Tag: Toshiba

By May 21, 2014 Read More →

Android Excite Pure review

Toshiba-Excite-Pure1Toshiba are relatively new to the tablet market, but their recent offering of 3 new tablets, Excite Write, Excite Pro and Excite Pure, demonstrate that they’re more than capable of competing with the big hitters in the tablet market. The Excite Pure is the most affordable of the range, and in our opinion, the best model. The Excite Pro and Write are both excellent in their own right, but current pricing means they can’t compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung. So what’s exciting about the Excite Pure? Read our review to find out.

 

Toshiba Excite Pure Basic Info:

  • 1.2GHz NVIDIA Tegra 3 Quad Core (Cortex A9) Processor
  • 1GB Memory
  • 16GB Storage
  • 10.1″ WXGA (1280×800) Multitouch Display
  • 1.2 Megapixel Front Camera
  • NVIDIA Tegra Graphics
  • Micro-USB 2.00, Micro HDMI, MicroSD Card Slot, 3.5mm Audio Jack
  • Android 4.2

 

Design:

The Excite Pure falls within the 10” category, measuring in at 10.3 x 7.0 x 0.4 inches. The design is sturdy and features a two-tone design – silver casing with a black border around the screen. The Pure features micro SD slot, meaning you can expand the 16GB storage to anywhere up to 128GB. Unfortunately the Excite Pure only features one front facing camera, meaning this isn’t the best tablet for budding photographers. At an additional cost, you can purchase a nifty Toshiba Bluetooth keyboard which also acts as a stand.

 

Display:

At 10 inches, the Excite Pure offers great screen quality and resolution. The Autobright display has ten-finger multitouch support and boasts a 1280 x 800 resolution. For the price it’s one of the better screens available – viewing HD content will never be an issue.

 

Graphics:

If you plan to play games on a micro tablet such as the Excite, you’ll be glad to hear that it can handle almost anything thrown at it. We were incredibly impressed by the quad-core Tegra 3 processor (1GB RAM) that managed to handle every game we tested, without issue. Benchmark test reveal that the Pure outperforms the Kindle Fire and Asus Transformer but lags slightly behind the likes of the Nexus 10 and Galaxy Tab. If you’re looking for something with a bit more power we recommend you go with something like the Excite Pro from Toshiba.co.uk.

 

Camera:

Our biggest issue with the Pure was the lack of a rear camera, that being said, it’s to be expected when Toshiba release three differently priced tablets. The Pure’s 1.2MP camera is more than adequate for a basic photo but you won’t be taking it out of the house to take pictures any time soon.

 

Battery Life:

If you’re looking for a reliable tablet that will hold its charge for an entire day, the Pure is more than up to the job. When compared against the other tablets, it may not be the longest lasting but it’s definitely up there.

 

Verdict:

We loved using the Excite Pure. For the money (£260) you’re getting a great piece of kit that is more than capable of doing your day-to-day tasks. It’s not often that we have been impressed by a tablet that isn’t from the big hitters in the industry.

 

 

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By November 23, 2013 Read More →

SSD Face-off

SSD Face-offHaving a go at doing an SSD face-off with three lower priced SSDs in a typical PC setup. All three SSDs are tested on the same platform in an IDE set up. From the expensive Kingston SSDnow 100 V, to the considerably cheaper Toshiba Q Series Pro and including the OCZ Vertex Plus R2 for good measure we see that money isn’t everything when it comes to picking up an SSD.

By November 22, 2013 Read More →

The Toshiba Excite 7 announced

Toshiba Excite 7The Toshiba Excite 7 was officially announced yesterday. It boasts a quad-core processor, a microSD slot and more for only $169.99 (105). Here’s a breakdown of specs and features:

Toshiba Excite 7 specs:

  • 7-inch 1024 x 600 Display
  • Quad-core processor
  • 1GB of RAM
  • 0.3MP front facing camera
  • 3MP rear camera
  • Android 4.2.2 runs the show
  • Enhanced stereo speakers
  • 12 hours of general use / 7.5 hours of video playback
  • microSD support

The specs are rather mediocre, although the microSD slot and Quad-Core CPU is appreciated. At this price point there are certainly better options however with the name Toshiba you know you will be getting a good quality device.

Posted in: News, Tablets
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By October 24, 2013 Read More →

Toshiba STOR.E BASICS 2.5 Inch 1TB external hard drive review

Tosh.jpgThe Toshiba STOR.E BASICS 2.5 Inch 1TB external hard drive is a super small storage device. Featuring a High speed transfer connection via the USB 3.0 port, backwards compatible with USB 2.0 and ready to use with Microsoft Windows could this be the perfect potable device of you media on the go?

In this video review we’ll take a look at the physical hardware and then go on to benchmark the drive to see how well it performs.

