Reviews and tests | Toshiba Portege G900 Review

And the G900 is quite appealing, the product has a nice chance to win the public attention in its class. This is a QWERTY-communicator with side slider, filled with all modern features, except, maybe, only GPS and FM-Tuner.

One of the main device features is a high-rezolution screen with large diagonal which makes the device unique on the market.

There is a 2.5 to 3.5 mm adapter in the package. As usual, it adds some noise but in most cases it's not critical. It's a pity that G900 doesn't have dedicated control elements and the WM interface doesn't allow to operate the player conveniently. This could make G900 a nice multimedia device - the large screen with high rezolution and a powerful CPU allows to watch video with comfort. And, keeping in mind the presence of USB-host, it wan't be a problem to save the medialibrary on the flash card. We tested G900 with 8Gb card and didn't meet any problems.

Toshiba Portege G900 communicator is implemented in side slider form-factor as we've already mentioned, this is usual for QWERTY-models. The form-factor was set by the platform leader, HTC company, over a year ago in their TyTN. Since then other manufacturers have used the idea many times, so Toshiba has decided to go the same way. The slider mechanism is implemented nicely - the autoslide works accurate. Someone can decide that the mechanism is too tough but this opinion will surely change with time. The case is mat, so it's not easily soiled. It's fully made of dark and grey plastic. The covering is pleasant and practical. The plastic is not cheap and there are no squeaks when compressing the case. The back cover backlash is absent, but the slider halves dangle slightly.

The model design is minimalistic, everything is strict. Remembering the fingerprint scanner we can make a conclusion that this model is adressed to serious and rich people. Such positioning is correct considering the high price of G900. The painting is also unpretentious, now Toshiba is not planning to add new colour solutions. As for ergonomics, the exteriors of the novelty is rather massive - the sizes and height are above average even considering the QWERTY class of the model. Maybe the men will like such excess but the ladies surely won't be glad. So here is gender positiong.

The elements are implemented well, there is nothing to cavil at. The buttons have sufficient size and motion, their location is rational. Al connectors are covered with stubs. The stylus is telescopic, rather big and comfortable. Above the screen there is a hardware browser call key, on the right there is a symmetrical VGA-camera for video-calls. On the upper side there is a power button, on the lower - miniUSB interface slot. In the right there is a camera button, the loudness slider and stylus eye. On the left - the 2.5 mm audio output, the miniSD memory expansion slot and the string binding for the wrist.

The keyboard is nice, especially because of the extended screen diagonal that allowed to extend the case and create 11 button rows and 2 soft-keys. This makes G900 close to usual QWERTY as much as possible. The backlight is white with reduced brightness, it's even and convenient. The buttons could be dispersed better but for such size the solution is optimal. Their motio is sufficient and rather tough. In fact, G900 keyboard is better implemented than the ones in actual alternatives from competitors.

The fingerprint scanner is located on the upper back side of the case. In serves not only as data keeper but also as a navigation element - unusual application, but sometimes it can be useful. Everybody must determine himself the importance of the dactyloscopy. For us it is doubtful, it's very easy to defeat the protection and G900 is not an exception. The camera objective is located on the back of the case, it's protected with the projecting insertion, which can be damaged, so it's required to be careful.

Toshiba Portege G900 is developed for work in GSM 850/900/1800/1900 and UMTS 850/1900/2100 networks, suports GPRS/EDGE, and HSDPA. The wired communication is held through USB 1.1 using standard miniUSB slot. The data transfer rate is not fast because of low-quality interface implementation in this model. But Mass Storage and USB-host are both supported. The las one uses a prepackaged cable.

The wireless connection is introduced with Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) module and Wi-Fi. Both of them haven't cause problems while testing. A2DP is implemented on the level of competitors. It's a pity that the sound transfer doesn't stop when the connection breaks, the internal dynamic automatically turns on - Symbian-smartphones struggle of the same ilness. Except A2DP the following profiles are supported :

• File Transfer
• Generic Access
• Generic Object Exchange
• Handsfree
• Headset
• HID
• Object Push
• Personal Area Networking
• Serial Port
• A2DP
• Audio/Video Remote Control
• SAP (SIM card access profile)

The synchronization over Bluetooth is possible, for this it's required to :

1. Configure "Windows Mobile device Center" application or "ActiveSync" on PC.
2. On the communicator - Start > Menu > Programs > ActiveSync.
3. Enable Bluetooth on PC and communicator, make it visible.
4. On the communicator - Menu > Connection > Bluetooth.
5. During the first connection it's required to launch Bluetooth wizard.

