Toshiba Portege G900 To Be Released This Month

[Nurhisham Hussein]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/news-14182-Toshiba+in+Paris%3A+the+Port%C3%A9g%C3%A9+G900.html' target='_blank'>http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/new...C3%A9+G900.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Toshiba's latest smartphone was in Paris and if you want to call its by his name it's the G900. As you can see it is an "horizontal slider" featuring a 3 inches wide screen (800x480), USB host, 2 MPx digicam, wifi, bluetooth, 3G, 3G+, GPRS and 64MB of RAM among other things. This product will go on sale this month in Europe and Japan for 600€."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/hisham-20070625-TOSHIBA_PORTEGE_G900_1.jpg" /><br /><br />At €600, the G900 is cheaper than I expected it to be given the spec - it undercuts the list price of the Dopod variant of the Hermes by more than 10%. All I can say is - when is it arriving in the rest of Asia?!!!?!!!

[x51vuser]

it is well too expensive as for a phone with outdated operating system.
For example you will not be able for to browse webpages using that resolution in its Internet Explorer.
And 64 MB RAM ... again same mistake as others

[MarcTGFG]

What are you talking about???

It has the newest available operating system WM 6 Professional.

And it has 128 MB RAM!

And it is the only Pocket PC to have a CTRL key for copy and paste shortcuts.

Maybe you were talking about the Hermes. Then you are exactly right.

The only thing I miss in the G900 is an autofocus camera :-(

[x51vuser]

It has the newest available operating system WM 6 Professional.
And it has 128 MB RAM!

ok wm6 but where did you see 128MB of RAM ?
Send a link.

[ddevilx2]

Is it quadband or gonna be triband so US people are out of luck?

[ADBrown]

Is it quadband or gonna be triband so US people are out of luck?

Tri-band, I'm afraid.

[martin_ayton]

Toshiba's own information (here (http://www.toshiba-europe.com/mobile/Mobile2Live.aspx?WCI=PageNavigate&amp;WCE=&amp;WCU=%3BLANG%3D1%3BPID%3D166%3BTYP%3D17%3BPNT%3D0%3BSEC%3D2)) says it has: triband :roll: and 64MB RAM :evil:

Why, oh why do manufacturers persist on hobbling their products in areas where it would be easy to get them right. Apart from those two absolutely unneccesary limitations, this would have been the best product in its class. By some way.

[Duncan]

Toshiba's own information (here (http://www.toshiba-europe.com/mobile/Mobile2Live.aspx?WCI=PageNavigate&amp;WCE=&amp;WCU=%3BLANG%3D1%3BPID%3D166%3BTYP%3D17%3BPNT%3D0%3BSEC%3D2)) says it has: triband :roll: and 64MB RAM :evil:

Why, oh why do manufacturers persist on hobbling their products in areas where it would be easy to get them right. Apart from those two absolutely unneccesary limitations, this would have been the best product in its class. By some way.

Actually - Toshiba's page only says '64MB of internal memory' which probably refers to available storage. The FCC filing, and various other sources, says 128MB RAM. A UK PDA magazine has just reviewed it and says there is 112MB available RAM.

[MarcTGFG]

Actually - Toshiba's page only says '64MB of internal memory' which probably refers to available storage. The FCC filing, and various other sources, says 128MB RAM. A UK PDA magazine has just reviewed it and says there is 112MB available RAM.

Exactly: Its 128 MB program memory and 64 MB storage RAM.

I played with a preproduction unit at CeBIT and I am pretty sure it has more than 64 MB RAM and thus no problem in browsing large websites etc.

[martin_ayton]

Actually - Toshiba's page only says '64MB of internal memory' which probably refers to available storage.

Thanks - you are correct I did mis-interpret that :oops:. It makes the tri-band thing all the more mystifying. I would buy this device as a replacement for my Hermes, for the reasons Mark refers to, but I need to take it with me when I travel to the US and elsewhere and tri-band just doesn't cut it.

[thierryb]

if you do not need the keyboard, and have more money, take a Flame, 120 mb ram, 2gb rom, 3.6' screen, VGA, but not sure you will see any advantage of 800x480 on a 3".

[Anath]

if you do not need the keyboard, and have more money, take a Flame, 120 mb ram, 2gb rom, 3.6' screen, VGA, but not sure you will see any advantage of 800x480 on a 3".


Flame does not have HSDPA, bear this in mind. Although I'm also worried about the high resolution on only a 3inch screen.

