Toshiba Portégé G810
Discontinued 28th February 2008
In the past year or so, we have compared
an awful lot of phones to the Apple
iPhone, a device that we
don't even like that much. So perhaps it is getting
a bit tedious to mention the iPhone again, but with
the Toshiba Portégé G810, the comparison
is kind of inevitable.
So here's the deal. Every time we mention
the iPhone when talking about the G810, we will
donate five pounds to The
Alternative Animal Sanctuary in Luton, UK. That's
three mentions of the iPhone already.. oh wait.. four.
Well, they have just had a major
fire, so they could probably use the money.
The Toshiba Portégé G810
ticks all the boxes when it comes to competing with
the iPhone. It has a touchscreen display, in this case
a 2.8" 240 x 320 pixel display. That's much
smaller than the 3.5" panel on the iPhone, but
around the same size as the Nokia
N95 8GB.
The
Toshiba G810 might not have the drop dead gorgeous looks
of the iPhone, but underneath it has a very impressive
feature set. Remember, the iPhone is a GSM phone with
EDGE and WiFi and lacks any type of 3G, but the Portégé G810
comes not only with 3G, but tri-band UMTS plus HSPDA
with a maximum of 3.6 Mbps download speed, and on top
of that the G810 is one of only a very small number
of handsets that supports HSUPA with upload speeds of
up to 2 Mbps.
On the back is a 3 megapixel camera
with autofocus. The G810 also features GPS, with A-GPS
support where available. There's an FM radio with RDS,
microSD expandable memory up to 4GB, USB 2.0 and Bluetooth
2.0 plus the Windows Mobile 6 operating system. The
iPhone lacks GPS, doesn't come with a radio and the
two megapixel camera has been criticised as being pretty
basic.
The
Windows Mobile interface looks a bit dated compared
to the iPhone, so Toshiba have customised the look and
feel of the device to make it a little more contemporary.
There are also plenty of Windows Mobile applications
around, which means that the G810 will be more flexible
than the iPhone.
For those people who care about what
is under the hood, the Toshiba Portégé
G810 has a 400 MHz Qualcomm MSM7200 processor with 128MB
RAM. It's a tri-band UMTS/WCDMA phone operating at 850/1900/2100
MHz plus quad-band GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz with GPRS
and EDGE data. The large 1530 mAh battery can power
the G810 for up to 4 hours talktime and 8 days standby
time. The G810 weighs 120 grams and measures 110 x 58
x 14mm.
So, the Toshiba Portégé
G810 has a smaller screen than the iPhone, but it is
more compact overall and has a much better hardware
specification. The operating system may not be as slick,
but it will be interesting to see what Toshiba have
done with it. The G810 supports GPS where the iPhone
does not, and because it is a Windows Mobile 6 device,
then you can add your own SatNav application to it..
for a price.
Compared to the iPhone then, the Toshiba
G810 is broadly competitive but has different strengths
and weaknesses. Crucially, the Toshiba badge on the
front does give it a few points for coolness too.
Toshiba say that the Portégé
G810 should be available during Q2 2008, most likely
coming to market in June. No pricing information was
available at the time of going to press.
By our count, we owe The Alternative
Animal Sanctuary the princely sum of £70. Perhaps
some other Mobile Gazette readers would
like to help out with this worthy cause by donating
too?
|
Toshiba
Portégé G810
at a glance
|
Available:
|
Q2/Q3
2004
|
Network:
|
GSM 850
/ 900 / 1800 / 1900 + UMTS
900 / 1900 / 2100
|
Data:
|
GPRS
+ EDGE + UMTS (3G) + HSDPA
+ HSUPA + WiFi
|
Screen:
|
240
x 320 pixels, 65k colours
|
Camera:
|
3
megapixels
|
Size:
|
PDA
style device 110 x 58
x 11mm / 120 grams
|
Bluetooth:
|
Yes
|
Memory
card:
|
microSD
|
Infra-red:
|
No
|
Polyphonic:
|
Yes
|
Java:
|
Limited
|
GPS:
|
Yes
(aGPS)
|
Battery
life:
|
4
hours talk / 8 days standby
|
|
|