3GSM Barcelona 2007 live coverage

It turned out that Toshiba too had some cards up their sleeves with some interesting mobiles. Starting with the Toshiba G500 smartphone slider we were surprised with the innovative addition of a fingerprint scanner we've seen in their notebooks. It is a security feature that we find attractive but we hope it doesn't pump up the retail price of the device. The purpose of the scanner is that you can lock the device to your fingerprint and it would not switch on if you don't authenticate yourself during startup. The device is powered by Windows Mobile 5.0 and features HSDPA and Wi-Fi support. Furthermore it has a 2 megapixel camera and a secondary front camera for video calls. The device has a rather nice design is really comfortable to use. The specs and the design are subject to change though since this is not an actual final version although it was a working preliminary version. The Toshiba G500 should be market available by the end of March 2007.

Toshiba G500

The Toshiba G900 may be easily called the highlight at the Toshiba mobile handsets stand. It is a Pocket PC powered by Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional with a sliding full hardware QWERTY keyboard. We must point out though that the upper row of keys is rather uncomfortable to use. That may change with time since as with the G900 the specs and the design are subject to change since the showcased unit was not an actual final version. The device has a large 3" TFT display with a Wide VGA resolution (854 x 480 pixels). The test unit didn't have the Windows Mobile interface quite tuned to the unusual resolution but the Toshiba staff promised that the final version would have that fixed and the device would be the first device with this kind of resolution on the market. The G900 is again HSDPA-enabled and features Wi-Fi and a 2 megapixel camera. Again, we see here a fingerprint scanner. This time though it comes with more available applications - you can set the scanner to start an application of your choice depending on which finger you have scanned. Furthermore, you can use it to scroll the screen by using sweeping moves across it. You can also select menu items by tapping the scanner. The other really interesting thing about the device is the integrated USB host controller which practically means that you can hook up any USB device to the G900 through its miniUSB port with the help of the USB adapter that would be included in the final retail package. The Toshiba G900 should be commercially available in the beginning of June.

Toshiba G900

Since we already were at the Toshiba stand we grabbed the opportunity to fiddle a bit with the Toshiba TS605 - their bar-shaped mobile which was recently announced and is already market available.

Toshiba TS605