[MarcTGFG]

The screen is simply terrific. You cant actually tell its a screen, looks like a print. Even better (higher pixel density) than Nokia N90.

Browsing with Opera Mobile in landscape mode was a revelation!

[JamesS]

The screen is simply terrific. You cant actually tell its a screen, looks like a print. Even better (higher pixel density) than Nokia N90.

Browsing with Opera Mobile in landscape mode was a revelation!

Well I'm sold. :)

Pretty sure this is going to be my next PDA, only thing concerning me is the weight at 198g.

[Brutalba]

i apologize for my lack of knowledge. but can I use this phone with cingular US sim card?

[alese]

I really like this device, but there is one potential problem.

Supposedly, there is no final confirmation yet, the device has only Bluetooth 1.2.
On such high end and high spec device this is major oversite.

Hopefully reviews will be really good, so good that I could go past the BT mistake.

[Duncan]

I really like this device, but there is one potential problem.

Supposedly, there is no final confirmation yet, the device has only Bluetooth 1.2.
On such high end and high spec device this is major oversite.

Hopefully reviews will be really good, so good that I could go past the BT mistake.

The FCC filing and Bluetooth.org database both say BT 2.0.

[horray]

Hi

I am totally convinced this is the next upgrade for my HTC Universal. The main reasons for the upgrade are the W-VGA screen as well as HSDPA!

So, my question is where can I get this device in Germany? I'll be going there for a business trip to Heidelberg in July and I would appreciate if someone could point me to the right direction.

Cheers! :roll:

[ADBrown]

i apologize for my lack of knowledge. but can I use this phone with cingular US sim card?

Technically yes, but since it lacks the 850 MHz band, you'll get only part of Cingular's coverage in most areas.

[SteveHoward999]

i apologize for my lack of knowledge. but can I use this phone with cingular US sim card?

Technically yes, but since it lacks the 850 MHz band, you'll get only part of Cingular's coverage in most areas.

I found that without 850 support on the phone, you get no signal in many areas. You might be lucky where you live, but I never was ...

This machine being only triband is absolutely awful. It is the most exciting device I've seen in a while - mostly because of the screen - and yet again the backwater US market misses out on cool technology!!!

Maybe better things are on the way soon ... I sure hope so!!!!

[ADBrown]

I found that without 850 support on the phone, you get no signal in many areas. You might be lucky where you live, but I never was ...

In my case, I have only 850 coverage, so I'd get nothing from a triband phone. Some areas have both 850 and 1900--in those areas, you'd get some coverage, but not as much proportionally. There are also areas like Phoenix, Arizona, that are 1900-only. You could use this safely in the city there without any loss of signal, though you might run into issues as soon as you hit the rural areas.

[Mark (NL)]

Well since this probably will have Toshiba's own Bluetooth solution rather than what Microsoft is selling as Bluetooth I'm more than a bit interested. It actually might keep me in the Windows Mobile camp, as I was really tempted with the Symbian based Nokia E90.

[Dyvim]

Well since this probably will have Toshiba's own Bluetooth solution rather than what Microsoft is selling as Bluetooth I'm more than a bit interested.

Toshiba's Bluetooth on their previous series of PDAs, the e800 series, was pretty shoddy. Couldn't even get bluetooth keyboards designed for Pocket PCs to work with them. Their BT SD cards were ok IIRC, but their built-in stack for PocketPCs was the pits. So I wouldn't put much faith in Toshiba Bluetooth. (Although I hope that Toshiba proves me wrong with the G900.)

[Mark (NL)]

Well Toshiba's bluetooth on a laptop of theirs works like a charm for me, so can only hope they do the same with these things... anyway can't be worse than what Microsoft did with BT :wink: :mrgreen:

[srmz]

Anyone knows if this one has a semi-automatic spring loaded sliding keyboard like the HTC Kaiser or just a friction slider like the HTC Hermes

Regards

[alese]

I really like this device, but there is one potential problem.

Supposedly, there is no final confirmation yet, the device has only Bluetooth 1.2.
On such high end and high spec device this is major oversite.

Hopefully reviews will be really good, so good that I could go past the BT mistake.

The FCC filing and Bluetooth.org database both say BT 2.0.

I hope you are right. Considering all the devices strenghts, lack of up to date BT implementation would be at least annoying if not deal braker...

[x51vuser]

Actually - Toshiba's page only says '64MB of internal memory' which probably refers to available storage. The FCC filing, and various other sources, says 128MB RAM. A UK PDA magazine has just reviewed it and says there is 112MB available RAM.

