Toshiba Pocket PC E310

...with the introduction of the Toshiba e310 Pocket PC.

Toshiba, though not that well known in this part of the world as a PDA maker (its Pocket PC models were not brought in till now), has actually been fairly innovative in its handheld designs – for example, Toshiba was the first to integrate both a CompactFlash AND Secure Digital (SD) slot in its Pocket PCs; the first to introduce an XScale processor handheld; and the first to offer ...
...is designed to be small, Toshiba hasn’t forgotten about expansion and has included an SD expansion slot.

In fact, the e310’s slot is a cut above the rest in terms of SD support because the e310’s SD slot also supports the SDIO standard, which means that the machine will accept SD expansion cards other than merely memory. With the correct drivers installed, the e310’s slot can accept Bluetooth cards and other peripherals.

more

Palm’s days as the king of tiny handhelds are numbered with the introduction of the Toshiba e310 Pocket PC.

Toshiba, though not that well known in this part of the world as a PDA maker (its Pocket PC models were not brought in till now), has actually been fairly innovative in its handheld designs – for example, Toshiba was the first to integrate both a CompactFlash AND Secure Digital (SD) slot in its Pocket PCs; the first to introduce an XScale processor handheld; and the first to offer a 4in LCD screen in a Pocket PC (the largest right now is 3.8in).

Now, the company has taken the crown for the thinnest Pocket PC around. The e310 is amazingly thin – in fact, it’s about as thin as a Palm m515, but about half an inch longer.

If you think that’s not something, chew on this – the e310 has a 240 x 320 pixel screen and all the bells and whistles required of a Pocket PC, including the audio recorder, the speaker and all the multimedia capabilities.

Even though this machine is designed to be small, Toshiba hasn’t forgotten about expansion and has included an SD expansion slot.

In fact, the e310’s slot is a cut above the rest in terms of SD support because the e310’s SD slot also supports the SDIO standard, which means that the machine will accept SD expansion cards other than merely memory. With the correct drivers installed, the e310’s slot can accept Bluetooth cards and other peripherals.

-------------------
It’s got the looks
-------------------
The other thing that you’ll notice besides the amazing thinness of the e310 is that the casing is made out of metal and feels nice and sturdy in your hand. The impression I get from the e310 is that it’s really well-built and feels like it could take a bit of a beating.

The other thing you’ll notice when you turn on the device is that the screen looks really nice. The e310 uses the same type of screen that most of the current Pocket PCs use, i.e. a side lit (Toshiba calls it a “frontlight”) reflective TFT LCD screen that is capable of displaying 16-bit colour.

Toshiba’s 3.5in screen, though not the biggest, is certainly one of the nicest looking.

One of the main problems with reflective screens is that the display tends to be a little “muddy,” where black areas in photographs tend to look a bit washed out. I was pleasantly surprised to note that the screen on the e310 has pretty strong blacks for a reflective screen.

Unfortunately, when I fired up Microsoft Reader, I noticed that ClearType, Microsoft’s text enhancement technology, just doesn’t look right.

ClearType text on the e310 doesn’t look as it should and instead there’s a distinct blue tinge in the text that makes it look blurry. It probably doesn’t matter to most people, but I read a lot of e-books in Microsoft Reader and having blurry ClearType is just fatiguing to look at over an extended period of time.

Unlike the iPAQ, which has an option to automatically adjust the brightness levels using a little light sensor on the front of the device, the Toshiba e310 only has a four-level brightness control – Low Bright, Medium Bright, High Bright or Super Bright.

Low Bright is very low, and is great if you really want to conserve power or view the screen in total darkness. The best overall setting seems to be Medium Bright, which is plenty bright for most situations.

One of the things that I use any handheld for is as a universal infrared remote, so the power of the infrared emitter on the device is always important to me. Th oughThe e310 has a pretty small infrared port, I was surprised to find out that the e310 has a really powerful infrared port.

A nice addition to the package is a nice jog/shuttle dial on the left of the e310 which allows you to scroll up and down pages and select items.

--------
SOFTWARE
--------
In terms of software, the e310 is pretty basic as well. Apart from the standard bundle like Microsoft Reader and Microsoft Outlook, the only thing that you get is Adobe Acrobate Reader for Pocket PC. That’s about as basic as you can get and certainly miles away from the packed Compaq iPAQ and HP Jornada bundle.

-------
BATTERY
-------
Battery life on the e310 is actually pretty good and I noticed that despite being slim, Toshiba certainly didn’t achieve this by cutting corners on the battery. In general use, I found the Toshiba could last me about 2-3 days of regular use and just under a week or so when used just to check your Calendar events and To-do lists.

-------------
DISADVANTAGES
-------------
One major drawback of the e310 is that it only has 32MB RAM, which is a drag in more ways than one – not only will you start running out of space to store applications, the Pocket PC will also tend to slow down a bit when running too many programs at once.

Oh yes, another thing—unlike all the current Pocket PCs on the market, Toshiba does NOT offer access to its built-in FlashROM for you to backup data so that it cannot be lost in the case of a hard reset.

----------
Conclusion
----------
I must say that the Toshiba e310 is a very nice device. The handheld fits in your hand nicely and is incredibly light for a handheld – in fact, the e310 is actually about the same weight as the Palm m515, with the Toshiba actually marginally lighter than the Palm.

The Toshiba even has the same SD card expansion slot as the m515, and although there’s not that many expansion options right now, this is bound to grow as SD expansion becomes the norm.

The only real drawback of the e310 is its relatively miniscule storage space – come on, 32MB is not nearly enough, after all, 16MB or so is going to be used to run applications (like the desktop version of Windows needs RAM to run apps), which means that you effectively only have another 16MB left to store your programs.

Other than that, the e310 is a VERY attractive device, especially if size is an issue.

 

...less