Chicago (IL) – The FCC has approved Toshiba’s latest PocketPC. Originally announced as the Portege G900 at the 3GSM conference earlier this year, the device apparently will be marketed under the firm’s “Satellite” brand, run Windows Mobile 6 and offer a feature set that will make most of its competitors look antiquated.

There certainly is a lot of activity in the cellphone space lately. Within the next few months, we will be seeing a range of new devices that are likely to draw more people back into the stores and consider an upgrade of their old device than we have seen before. Apple’s iPhone has a lot to do with that scenario and probably has influenced devices such as the new Motorola Razr 2 or Sony’s W660i to a certain degree. Toshiba is the latest company to take a new shot at the smartphone market, with what appears to become the most complete PDA offering to date.

The G900 will be sold under a brand that Toshiba so far has limited to its notebooks - Satellite – and will offer a slide-out keyboard. At its core, the phone will run an Intel-developed Marvel PXA270 processor with Bulverde core. The documents filed with the FCC do not reveal the clock speed of the CPU, which is offered in 312 and 624 MHz versions.

 

What makes the Satellite stand out is its high-resolution screen, which squeezes a stunning 480x800 pixels on its 3” LCD. In comparison, Apple says that the iPhone will display 320x480 pixels on its 3.5” screen and Palm’s Foleo mobile companion supports 1024x600 pixels on a substantially larger 10” display. Other hardware specs include 128 MB RAM and 128 MB ROM, a webcam, a 2 megapixel digital camera with flash, Triband, HSDPA as well as 802.11b/g and Bluetooth 2.0 +EDR wireless connectivity, a miniSD expansion slot and a mini USB interface. A noteworthy feature is an integrated fingerprint sensor – a function that was first supported by HP’s iPaq h5450 in 2002, but remains a somewhat rare feature in the market until today.

 

 

Equipped with 64 MB of memory, the G900 will include a basic set of applications that run on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6 Professional operating system. Included are Office Mobile, Internet Explorer, Opera’s web browser, Windows Live Messenger and Windows Media Player.

Availability and pricing has not been, but expect the G900 to be announced within a few weeks and carry a price tag of at least $500.    

Smells

May 30, 2007 21:47     

of HTC. Wish they would start marketing under their own brand more... they deserve it. Had 3 handsets of theirs and were some of the best I had at their respective times. Oh well... their loss...
PSaus report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Now there's a phone I'd be interested in!

May 30, 2007 22:12     

I never much cared for the iphone, Apple's hardware has never given me anything but trouble and it isn't any better than my HTC PPC-6700 PDA phone. This, on the other hand, is something that I could replace my 6700 for. That screen is awesome, I could play back DVDs in their full resolution! HSDPA and b/g are also features I've been looking for in my next phone. I'll have to keep an eye on this one!

nvalhalla report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

I actually hope they release a slightly bulkier ver...

May 30, 2007 22:48     

I actually hope they release a slightly bulkier version of this phone with a 4-5" screen, maybe a 5 megapixel camera, more onboard memory and battery life. A tablet form factor might even suit better than a side-slide for such a device. Just so Nokia N95 has no advantages over this at all. I've been hankering for a no-compromise high-resolution PDA since my Toshiba e805 got stolen! :-( Wish they could make this a bit prettier too. (Hey! Pretty is important!)

Kryojenix report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Looks like a HTC device....

May 31, 2007 02:30     

Looks like a HTC device, something like a dopod or hermes just with a better res screen & fingerprint sensor (bad place for it if you ask me). You can buy the Hermes right now the only diff being the screen res & fingerprint sensor
PaulG report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Specs

May 31, 2007 03:02     

Detailed specs (as originally announced in January) can be found here: http://www.pdadb.net/index.php?m=specs&id=707 BTW, the PXA processor is available in quite a number of clock speeds, including 416MHz and 520MHz apart from the ones quoted above.
Nurhisham Hussein report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Everything the palm Foleo isn't

May 31, 2007 06:11     

this device makes a lot more since then the palm device. Can't wait to see it and would deffinately be interested in upgrading to this phone.....iPhone NO!...this phone YEA!
jon report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Foleo in different category

May 31, 2007 09:39     

I think the Foleo is in a different category. I would lean more to the Foleo than this phone.
BigWarpGuy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0