Exactly: Its 128 MB program memory and 64 MB storage RAM.

I played with a preproduction unit at CeBIT and I am pretty sure it has more than 64 MB RAM and thus no problem in browsing large websites etc.

so first you are yelling it is 128 MB and now saying 'probably' and 'pretty sure' 128 MB ? You had device to play with and you do not know how to check available memory ?
None of reviews on the net says it is 128.
Yeah people go ahead and throw away $800 to verify Hans' 'pretty sure' because Toshiba will of course not publish such a important detail as amount of RAM. Please can we remove kids from this forum ?

[Duncan]

so first you are yelling it is 128 MB and now saying 'probably' and 'pretty sure' 128 MB ? You had device to play with and you do not know how to check available memory ?
None of reviews on the net says it is 128.
Yeah people go ahead and throw away $800 to verify Hans' 'pretty sure' because Toshiba will of course not publish such a important detail as amount of RAM. Please can we remove kids from this forum ?

No-one is yelling anything. Your comment 'Please can we remove kids from this forum' is needlessly aggressive, silly and entirely out of order.

To date I've only seen one magazine review of the G900 and that stated it 128 MB RAM (112 MB available). Plus the FCC filing that says 128 MB RAM.

[MarcTGFG]

so first you are yelling it is 128 MB and now saying 'probably' and 'pretty sure' 128 MB ? You had device to play with and you do not know how to check available memory ?
None of reviews on the net says it is 128.
Yeah people go ahead and throw away $800 to verify Hans' 'pretty sure' because Toshiba will of course not publish such a important detail as amount of RAM. Please can we remove kids from this forum ?

You have a bad day?

I know very well, how to check available RAM and it said 128 MB. Satisfied? The "pretty sure" was meant as a cautioner, that Toshiba could have decided to sell the final production version with less memory.

Since no one has seen a final retail version, no one can be 100% sure.

All evidence points to 128 MB program memory.

[martin_ayton]

if you do not need the keyboard, and have more money, take a Flame, 120 mb ram, 2gb rom, 3.6' screen, VGA, but not sure you will see any advantage of 800x480 on a 3".

I do need the keyboard, and for the purposes of carrying a 'phone which doesn't look and feel like a brick, I think a 3" widescreen is about as big as I can bear. The lack of 3G would kill the Flame for me too.

[thierryb]

if you do not need the keyboard, and have more money, take a Flame, 120 mb ram, 2gb rom, 3.6' screen, VGA, but not sure you will see any advantage of 800x480 on a 3".

I do need the keyboard, and for the purposes of carrying a 'phone which doesn't look and feel like a brick, I think a 3" widescreen is about as big as I can bear. The lack of 3G would kill the Flame for me too.
The Flame have 3G but not 2.75 (edge) or 3.5 (hsdpa). I am waiting to see the Toshiba screen and know how usefull is 800×480 on a 3" screen.

[Fritzly]

I am a little bit confused; I found the phone here:
http://www.expansys.com/p.aspx?i=146074
but the picture shows it with a metallic and not a black finiture so I wonder which one is the correct one? Personally I would prefer the black one.
TIA

[jamijam]

How thick is it? Hermes is 22mm and I was hoping to go thinner for my next device. Kaiser is about 17mm I believe.

Anyone know?

[jamijam]

Never mind.. found it 21.5mm. Hmmm tough choice now. Depends on whether the high res screen is useful.

[calvin]

It seems to be a great device. But I think I will stick to the HTC Kaiser as my next device (now using HTC Universal). The VGA screen is very useful for surfing but I don't use it for anything else.
The big advantage of the Kaiser is the integrated GPS Receiver so you don't have to use an external one, and of course it has 3G

calvin

[Dyvim]

anyway can't be worse than what Microsoft did with BT :wink: :mrgreen:

Uh ... actually it can be. It was considerably worse with Toshiba's e8xx series. At least with MS BT stack I could connect a BT keyboard to my Pocket PC. Not so with e8xx. Also, tons of problems connecting things like BT GPS units which readily work with other BT stacks.

And if the G900 really is only BT 1.2, I'd be worried it might be the exact same flawed BT stack they used on the e830 three years ago.

[Duncan]

And if the G900 really is only BT 1.2, I'd be worried it might be the exact same flawed BT stack they used on the e830 three years ago.

Acoording to the Bluetooth Qualification website - https://programs.bluetooth.org/tpg/QLI_viewQDL.cfm?qid=12829 - the G900 has version 2.0/2.0+EDR. The FCC filing says the same.