For Wi-Fi such feature is unaccessible because of security settings, it was used in earlier AKU versions in WM5. Wireless Manager is totally standard, the functionality is basic. On the FM-tuner the Toshiba company has spared - to our opinion it's not critical, though for somebody the radio absense in the comunicator can be a disadvantage.

Toshiba Portege G900 sports 128 Mb of ROM. RAM size is smaller than in competitors' devices (also 128 Mb) but this isn't critical. Memory card slot is miniSD which is less widespread than more habitual microSD. Officially the maximum supported card size is 4Gb. Unfortunately there is no card in the package so it will be necessary to buy it. The hot swapping is fully supported.

The Toshiba return on the Windows Mobile market as automatically provided the platform with a communicator with the best screen. Such screens were earlier available only on the Asian market. This is a WVGA-screen with 3" diagonal size. None of the competitors can offer anything similar today. The G900 screen format makes the communicator a real find for mobile movies fans - it allows to watch wide-screen movies with maximum comfort. And totally the screen is perfect - the high brightness, wide viewing angles, saturated chromaticity (theoretically it's just usual 65K). Without doubts it's the best element in its class.

«The Toshiba return on the Windows Mobile market as automatically provided the platform with a communicator with the best screen. Such screens were earlier available only on the Asian market.»

The interface implementation is typical fot Windows Mobile. There are now firm innovations like TouchFLO in HTC devices. The upper line is required for displaying the service symbols like battery level, signal level, clock, wireless protocols, Bluetooth, GPRS/EDGE, 3G, Wi-Fi, launched apps list. The lower line - the context buttons comments.

The main desktop space is variated subject to the personal preferences. On default it's presented by the current date, operator's network information, owner information, messaGES INFO, TASKS AND MEETINGS LIST and information field (bettery level, display rotation, wireless modules manager and backlight level). The owner can change thr order of fields displaying of remove them totally. A downloaded picture or a photo made with the internal camera can be set as a wallpaper.

The device menu can be devided onto two types : quick access menu and the main one. In the first case the menu is being activated with pressing the Start button and represents the customizable vertical list of 7 items, the info about 5 lately launched apps and access to the main menu and settings. The main menu is the programs list, which looks like the analog of the desktop Windows OS - the icons orf the applications and the notices above them. A single screen can contain not more than 12 icons.

Settings, Personal bookmark

SIM lock SIM-card lock
Input Inpet methods managing
Video call Video Call settings
Owner Information
Lock Password and access rights settings
Sounds & Notifications Loudness and signal settings
Buttons Buttos' functions settings
Menus Selectioning of Start menu buttons
Finger Print Settings of the dactyloscopy
Today Today screen settings
Phone Phone parameters settings

Settings, System bookmark
Error reports
Memory Shows the level of free\occupied memory
Backlight Settings of brightness and backlight
About Displays the communicator parameters
Certificates Network identification parameters settings
Remove Programs Program removing
Clock & Alarms Time and alarms settings Launched apps list
Encryption
Screen Screen calibration. Orientation selection (horizontal or vertical).
Power Displays the battery level and allows to set the auto-switch off time
Regional Settings Regional settings, like date and time format, adjustment

Settings, Connections bookmark

Beam IRDA data transfer settings
Connection Wizard Network parameters settings
Connections Network connection establishing
USB to PC USB-Conections settings

The "Phone" application manages the conversations. It can be called by two ways - pressing the call key or from the start menu. On the main screen of Phone application we can find three bookmarks - Calls, Quick dial and Phone settings.

Phone entries are storaged in Contacts application. SIM-numbers are displayed in the common list. It's possible to save contacts from the phone to the SIM-card and inversely. Three types of contacts exits which can be created on the device :

Microsoft Office Outlook contacts, which can be created on the device or synchronized with PC or exchange server. For each contact it's possible to save numbers, e-mail adresses, instant messaging system names, home and work adresses like position, birth date etcf. For Outlook contact it's possible to set a picture and a ringtone.
USIM/SIM contacts. For each one it can be saved only one name and phone number.
Windows Live contacts for operating with which the Windows Live Messenger or MSN prgram is used. Similarly to outlook contacts for Windowsd live contacts it's possible to give detailed information.

On the USIM/SIM card it's possible to record only 1 phone number for every contact. While copying contacts with multiple numbers to USIM/SIM, the "SIM-card manager" writes each number with a separate name. To save it on USIM/SIM card with another name the indicator in the end of the name is used (on default “/M”, “/W” and “/H” - mobile, work and home).

To call a number it's possible to use Phone, Contacts, Quick Dial, Calls and SIM-card Manager programs. Traditionally Smart Dialing is supported. It simplifies the dialing procedure. As soon as you input the first number or contact name symbols the communicator starts to select the appropriate entries in contact list on the SIM, in the communicator list or in the call list (among dialed, received and missed). After this it's possible to select necessary number or contact for calling.

