With all the 480x800 devices getting announced at MWC09, increasingly it looks like the TG01's differentiation is going to come from the weird UI and the fact that it's sporting that hot new Snapdragon processor. Well, from those two things and from pretty looks. Looks which we share with you now, after the break.
Meanwhile, in case you missed it, here's what the TG01 has got
- Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
- 3G, Quad-Band Edge
- GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth
- G-Sensor, microSD
- 3MP Camera
- 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon Processor
- 512MB ROM / 256 RAM
- 1100 mAh Battery, 4 hours talk time
- 480x800 WVGA Touchscreen
Photos and impressions after the break
I will say that the TG01's is even worse in person than it was when I saw it in video. It's not just that the software is very early alpha and therefore slow and prone to crash (it is), it's that there's no logical connection between the pretty graphics and what they do. Sure, a swipe left or a tap in can get you more icons, but the rotating bands of colors don't really give you an intuitive sense of what just happened besides "ooh, shiny."
The hardware, well it's really good. The plastic is hard, the heft is nice, the screen is as gorgeous as you might imagine. Speed, well, speed was fine during standard Windows Mobile tasks, but Toshiba had it loaded up with some pretty hefty stuff that we suspect wasn't fully optimized for that powerful Snapdragon proc. We've said before that with mobile you can get away with just throwing pixels at a problem (like web browsing), but we're going to say now that the same doesn't necessarily apply to CPU cycles. The TG01 has a lot of potential, a LOT, but it needs some more time in the oven. Luckily, nobody knows that better than Toshiba.
We also got to see a snazzy little piece of tech demoed on the TG01: Transfer Jet. It's basically a wireless protocol for quickly transferring large files across spaces of 3CM or less. Seems like an odd piece of tech, but when you can see a map or a photo instantly transferred to your smartphone just by placing it on the palmrest of your laptop, you begin to see some uses.
Heck, have a few more pics, courtesy of Toshiba and Microsoft:
