The Toshiba Portege brand is one used for the company's line of ultraportable business notebooks. Now it extends to some mobile devices as well, including the Portege G900. Like the notebooks, this device is targeted at the business crowd, with security features put in specially to appeal to them.
In Asia Pacific, the G900 can currently be officially found only in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia. Other countries in this region will have to wait for the official word from the Japanese company for its availability. For those who do not wish to wait, online sources are shipping internationally, though you most likely will have to pay a premium going that route. Official pricing is as yet unavailable, but it costs about US$900 in the UK, where it is already launched.
Design
Slider designs on handhelds are hardly ever slim. This is immediately apparent on the G900, which has a thickness of 21.5mm. This is very similar to the Dopod 838 Pro, another popular handheld model which has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Not only is it thick, the Toshiba is quite heavy, too, at 196g. Comparatively, the 838 Pro is about 10 percent lighter at 176g. So if you ever thought that Dopod's feature-packed slider was too chunky, the G900 certainly won't be your cup of tea.
Size and weight aside, this PDA-phone has a plastic finish throughout. Aside from the black trimming around the front and keyboard, the entire device is silver in color. While the front of the G900 looks fine, the rear battery cover has a slightly glossy finish which feels somewhat greasy to the touch, especially if you have sweaty palms.
Shortcut buttons aren't lacking on the G900. On the front alone, there are keys that bring you straight to essential applications like the browser, your inbox and contacts. One of them is also an OK key to conveniently get out of applications. On the right of the device is just one shortcut key to the camera application and a volume control rocker.
When held in portrait mode, the screen slides to the right to expose the QWERTY keypad. The display then automatically changes to landscape format for use with the keypad. A total of 41 keys can be found on the keyboard, two of which are softkeys found beyond the extreme left and right sides of the neatly laid-out keys. Each key is raised in the center, which makes them well-defined even though there is no spacing between keys. The tactile feedback upon depression of the keys is sufficient, and we found the keyboard quite effective on the whole.
A single USB connector on the bottom is used for charging and syncing. On the left are the other ports including a 2.5mm headset mini-jack and a miniSD card slot.
Features
With its bulk, you'd expect features galore. And we dare say few will be disappointed with the breadth found on the G900. For starters, this device has a wide VGA display. That's 800 x 480, one of the highest you can find in any handheld. A higher screen resolution lets you display more on one page, which is particularly useful when browsing the Internet. One drawback to this is that fonts may become too small for some users. The size of the screen is 3 inches, which isn't much wider than some devices with QVGA (320 x 480) displays. This can be overcome somewhat by increasing the font size, but those with poor eyesight may still want to take a look if they are comfortable with it before making a purchase.
Another relevant concern because of the display is whether third-party applications will work on it. While we cannot test out all programs, we did try some popular ones from Download.com. Graphics were stretched in a game we tried, while some others worked fine including the popular VoIP software Skype. That said, we recommend you contact the developer first if there is any application that is crucial to your well-being to see if there will be any issues.
The G900 supports HSDPA, which is great for those who need a high-speed data connection over the cellular network. The 3G radio in this PDA-phone operates only in a single frequency, unlike some others handhelds which have triband 3G radios. That said, the 2,100MHz band is a very popular one and users who stay in this region will probably not miss the other two. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 (with A2DP support).
One of this Toshiba's most distinctive features other than the screen is its fingerprint sensor. This is found behind the panel when you slide out the display, and is a swipe style one like those found in some business notebooks. Fresh out of the box, you need to register your fingerprints using the bundled setup application. After that is done, if password lock is activated in settings, your fingerprint becomes an option for unlocking instead of keying in the password. While this doesn't make it anymore secure than normal, it does make unlocking more convenient. Finger swipes can also be used to launch predetermined applications, one for each registered fingerprint.
GoldKey is another security application found on the G900. This one uses Bluetooth to determine the device's proximity from a paired computer. The computer can then be set to lock once the G900 is out of range, reducing the risk of leaving your computer open to unauthorized use.
A 2-megapixel camera is found on the back of the device, together with an LED flash. Sad to say, images taken with this camera are quite poor in quality, suffering from lack of sharpness as well as an inability to compensate for different lighting conditions when indoors.
Performance
Voice calls connected without issues and reception was fine, too. But we found voice quality to be lacking as we experienced hollowness in voice quality when using the G900. It was almost as if there was a toilet roll tube stuck between our ear and the handset. We could still make out conversations, but it was a niggling annoyance. The speakers on the handheld were quite loud, good enough for video calls and speakerphone conversations.
A 520MHz Marvell processor is found in the G900 and comes with 128MB RAM. The available user ROM is just 40MB, but it accepts miniSD cards up to 2GB for those who require more storage.