By default the call register diaplays data about all calls but it's possible to filter the missed, dialed or answered calls, also sorting by names is available. In the list itself the time, date and call time or whole call time is displayed.

The commuicator contact-book capacity is limited only by the free memory space. For each adressee it's possible to input 12 numbers of different type, 3 e-mail adresses, home, work adress, web-page adress and many other parameters like assistant's phone number. It's possible to attach the personal call ringtone or picture and sort contacts by groups.

Traditionaly the "Messaging" application is used for work with text (SMS), multimedia (MMS) messages and e-mail messages. While receiving new messages the corresponding indication appears on the Today screen. The sorting is available, it's possible to set a filter for incoming e-mail messages for displaying by necessary subject.

The received message is indicated by splash window in any menu. It's possible to read it, delete or just ignore. It's convenient that all messages are located in a single folder and the navigation between them is using a tree-like structure. The keyboard usage for dialing we considered before, MioKeyboard doesn\t pose questions, everything is comfortable.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!For E-mail it's possible to activate an auto-delivery (a time interval for sending and receiving messages is determined), to determine the message load (the number of days in which the loaded messaged were received), to activate the e-mail delivery on sending and activation of the shedule in roaming, it's possible to limit the message loadings.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 is used the message will be downloaded at once, only HTML support is present. If the message has several enclosure levels, they arebeing loaded all together. The delayed download is possible. You can use key combinations for quick access for "Answer", "Send" etc.

A nice security system is available. For example, in ActiveSync it's possible to set the automatical digital signature and outgoing messages encrypting, it's possible to limit the access rights to the messages using IRM (Information Rights Management)

For planning meetings, assemblies and other events the "Calendar" is used. The meeting plan for the current day can be displayed on Today screen. If there is an Outlook application on PC it's possible to sinchronize the meetings plan. The reminder system using sound signal or screen blinking is available.

The "Calendar" program can be used for arranging about meetings via e-mail with people who use Outlook or Outlook Mobile. If the participants agree the invitation the meeting adds to shedule automatically. If receiving confirmations from the meeting participants the info updates. This is the strong side of Windows Mobile, tha't why the platform positions are especially strong in corporative segment.

vCalendar (standard file format used for exchanging information about plans and tasks) is supported, the corresponding files can be exported to Outlook on PC.

"Tasks" is used for managing tasks and duties, they can be once-only or repeating. It's possible to set reminds about tasks and sort them, attaching categories. There is a task list, the outdated are displayed with red font. It's possible to adjust a remind to turn on while adding each new meeting to the hedule.

"Notes" allows to make quick notes. It's possible to input text from the keyboard, write it from hand and voice, to transform the handwritten notes to text and send them to others. If the letter crosses 3 lines it's being processed like a picture, not text. For separating a picture (for example to copy ot to delete it) it's enough to press and hold a stylus on the picture for some time.

Office Mobile consists of 3 applications with the help of which it's possible to view and edit Microsoft documents - Word Mobile (viewing and editing *.doc, *.rtf, *.txt and *.dot), Excel Mobile (viewing and editing *.xls), PowerPoint Mobile (viewing *.ppt and *.pps).

"Explorer" - basic file-manager for viewing the folder content.

The preinstalled software package includes Opera browser. This is a nice step for end-users, this application is more functional than standard Internet Explorer. Among the main advantages there are :

•Search from the adress line (a - Answers.com, g - Google, s - Opera Web search, w – Wikipedia, y - Yahoo!, z - Amazon.com)
• Flash-animation support (the separate utility allows to play files)
• Graphics saving ability
• Grab & Scroll – convenient page scrolling by stretching.

What's usefull is that tabs can be imported from IE which is still present in this model.

For operating with fingerprinting there is a Finger Launcher utility.

Traditionally the "Search" and "Calculator" applications present.

The communicator is compatible with the following graphics formats : *.bmp, *.jpg, *.gif, *.png. Initially the simple "Photo and video" file manager allowing to make basic operations with files like turning or cutting is present.

The operations with audio and video are better implemented :


Windows Media Video	.wmv, .asf	Windows Media Audio	.wma
MPEG4 simple profile	.mp4	MP3	.mp3
H.263	.3gp, .3g2	MIDI	.mid
H.264	.mp4, .3gp, .3g2, .m4v	AMR, narrow-band	.amr
Motion JPEG	.avi	AMR, broadband	.awb
		AAC	.m4a, .aac

The selected mediafile can be sent by e-mail with one of the installed user accounts, transmitted to another device, played as a slide-show. It's possible to send a shot to the contact in Windows Live MySpace system etc.

