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?