Quickly transfer files with SuperSpeed USB 3.0 and store up to 1 TB of data on STOR.E BASICS external drives. Easy to use and backward compatible with USB 2.0, STOR.E BASICS external drives are ready to use with Microsoft Windows with no software installation required.

By September 13, 2010 Read More →

Toshiba Dynadock V10 review

Toshiba Dynadock V10 review Does the Dynadock V10 really soups up your laptop and productivity as V10 engine transplant would pimp up a car? Or is the all-in-one gizmo more of a two-stroke Trabant with a huge rear-wing?

I wasn’t sure what to make of the Dynadock.

It functions as docking stations of the yesteryear but it doesn’t look like one and connects via the ubiquitous USB rather than some obscure proprietary port.

The device tries to be a Swiss army knife of computer connectivity. It’s essentially a 4-in-1 gadget comprising a USB audio interface, a USB hub, a USB-to-DVI and a USB-to-Ethernet adapters. Quite an entourage for a single USB cable it uses to communicate with the computer.

Posted in: Laptops, Reviews
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By June 25, 2007 Read More →

Toshiba Portégé G500 review

Living with the Toshiba Portégé G500

what’s Toshiba’s New Shiny Slider really like to live with? my comprehensive review

Continuing the tradition of reviews based on my real world experiences of handheld devices, thanks to the generosity of Tracy and Matt, I’ve had the chance to test drive the Toshiba Portégé G500 for a week or so.

Toshiba Portégé G500

Toshiba Portégé G500

The G500 is Tosh’s first Windows Mobile Device since the e830 back in September 2004 and represents the first release of a Toshiba device with voice capability since 2002

The G500 runs Windows Mobile 5.0 AKU 3.2, think of this as Windows Mobile 5.5 as it includes Push email, xT9, WPA2 for WiFi, A2DP for enhanced sound quality for Bluetooth headphones and Internet sharing instead of Dial up Networking.

Connectivity wise the G500 supports WLAN (802.11b&g), is quad band including 3G, with HSDPA, GPRS and EDGE. The obligatory camera is a lowly 1.9 Megapixels

Environment
Once again the Toshiba has been used in a real business environment, as part of an Exchange 2003 messaging system using exchange activesync, it’s been a complement to my notebook which is unfortunately not a Toshiba (see why later)

At this point I have to say that returning to WM5.0 from my E650 / S710 was a bit of a wrench.

Highlights:

  • Finger Print reader: quite an innovative addition, great security measure but somewhat poorly positioned and fussy when registering a finger.
  • Stability: not a single hang or crash, no resets in over a week, quite unusual in a WM5.0 pull it apart test

No Lights:

  • OS: Windows Mobile 5.0 = bad bad timing
  • Applications : the best one (Goldkey) works only with other Toshiba hardware, but you do get the Opera browser
  • Finger Launch : great idea but not actually a convenience or a time saver

Lowlights:

  • Voice Quality: it’s a bit tinny
  • Size: frankly it’s a bit big

Review

Toshiba Portégé G500

Toshiba Portégé G500

As I’ve intimated the Form factor is a traditional slider but the Tosh is big, nice looking but big, sliders are traditionally smaller than other devices however even when closed the Tosh is not dissimilar in size to my E650.

Toshiba Portégé G500 vs. Orange E650

Toshiba Portégé G500 vs. Orange E650

The screen is pretty good not quite as big or bright as the E650 but a reasonable size and clear my only criticism would be that the on screen notifications are a bit blocky and appear unsophisticated.

Toshiba Portégé G500

Toshiba Portégé G500 Homescreen

The slide of the slider is quite satisfying and the finish is visually appealing.

Toshiba Portégé G500 left

But in the hand it feels quite plasticy and I fear might be susceptible to wear.

When I showed my wife the device she expected it to have a hidden keyboard due to its size (she’s been spoilt by the E650) and was a little underwhelmed by the aesthetics so a reasonable pass but no distinction.

The Portégé G500 is quite small compared to other WM 3G devices though so if 3G is your bag then this could be the handset for you.

The hardware buttons on the periphery (power / volume / camera only )- are well located, the volume rocker falls easily under the (right handers) thumb when in a call.

Toshiba Portégé G500 right

The camera button placement is where you’d expect it to be on a landscape camera.

Toshiba Portégé G500 camera

The front mounted function keys are logically laid out and provide positive tactile feedback when operated, as do the keypad keys beneath the slider. The soft keys in particular are very responsive and a great size.

Toshiba Portégé G500 dpad

The SIM slot is hidden beneath the battery and is a git to get a SIM out of, there is an external MicroSD card slot but it’s hidden beneath the back panel, the phone remains powered so hot swapping of SD cards is possible.

The flaps covering the headphone jack and USB port are flush with the casing and traditionally, well, flappy when open secured with a slender piece of plastic.

Toshiba Portégé G500 USB

The G500 has a mini USB port and thankfully a simple 2.5mm headphone jack, which is provided with an adaptor to allow you to use your own choice of phones with the Tosh wired handsfree kit.

