Toshiba TG01 review

Imagine your IT department is insisting you get a Windows Mobile device -- you've got to automate your business flow or some such nonsense. At this point, you'll probably begin to scream, curse, cry and beg for the sweet release of death. But, just as you begin to do so, a tiny ray of sunshine strikes your forlorn heart. You're getting the Toshiba TG01, and it's as cool as Windows Mobile can get. Admittedly, though, that's not saying much -- a massive screen, thin body and powerful processer barely ease the pain of an operating system that should have been put to sleep years ago.

The TG01 is exclusive to Orange, and it'll cost you about £49 on a £29-per-month contract, or about £450 unlocked and SIM-free.

The Snapdragon snaps
The TG01 has Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor inside, packing 1GHz of white-hot processing power. Surely such a beast can overcome Windows Mobile's legendary sluggishness? No such luck. Applications are still slow to launch, and the presence of a reset button under the TG01's back cover indicates how prone to crashing it is. We managed to crash the device twice in the first 20 minutes of use, without even trying.

To make matters worse, Toshiba has laid its 'Touch' user interface over Windows Mobile's usual bland, tiny icons. It has potential -- its home screen offers customisable Venetian-blind-like stripes that display shortcuts to your favourite files and applications. But the shortcuts still use the low-colour icons from Windows Mobile, and they look so dated it's almost funny.

Toshiba's Touch user interface has potential, but it can't entirely mask the horror that is Windows Mobile. The home screen, for example, features tiny and dated-looking Windows Mobile icons

Even the 1GHz processor doesn't help the UI to run smoothly. For example, when you swipe your finger over the stripes, they're supposed to rotate smoothly away to reveal other options. Instead, they tend to jitter.

The resistive touchscreen doesn't help matters, either. Unlike capacitive screens, like the iPhone's, which respond to the gentle swipe of a finger, resistive touchscreens require the exertion of more pressure, such as is achieved with a fingernail or stylus. We found using a fingernail absolutely necessary. Unfortunately, many of the menus and icons are tiny, so you'll need to carry the stylus included in the box if you're nails aren't up to the job.

Touchscreen tantrum
It's not all bad news, though. The TG01's relatively huge 104mm (4.1-inch) screen makes navigating through Windows Mobile's tiny icons much easier than it is with smaller-screened devices, simply because there's more space between them.

Even though the TG01 sports a stonking great screen, the space key on the keyboard is tiny

The on-screen Qwerty keyboard really suffers as a result of the touchscreen's lack of sensitivity, as well as some poor choices concerning the placement of buttons. For example, in landscape mode, the spacebar isn't a bar at all -- it's a small button of the same size as the letter keys, on the left-hand side. On a screen with this much real estate, that's unforgiveable.