, maybe longer) without having to resort to a separate power supply for the HD. That would be sweet, especially if it could go to 2 hours or more, allowing full movie viewing from an external drive.

Just some thoughts. I'm sure we could come up with lots more, if someone from Toshiba is actually around to listen and take note.

[stllhogan]

it would be nice if they brought back sleeves. I haven't seen anyone use those in awhile.

[Menneisyys]

I was refering to the 64mb of ram and 64mb rom mentioned by one source. and isn't it time that with wm6 we step it up a bit? I haven't heard word of the cpu yet. I'm not putting this device down by all means, I want one but 64mb ram and rom arn't too intresting. And I don't see that much improvement from my Hermes except it's a toshiba which captures my heart.

I'm pretyty much sure the ROM is more than 64M. Crossbow or, for that matter, WM5 don't even fit into 64M, let alone leaving sufficient (at least 30-40M) playground for the internal storage.



It could use that new nvidia gpu or the old intel one. not that it's needed.

It can be VERY useful - not only for driving external monitors, but also for video watching (particularly at this high resolution), games console emulators (both PocketGBA and PocketSNES are FAR faster on a 2700G-based device) and, of course, games.

[Craig Horlacher]

I'm very happy with my e830. Toshiba's support has been the worst I have ever seen for a device. They were clueless about the issue with running apps off storage cards which just required a registry fix. This may have been a 2003se issue but toshiba should have known since it made their device a real pain for power users (over 70 programs installed). They also never added HID support for their bluetooth stack. So while the bluetooth stack works great with phones for file transfers I can't use bluetooth keyboards with it. It also doesn't seem to support network connectivity over the bluetooth connection.

I love the high res, the 128MB RAM (important in pre-wm5 devices to me) the 802.11b, the sd and cf, I also love being able to file transfer and contact transfer with my phone, but toshiba has not been there to help with or update anything. $700 is a lot of money for something with no support.

With the windows mobile 5 memory model (presumably the same as in wm6) I'm not so concerned about the 64MB of RAM. While I think that would work I also hope they'd be smart enough to give the thing 256MB of RAM. I think the 64MB rom is a joke. Why not make that 1GB - what the heck, make it 4GB.

What's with miniSD? I thought that never really caught on and was dying. It seems most phones use microSD and SD still works great for camera's and PDA's.

Oh well, I guess we'll see what the final device is. I'm always up for a higher resolution. In this case, I see it as providing 480x640 resolution of usable space while the text input box is up at the bottom (I'm guessing, I don't know the vertical resolution that it uses).

[Menneisyys]

What's with miniSD? I thought that never really caught on and was dying. It seems most phones use microSD and SD still works great for camera's and PDA's.



Some of the latest HTC models are miniSD-based (for example, the, noiw, IMHO, best buy Trinity). So are for example Nokia's newer Symbian devices. That is, it's far from a dying breed - just the opposite, I'd say.

[stllhogan]

Why not have mini-SDHC, doesn't it just rely in the software? I mean 2gb is good but those great big cards are going to waste, and we do need more as time goes on.

[Gerard]

They were clueless about the issue with running apps off storage cards which just required a registry fix. This may have been a 2003se issue but toshiba should have known since it made their device a real pain for power users (over 70 programs installed).

Is this an e830 specific issue, or does it apply to the e800/e805 as well? I've not heard of a storage card/app/registry thing with these Toshibas, and since I do have trouble sometimes with applications on SD, it'd be great to know how to fix it if possible. Could you explain or provide a link? My difficulties are mostly when powering on again with apps on SD still running - they tend to freeze or spontaneously close at some random interval after power-on.

[Menneisyys]

Why not have mini-SDHC, doesn't it just rely in the software? I mean 2gb is good but those great big cards are going to waste, and we do need more as time goes on.

If it's not supported now, it may still become supported later - see the example of the HTC Trinity, which only now (with the new series of ROM's, also enabling GPS) received (mini)SDHC support.

[bbarker]

While there may be others on here who may agree with you, I have to respectfully disagree about the "ill-supported" claim. I've had 3 different Toshiba Pocket PCs since 2002, and their technical support has been great over the years (with the exception of lately, since they got out of the Pocket PC business). I must have sent my e740 in over a half-dozen times, my e750 in a time or two, and my e800's another half-dozen times, and the service they provided has almost always met my expectations. The items always arrived within a day or two if being replaced, or had a quick turn-around (&lt; 1 week) when getting repaired.

Granted, I don't believe they always checked their repair to make sure it fixed the unit, since I had to send mine back one time because they failed to fix it, but an 11 out of 12 record is pretty good.It sounds like they gave you good support. But your report raises huge questions about the device's quality. You had to send back 3 devices a total of 12 times?

[Rod3]

I know nothing about their service (I heard all the complaints back ages ago) because my e800 has never faltered one bit. There has never been one thing I could complain about. And it's still going strong. (knock on wood..) So, that says to me that the quality of (at least my Toshiba is excellent. I'm expecting the same from these new ones. I think the series before mine (740?) had problems.

[stllhogan]

My Toshiba fit me perfectly and never had a problem. I loved it but in a freak accident a moped landed on me and crushed the screen and digitizer. I've looked at buying another and I am still tempted to buy one, not sure which one though.

[taupe]

800*480 is great, but lack of software supports it now

The beauty of this resolution is that there's no real need to rewrite software to support it, unlike the transition from QVGA to VGA. 800x480 is just VGA with an extra 160 pixels in height (or width depending on your orientation). Any app that is high-res aware should be ok, with the exception of games.

Games made for 240*320 might appear a bit too small for 800*480. Doubling (pixel-perfect) the game display size might work for some games. This is the case for http://www.gamoku.com (the browser-based Flash game website for Pocket PCs). They have a zoom function that nicely doubles the game display size to cater for 800*480. I think this was originally intended for the Nokia 770/N800 which has 800*480 resolution.