
08-07-2004, 09:00 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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PDAGold Reviews Toshiba's SE-Enabled e800
"Even though Toshiba e800 is almost 9 months old, it remains the only Pocket PC with a VGA display on the market. Frankly, it is the best Toshiba I have ever held. Besides a remarkable display, it offers two expansion slots and a wireless radio module - either Bluetooth or WiFi, depending on the model...Just to make it clear - the device I tested was Toshiba e800 with an integrated Bluetooth module. Toshiba offers also a version with an integrated Wi-Fi module under the same model name."

While the e800 isn't terribly new, it's gotten some renewed attention due to the availability of WM2003SE for it. If you've been eyeing the unit, this is probably an article worth checking out -- as usual, Pavel doesn't disappoint with the breadth and depth of his review.
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08-07-2004, 09:19 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 27
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Having just flashed the SE rom to my e805, I can say the display is definitely drop-dead gorgeous. I use the high-capacity battery pack, which actually fits my had better than the standard battery. Never even think about battery life with that one.
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08-07-2004, 10:58 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Sep 2002
Posts: 109
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Grabow
Having just flashed the SE rom to my e805, I can say the display is definitely drop-dead gorgeous. I use the high-capacity battery pack, which actually fits my had better than the standard battery. Never even think about battery life with that one.
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I too recently flashed my e800 with SE (after being quite adamant that I would not until a large majority of applications had native support for it) and I am impressed with the result. I was so used to MyVGA that I didn't want to give up screen real estate for SE. SE VGA changed all of that. More often than not now I'm in the regular SE mode, It just took some time to get used to it.
One thing the review doesn't mention is that the VGA out on the Presentation Pack is *not* supported under SE. The VGA out isn't very speedy (almost a 1 second delay between the PDA screen and a monitor) and really is only for static powerpoint presentations with little FMV or effects.
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08-08-2004, 12:05 AM
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Sage
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 734
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Excellent review. I was actually considering the E800 as my new unit, but the review changed my mind - unfortunately. The D-pad took it off my list. What's the point of having that much memory, a speedy processor and a great screen if you can't play quake worth a damn?
*shakes head* This is going to be a tough one, with so little good units to choose from. I'm also considering the Loox 610 BT/WLAN (WLAN is a requirement) and the Asus 716
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08-08-2004, 12:10 AM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bjornkeizers
Excellent review. I was actually considering the E800 as my new unit, but the review changed my mind - unfortunately. The D-pad took it off my list. What's the point of having that much memory, a speedy processor and a great screen if you can't play quake worth a damn?
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The d-pad is indeed quite bad. Unfortunately, d-pads aren't generally emphasized on Pocket PCs. Apart from that and the larger-than-average formfactor, though, I like my e805 a lot.
--janak
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08-08-2004, 02:46 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 93
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You honestly won't believe this but i spent a few hours today looking for an e800 w/se review.
I'm torn between the axim x30 and the e800. Work are paying for it; so money doesn't matter, but i need it up & running within the next few weeks, so i can't hang on.
mainly i will be playing videos, browsing the web & editing/reading documents. I'm not sure if the vga display will help that much and if the smallness and the extra speed of the x30 is better. How much will the vga screen make what i want to do, will i be better off with the 200mhz for decoding videos?
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08-08-2004, 03:42 AM
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Oracle
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 830
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this almost makes me want to buy a e805 again.
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08-08-2004, 12:10 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 53
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Quote:
Originally Posted by scargill
mainly i will be playing videos, browsing the web & editing/reading documents.
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=> biggest screen & highest resolution
=> 4" screen, VGA (640*480) resolution
=> Toshiba e800 / e830, HP hx4700
Like the PC based video players with the ATI / nVidia PC graphics cards, the best video players (BetaPlayer, PocketTV, PocketMVP) use the hardware-accelerated processing provided by the ATI Imageon graphics chip integrated in the Toshiba e800.
BetaPlayer & e800: � watching dvd quality movies�
WM2003 SE & VGA PPC: �very crisp and clear text� (laser print quality text)
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08-08-2004, 01:24 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 734
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Speaking of videos.. How, exactly, does that work with the 640x480 display? Does it actually play a 640x480 move *at* 640x480?
I'd be willing to trade the D-Pad for the ability to watch Futurama @ that resolution @ full speed.
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08-08-2004, 01:39 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 93
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The e800 has USB Host facilities, right? Has anybody written a usb driver for joypads yet? That would completely make the e800 the no.1 device for games, no fiddly d-pad at all; just plug a joypad in and play to your hearts content!!!
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