Archive for the ‘Toshiba’ Category

Look and Feel

The Portégé G710 looks reasonably good, although there are no outstanding eye-grabbing features.

Ease of Use

The round navigation button seemed a bit unresponsive, which is a pity as it could have been a real plus point.

Features

Lacking in Wi-Fi and with slow USB, the Portégé G710 is saved by having a GPS antenna built in.

Performance

Not the fastest kid on the block, although it is probably perfectly adequate if you aren’t the impatient sort.

Battery Life

180 minutes of battery life isn’t great.

Toshiba has recently re-entered the smartphone market after an absence of several years. There are two new devices to mull over, the Portégé G910, and the Portégé G710, which we are looking at now

Toshiba Portégé G710 - Windows Mobile on a budget

Some Windows Mobile devices seem to include just about every feature going, and others are more selective in what they decide to offer. The Portégé G710 is in the latter camp, and the good thing about this is that its price is relatively attractive.

The list of what you do and don’t get is sometimes surprising. This is a GSM-only device, albeit a quad-band one, and the USB PC connection is USB 1.1 so data synching is slower than it might be with USB 2.0. It seems a bit odd, as we can’t think it saved a lot on production costs. There is no Wi-Fi, but there is a GPS antenna, although we’d say both are becoming essential smartphone features.

Toshiba Portégé G710 - Usability matters

There is good and bad news in terms of usability. This is a Windows Mobile 6.0 Standard device so it doesn’t have a touch-screen, but it does have a small QWERTY keyboard, which we found to be well thought out.

The tall thin keys are nicely spaced from each other, they are well raised from their surroundings, and they give a reassuring click when hit. However, the build feels rather lightweight and plastic, and the shortcut buttons beneath the screen, for accessing keys such as the Call and End, and the soft menus, also lack a certain slickness to the touch.

Toshiba Portégé G710 - Not a speed-hound

The processor isn’t the most lightning fast available, and we found ourselves waiting for the Portégé G710 to catch up with key presses on more than one occasion. The internal memory is a little short too.

Finally, Toshiba’s idea of taking a leaf out of the BlackBerry book and using a Pearl-like wheel for navigation is a neat one. The white wheel sits under the screen and you can scroll using a finger or thumb to navigate around, and you press it to select. It lights up bright white when used which is neat.

However, it doesn’t feel as smooth or as responsive as the BlackBerry versions, and so may be something of a letdown if you have used a BlackBerry before.

Toshiba Portégé G710 - The Verdict

Overall, we can’t claim to be bowled over by the Portégé G710. It is very much a budget Windows Mobile device, and while the GPS antenna is a neat feature, there is a lot that is average. If you buy this device, you might find yourself hankering for something more sophisticated quite quickly.

Specifications

Toshiba's presence at CTIA Las Vegas 2008 was almost non-existence. Their booth was tiny, they didn't have much to show, and their booth reps didn't speak an English. All in all, the Toshiba booth experience was dismal.But, that doesn't mean that Toshiba didn't have anything cool to show. On display at their booth was the [...]

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