Toshiba TS10

Discontinued
6th September 2005

This fairly radical looking device is the Toshiba TS10 clamshell phone - a pretty simple handset that distinguishes itself mainly by looking like no other handset on the market.

We have seen phones a little like this before - take for example the rather cool Nokia 6170, but the Toshiba TS10 is very much a love-it-or-hate-it thing.. but whatever you feel about it, it certainly looks like nothing else on the market.

It's a reasonably lighweight and compact phone at 90 grams and 97x46x17mm, but the specifications overall are disappointing, particularly the 128x160 pixel display that is dwarfed by the TS10's large interior space. The digital camera is also only a VGA resolution unit, and there's very little else going on except a WAP browser and polyphonic ringtones.

The Toshiba TS10 lacks Bluetooth, an email client or multimedia playback. For all its stunning looks, it's clear that this is a very basic handset.

Underneath, this is a tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900 phone with GPRS, 2.5 hours talktime and 6 days standby time. The battery life is frankly pretty poor considering how little there is to power in the TS10.

However, this is a phone that will sell on looks rather than technical specification, and as a follow up to the high-end 3G TS921, the Toshiba TS10 certainly gets itself noticed.

Toshiba say that the TS10 will be available from October 2005 onwards in Europe. At present we do not know which carriers Toshiba will be partnering with, but given the specification of the Toshiba TS10, we would expect to see it launch as a low end contract and prepay device.

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