Operation
Apart for the retrograde step of WM5 the G500 seems pretty zippy to use.

I was worried to see the first section of the manual after the compulsory terms, licenses and trademark acknowledgements the first section details how to reset your device, however this was unfounded as I’ve had no problems at all with hanging or general speed of operation (the G500 has a 416MHz processor and 64Mbytes RAM)

In the week of using it regularly there were no problems with operation either in applications or voice calls

Battery life is good although the quoted 4 1/2 hours / 10 days actually equates to about 2 days realworld usage (3G, GPRS, voice, a little WiFi)

Configuration
The slider is OK, even though I’m not normally a slider fan this one is quite satisfying, the fingerprint reader is not designed to be used with the same hand holding the device and is actually quite limited in scope apart from great the security use that is.

Applications – it’s all about fingers
The G500 is Windows Mobile 5.0 so there is no Office Mobile, the core Apps should all be familiar to you so I’ll concentrate on the G500 specific applications in particular those associated with the G500’s key feature the fingerprint reader:

Toshiba Portégé G500 fingerprint reader

Biometric Security: you can unlock the device with a finger through the inbuilt fingerprint reader this is great however it takes a few goes for the finger to register and there’s no indication as to what happens if you fail the verification. The biometric security is probably the single best aspect of the G500 as it reduces time to use from locked and provides a level of security unusual in mobiles.

Finger Launch: on paper this application looks great however it’s fundamentally flawed, the premise is that you can launch an app by registering it to a specific fingerprint.

This is OK for couple of fingers but you soon forget which is which and, can you imagine how awkward it is to launch anything with your little finger.

Finger registration is time consuming and a bit hit and miss

You get to see this screen a lot

and this one

until you see this one

In any case the finger launch app doesn’t run as a matter of course and to launch it you have to navigate past all the apps you are going to launch with your finger – far from saving time it actually increases the time required to launch apps. a sensible compromise would be to be able to launch the finger launch app with a finger, but you can’t do this.

Toshiba Gold Key: this is the most promising application in the Toshiba suite, it’s a Bluetooth proximity lock for your notebook. Goldkey is designed so that when your G500 is in close range of your notebook the notebook is unlocked, when you (well your phone) leaves the area your notebook automatically locks – a great idea.

Unfortunately Goldkey only works with a Toshiba Bluetooth stack so unless you have a Tosh notebook or USB card you aren’t able to make use of this app – shame.

As I’m exclusively HP at the moment I wasn’t able to test this nor it’s affect on battery life.

Toshiba Teleport: teleport requires installation of an application on the desktop and provides two distinct remote control functions over Bluetooth or USB :

  1. remote keypad
  2. remote screen
Teleport

Teleport

I’m a bit bemused by both these applications.

Keypad allows you to use your phone’s keypad to manipulate your desktop, it’s very limited

Remote Keypad

and the only viable use I have found is as a remote control for PowerPoint, however it’s too much of a palaver to set it up so I’m not sure I’d bother

remote screen is similar to Soti pocket controller although it only allows you to control your phone from your screen – it is free which is a bonus

Toshiba Portégé G500

Toshiba Portégé G500

Tiptalk: is a VoIP application, unfortunately I don’t have an account so was unable to test this application at all.

Opera Browser: Toshiba have included Opera as well as Internet explorer, tbh I couldn’t see an appreciable difference in performance between Pocket IE and Opera, I suppose it’s a nice addition for an IE hater.

Stability
Overall stability is very good, I had no problems with application hangs or voice performance, the Tosh seems very stable, much more so than some other WM5.0 devices I could mention.

Ease of Use
The handset is a bit big and one handed operation could be easier, it’s a bit of a reach from keypad to action buttons with the slider open the fingerprint reader use is counter intuitive you have to hold the handset in your other hand and pull the finger up the phone to make it work.

Overall Assessment
The Portege G500 is an above average smartphone, however I wouldn’t relinquish either my m3100 or E650 for it, although if I had a Toshiba Notebook that might change my view as the G500 should work well in conjunction with Toshiba’s notebook portfolio.

3G is a welcome addition although somewhat sullied by the size of the device and why Windows Mobile 5.0 Toshiba ? why?

The Toshiba specific applications are good ideas but frankly poorly executed, finger launch has not been thought through at all, Goldkey is a great idea but you must have a Tosh notebook or Tosh Bluetooth device. Teleport …….. what?????

The Fingerprint reader is innovative and may come into its own with additional applications as a security feature it’s great.

In conclusion, the Portege G500 is a reasonable re-entry into the smartphone arena by Toshiba however to get the full benefit of the device it needs to be treated as a Toshiba Laptop companion as which it should be excellent.

Go check out the Toshiba Portégé G500 product page on the eXpansys website.

Review by: Alasdair

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