The Nokia E90 alone in terms of form factor and specs for so long, is about to acquire a Windows Mobile-powered rival, the Toshiba Portege G910, according to Unwired View . Mind you, I said the same about the i-Mate Ultimate 7150, and look what happened to that...
Read on in the full article.
More pictures over at Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/16/toshibas-portege-g910-g920-go-fcc-followup-to-the-g900-super/
Frankly, I'm not that than excited. The G900 wasn't a particularly good or high-specced (PXA-270 300 MHz in 2007?! Come on, Toshi...!) device. It's buggy; the outdoor visibility of the screen is absymal etc - see for example http://www.modaco.com/content/Pocket-PC-Professional-News/251969/Toshiba-announce-Portege-G900-Pocket-PC/ for more info & user reports. I'd say the E90 is way better than the G900, hardware-, driver- and support-wise.
They must raise their standards a LOT in order to be able to produce something "killer".
my G900 runs a little faster than 300mhz,lol...more like 500mhz i think.
Unregistered wrote:my G900 runs a little faster than 300mhz,lol...more like 500mhz i think.
Just checked with PDAdb ( http://pdadb.net/index.php?m=specs&id=707 ) - you're right - it's only the premilinary specs that were 300 MHz; the device, then, shipped with 520 MHz.
I wondered what happened to the i-mate Ultimate 7150.. just didn't come out? I remember thinking that I'd like one for my next phone, ages ago when I was using Windows Mobile.
I can't speak for how this so-called rival will actually do in terms of sales, but anyone who has a clue knows that Windows Mobile is the biggest pile of software poo since Vista. Like all of Microsoft's incompetant software, it is a badly designed and written, buggy, resource hog, that's just plain crap compared to other rivals (notably Symbian but others too). That's not just my opinion, that's general market opinion. Oh yes, WM also has a grand total of about 0.6% deployment of phones worldwide.
ajck, I don't find WM6 to be any more bloated, unstable or irritating than S60v3. I'm not in the industry so couldn't vouch for wider techie opinion but having used both extensively over the past three years I'd say neither OS is exactly a model of simplicity and stability.
The biggest problem I found for WM phones is the very uncertain nature of the OS integrating with 3rd-party apps. Symbian apps are certainly better controlled and less likely to screw up your phone. On the other hand, there's a wider choice of software in most categories for WM.
Pays your money, takes your choice, I guess.
On topic, yeah the G900 was disappointing (nice screen, though, in optimal circumstances) but as a 'first effort' it was OK - if Tosh can build on it properly, it could become a contender.
ajck wrote:I can't speak for how this so-called rival will actually do in terms of sales, but anyone who has a clue knows that Windows Mobile is the biggest pile of software poo since Vista. Like all of Microsoft's incompetant software, it is a badly designed and written, buggy, resource hog, that's just plain crap compared to other rivals (notably Symbian but others too). That's not just my opinion, that's general market opinion. Oh yes, WM also has a grand total of about 0.6% deployment of phones worldwide.
Let me disagree. As of WM6, Windows Mobile Classic / Pro (NOT Standard (that is, the touchscreen-less, MS Smartphone version)), IMHO, is at least as flexible and dependable as Symbian S60v3 FP1 (and, in some respects, much more flexible and better thought-out). I use & hack both operating systems VERY extensively and know the differences.
(If you meant the MS Smartphone / WM Standard version, you're right - it's definitely inferior to Symbian S60v3 FP1.)
Currently, the main reason for the frustation of most WM users are as follows:
- no REAL, multimedia/camera-related competitor to the N95. This is a BIG problem of HTC and all the other WM manufacturers.
- no decent (W)VGA-resolution HTC device out there. I'm pretty much spectic about the new VGA i-mate model(s?) (I still haven't had the chance to play with them) and the Toshi G900 / O2 XDA Flame aren't something to write home about either. (Incidentally, this is why I'm still using my HTC Universal as my main VGA communicator.)
That is, it's more hardware than software. Nokia was able to come up with a really revolutionary model (the N95) which is way better than any Pocket PC or Smartphone out there if your main usage area is entertainment. It's not the fault of MS but the WM hardware manufacturers (HTC, O2, Toshi, I-mate, Asus etc) - after all, MS produces the OS, and HW manufacturers manufacture devices.
Richard Ross wrote:On topic, yeah the G900 was disappointing (nice screen, though, in optimal circumstances) but as a 'first effort' it was OK - if Tosh can build on it properly, it could become a contender.
Agreed. After all, their e800 was a real killer. A geek's dream machine back in 2003, one year before other manufacturer's VGA models - man, how I loved it!
I think part of the problem is that Microsoft have not made the WM platform flexible/capable enough to let the Hardware manufacturers to produce things too far from the standard spec sheet.
So for example, I'm sure it must be possible for HTC to put in decent Video Recording Hardware. however, I don't think the software allows for it ?
Could be wrong, but each time time you see some real inovation hardware wise, it usually does not mesh too well with the OS and feels like a fudge e.g. VGA screens. A couple of WM releases later, the OS catches up...
Zuber
Unregistered wrote:I think part of the problem is that Microsoft have not made the WM platform flexible/capable enough to let the Hardware manufacturers to produce things too far from the standard spec sheet.
Let me disagree - it's mostly up to the hardware manufacturers to come up with something nice. This is why the current lineup of WinMo devices are in no way interesting - at least not to me, who do want a handset with at least a VGA screen. This is why I was really disappointed when HTC didn't release the Omni, which would have been THE successor of the excellent, albeit now a bit outdated Universal.
Or, if I have to live with a QVGA one, then, I want it to be as lightweight as the N95. (The HTC Kaiser weighs in 190g - yes, 70g more than the N95, while it isn't (significantly) better - and, at multimedia and gaming, it just sucks because of both hard- and HTC-specific firmware issues).
Unregistered wrote:So for example, I'm sure it must be possible for HTC to put in decent Video Recording Hardware. however, I don't think the software allows for it ?
Sure it does - and the hardware would also. For example, the new Qualcomm 7200 chipset, IIRC, allows for 640*480 @ 30 fps video recording into ASP (or MJPEG?). It's just because of the manufacturers' ignorance that these features aren't used - for example, HTC don't put a decent (I mean one with the quality of at least tat of the N95) camera in their models.
Oh so sorry but how can someone put this trash next to the e90???? It looks like it was made back in 1996 it�s a cross between a calculator and something HTC would make I boo Toshiba! Stick with TV�s
fromfela wrote:Oh so sorry but how can someone put this trash next to the e90???? It looks like it was made back in 1996 it�s a cross between a calculator and something HTC would make I boo Toshiba! Stick with TV�s
You're right in that the active screen estate, compared to the physical surface, is much lower than with the E90 - or, for that matter, the G900. Actually, it's like the screen estate usage of early Libretto VHS-sized subnotebooks. Hope the Toshi folks fix this and come up with something at least as well-sized as the G900.