I don't know about the PPC implementation of the Toshiba BT stack - but on my laptop it is superb.

[tdcao]

i apologize for my lack of knowledge. but can I use this phone with cingular US sim card?

Technically yes, but since it lacks the 850 MHz band, you'll get only part of Cingular's coverage in most areas.

I found that without 850 support on the phone, you get no signal in many areas. You might be lucky where you live, but I never was ...

This machine being only triband is absolutely awful. It is the most exciting device I've seen in a while - mostly because of the screen - and yet again the backwater US market misses out on cool technology!!!

Maybe better things are on the way soon ... I sure hope so!!!!

Brutalba,

If you're hoping to use Cingular HSDPA, you're out of luck. This phone is triband but only triband GSM (900, 1800, 1900) so the best speed you can get out of it from Cingular is EDGE speed on these 3 bands. You will also miss out most of the rural coverage (850).

For UMTS, this is only a single band UMTS (2100). Cingular does not offer UMTS on this band. It only offers UMTS on 850 &amp; 1900 (exclusively on 1900 in the future). So no HSDPA speed for this unit with Cingular :-(

T-Mobile will offer UMTS on 1700 &amp; 2100 by the end of this year (so they say). If you plan to switch to T-Mobile then I can see you buying it because at least you can use HSDPA on TMobile network (can't do HSDPA roam on Cingular network.) Otherwise, you're buying yesterday technology.

The most versatile pocket pc phone so far is still Cingular 8525 (GSM 850,900,1800,1900 / UMTS 850,1900,2100 ) but then it doesn't have VGA screen and only 64MB RAM (you can't run a decent gps navigation program with other background programs like music player, etc... on 64MB RAM) :-(

Note: I got most of this info from wikipedia :-)

[i4edge]

They are getting so close with the basic features most of us want. Why is it so hard to get a unit with a 3" vga+ screen, wifi, BT 2.0, 3g,256 rom, 128 ram, keyboard and reasonable size? That was the feature set I set out for me to buy my first PDA phone and I set that almost 4 years ago. I would have cried to think it would have taken them this long to even come close. To the PDA phone makers - you SUCK! so slow. If they made Windows we would be getting windows 98 right about now.

[pgamble]

The G900 was released in the UK on Friday (Expansys and Clove).

The manual is available here : http://www.toshibamobile.co.uk/campaigns/tosh-eup1/index.jsp?pg=UK/G900/Main&amp;t=1183133399959

This devices does have 128M RAM and 128M ROM ... this is the first time since the iPAQ 2750 which I still use with WM5.

This coupled with the display is enough on it's own to move from a TyTN.

The USB Host is also great.
There is no ref in the manual to the USB version. A separate Spec sheet suggests 1.1 which is very odd.

To be honest even if it was, it won't make much of a difference with all the other connectivity available.

Paul.

[k1darkknight]

...with a 3" vga+ screen, wifi, BT 2.0, 3g,256 rom, 128 ram, keyboard and reasonable size? I presume you'd be hoping for 802.11 g...as for everything else, I agree, though I'd specify USB host (incl. on the G900)...not as a dealbreaker feature, but a "whine if I don't get it" feature...lol

If they made Windows we would be getting windows 98 right about now. Well, not like Microsoft has the best track record with meeting release dates...I mean after all, Windows 98 SE's code is what the OS should've been in 1995, and XP is what ME should've been...

Looking at the pictures, though...all the stats say it's a "widescreen" display, but unless I'm looking at the angle weird, it looks like it's a standard 4:3 (or 3:4 in portrait) aspect ratio. Is the unit in the pics a mock-up, or just at a weird angle, or is it possible even that the specs are inaccurate?[/i]

[leploep]

its more than 2cm thick and almost 200gr so it's a brick.
Is there also a version without keyboard?

[ChristopherTD]

Idly pondering a switch from HTC Universal, this device is interesting.

A few black marks for me are Mini-SD (I have lots of Mega-SD cards) and the 2.5mm headphone jack (surely there was space for a 3.5 mm one).

No mention of video acceleration, which would have been useful.

Otherwise it looks pretty good.

[rebecker]

Will this unit work with a T-Mobile chip? I spend about 3 months a year in the US and just have the T-Mobile prepaid account. Most of the time I'll be using it in Costa Rica, where the GSM band is 1800. The T-Mobile coverage map seems to imply that it uses 1900 in most urban areas and along interstates. Is that the case?

Thanks.

-Bob-