For operating with audio and video the preinstalled Windows Media Player Mobile is required, local and network playback are both supported. Also 3 main screens present :

• Playback managing elements(Play, Pause, Nest, Previous and Loudness) and video windows.
•The list in which the current file is selected and files which are queued.
• Audio, video and playlists library.

The dictophone allows to record voice and send the record by MMS or e-mail, transmit it by wireless conection or set as the ringtone. The records are saved in AMR-NB (Adaptive Multi-Rate Narrowband) format, by default in "My voice records" folder, Picsel Viewer presents for viewing graphics.

This element is rather weak in Toshiba Portege G900 - 2 Mp without autofocus. Exactly such module is installed in most communicators. But it's not a nice choice for top-communicator with such price.

The protective cover is absent so it's necessary to operate carefully - the dirt getting on the glass decreases the quality. The flash presents but it's a usual light-emitting diode of average power. The mirror for self-portrait shots is absent. The camera is horizontal-oriented, for operating and settings a big sensory screen is used. The button is single-positional.

The model can take photos with rezolution up to 1600x1200 pixels and create videos with rezolution up to 320x240, The viewfinder operates nice, the inertness is moderate.

The finalized materials have quality that\s not better than average, this is typical for such module, it's very simple (this concerns both photo and video), look :

The main camera settings are rich, everything necessary is present. The interface is also good.

Toshiba Portege G900 is based on Marvell PXA270 with 520 MHz frequency. The tests show that the model is quite good in operating speed, let's traditionally view Spb Benchmark firstly:

On the first view Java is realised middling, the perfomance results are far from ideal. Really it's necessary to take into account the high rezolution and everything will take its place. The 3D profile support became a pleasant surprise, it's not critical for communicators. Jbenchmark results:

Let's look at implementation of operating with bideo in The Core Pocket Media Player with two short movies of standard rezolutions - QVGA and VGA in RAW framebuffer:

Toshiba Portege G900 works from 1530 mAh accumulator. The manufacturer announces up to 4 hours of conversation mode and up to 150 hours of standby. Our tests show that the device operates nearly 2 days from one charge with usual load which is a nice result. The results of cycle multimedia playback were compared with nearest analogs :

Toshiba already started sales of the two latest handsets. Surprisingly enough, the company decided not to introduce a candy bar model and resorted to niche solutions. The next announcement isn't a mass market one as well - in the first quarter of 2008 a keypad-supplied G910 is expected to entry the market, sporting design and functions similar to those of i-mate Ultimate. Undoubtedly, this is going to be a huge disappointment for many, since it's no secret that both smartphones and PDA phones based on the WM operating system enjoy much less popularity. The market perspectives G500 were already discussed above, but the situation surrounding G900 isn't that simple. For its class the model seems to be quite a balanced solution lacking any serious flaws, so it will surely win a stable audience.

The QWERTY side-sliders only form a small segment of the market, and the bulkiness of G900 is sure to repel female buyers. The model is positioned as a multimedia device which is quite incorrect - the camera is quite weak, there are no dedicated player controls and so on. So the most likely target audience is the business people, which hardly need the GPS. The choice is quite scarce - HTC P4350 (Herald) and the model reviewed in this article. B-class products like those produced by E-TEN make no serious challenge to this pair since the matter of discussion doesn't include unstable solutions that hang during talk and spontaneously lose user data.

The Portege device features a number of strong sides - the perfect quality of the screen, the high performance and the comfortable keyboard. The price is still qtuite reasonable. If you're in acute need of GPS functions, you can always buy a Bluetooh-operated GPS expansion module. As a niche solution the device makes a good offer provided that the market positioning is right. Claiming something above the actual level of functionality is a very bad practice that can ruin the sales, as well as the multimedia-wannabe ambitions. The product is going to be succeeded by the first Toshiba candy bar PDA phone which is expected to appear in the second quarter of 2008. Some of the indirect competitors are HTC TyTN (Hermes) and TyTN II (Kaiser), Nokia E90 Communicator could also pose some challenge, but in a very (very!) indirect way.

«If you're in acute need of GPS functions, you can always buy a Bluetooh-operated GPS expansion module.»

The Toshiba Portege G900 PDA phone is remarkable for the availability of the large (3'') screen with a high (WVGA) resolution, a comfortable keyboard and a fast CPU unit, the device also sports full 3G support. If you're looking for a sound QWERTY-slider with WI-Fi, this is a good option as an alternative to solutions by HTC>

+ Perfect Screen
+ Comfortable Keyboard
+ 3G Support
+ Wi-Fi
+ Large ROM capacity
+ Reasonable price
- Lack of GPS
- Bulkiness
- Mediocre camera