A single charge of its 1,320mAh battery lasted about two days of use. It is rated for up to 160 minutes when used in a 3G network and 265 minutes when connected to just a GSM network.
In Asia Pacific, the G900 can currently be officially found only in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia. Other countries in this region will have to wait for the official word from the Japanese company for its availability. For those who do not wish to wait, online sources are shipping internationally, though you most likely will have to pay a premium going that route. Official pricing is as yet unavailable, but it costs about US$900 in the UK, where it is already launched.
Design
Slider designs on handhelds are hardly ever slim. This is immediately apparent on the G900, which has a thickness of 21.5mm. This is very similar to the Dopod 838 Pro, another popular handheld model which has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Not only is it thick, the Toshiba is quite heavy, too, at 196g. Comparatively, the 838 Pro is about 10 percent lighter at 176g. So if you ever thought that Dopod's feature-packed slider was too chunky, the G900 certainly won't be your cup of tea.
Size and weight aside, this PDA-phone has a plastic finish throughout. Aside from the black trimming around the front and keyboard, the entire device is silver in color. While the front of the G900 looks fine, the rear battery cover has a slightly glossy finish which feels somewhat greasy to the touch, especially if you have sweaty palms.
Shortcut buttons aren't lacking on the G900. On the front alone, there are keys that bring you straight to essential applications like the browser, your inbox and contacts. One of them is also an OK key to conveniently get out of applications. On the right of the device is just one shortcut key to the camera application and a volume control rocker.
When held in portrait mode, the screen slides to the right to expose the QWERTY keypad. The display then automatically changes to landscape format for use with the keypad. A total of 41 keys can be found on the keyboard, two of which are softkeys found beyond the extreme left and right sides of the neatly laid-out keys. Each key is raised in the center, which makes them well-defined even though there is no spacing between keys. The tactile feedback upon depression of the keys is sufficient, and we found the keyboard quite effective on the whole.
A single USB connector on the bottom is used for charging and syncing. On the left are the other ports including a 2.5mm headset mini-jack and a miniSD card slot.
Features
With its bulk, you'd expect features galore. And we dare say few will be disappointed with the breadth found on the G900. For starters, this device has a wide VGA display. That's 800 x 480, one of the highest you can find in any handheld. A higher screen resolution lets you display more on one page, which is particularly useful when browsing the Internet. One drawback to this is that fonts may become too small for some users. The size of the screen is 3 inches, which isn't much wider than some devices with QVGA (320 x 480) displays. This can be overcome somewhat by increasing the font size, but those with poor eyesight may still want to take a look if they are comfortable with it before making a purchase.
Another relevant concern because of the display is whether third-party applications will work on it. While we cannot test out all programs, we did try some popular ones from Download.com. Graphics were stretched in a game we tried, while some others worked fine including the popular VoIP software Skype. That said, we recommend you contact the developer first if there is any application that is crucial to your well-being to see if there will be any issues.
The G900 supports HSDPA, which is great for those who need a high-speed data connection over the cellular network. The 3G radio in this PDA-phone operates only in a single frequency, unlike some others handhelds which have triband 3G radios. That said, the 2,100MHz band is a very popular one and users who stay in this region will probably not miss the other two. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 (with A2DP support).
One of this Toshiba's most distinctive features other than the screen is its fingerprint sensor. This is found behind the panel when you slide out the display, and is a swipe style one like those found in some business notebooks. Fresh out of the box, you need to register your fingerprints using the bundled setup application. After that is done, if password lock is activated in settings, your fingerprint becomes an option for unlocking instead of keying in the password. While this doesn't make it anymore secure than normal, it does make unlocking more convenient. Finger swipes can also be used to launch predetermined applications, one for each registered fingerprint.
GoldKey is another security application found on the G900. This one uses Bluetooth to determine the device's proximity from a paired computer. The computer can then be set to lock once the G900 is out of range, reducing the risk of leaving your computer open to unauthorized use.
A 2-megapixel camera is found on the back of the device, together with an LED flash. Sad to say, images taken with this camera are quite poor in quality, suffering from lack of sharpness as well as an inability to compensate for different lighting conditions when indoors.
Performance
Voice calls connected without issues and reception was fine, too. But we found voice quality to be lacking as we experienced hollowness in voice quality when using the G900. It was almost as if there was a toilet roll tube stuck between our ear and the handset. We could still make out conversations, but it was a niggling annoyance. The speakers on the handheld were quite loud, good enough for video calls and speakerphone conversations.
A 520MHz Marvell processor is found in the G900 and comes with 128MB RAM. The available user ROM is just 40MB, but it accepts miniSD cards up to 2GB for those who require more storage.
A single charge of its 1,320mAh battery lasted about two days of use. It is rated for up to 160 minutes when used in a 3G network and 265 minutes when connected to just a GSM network.
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