Toshiba TG01 review

Battery life on the TG01 is only middling, which is mostly down (once again) to the efforts to make the device thinner. This has resulted in only a 1000mAh battery being used, which is around 20 per cent to 50 per cent smaller than other smartphones on the market.

The processor obviously takes up a fair whack of battery life, and although you can turn it down to conserve, that kind of takes away from the point of the handset in a way.

Obviously powering the giant touchscreen is difficult too, and once we factored in a good session of internet browsing (which took longer after we kept hitting the wrong section) as well as full brightness video viewing, the battery was nearly empty after around seven to eight hours use.

This is a little shorter than we're used to, and while we're obviously going to test the phone to extremes, there will be days when you find you need to keep checking on different things, and you'll be needing your charger with you in these instances.

BATTERY LIFE: The 1000mAh battery is a little underpowered

Most of the time you'll get to the end of the day to charge up overnight, which we find necessary with most smartphones, but still the battery life seemed a little short here (and that's without exhausting it on the media front.)

Organiser

The organisation functions on a WinMo device are famous already, and the same Outlook-style interfaces and ability are present on the Toshiba TG01.

The calendar is obviously functional with easy viewing of all your appointments, although it lacks the gloss and attractiveness of the Palm Pre with the collapsible sections for when your day is without event (you know who you are, you boring types).

Tasks are also easy to add, and although there's only three viewable on the homescreen, it's still nice to be able to check them off quickly, although for some reason you can't interact with the task menu from the 'Gadget Zone' (we don't think we'll ever be OK with that name).

To be honest, you could spend ages setting up the TG01 to help you sort out your life - from Google and Outlook to the calculator and SIM management software, there's a lot on here to help you out.

It's all very basic-looking thanks to beauty of WinMo 6.1, but there's a lot to come from the 6.5 upgrade (we hope... dear God, do we hope) and the fact the options are there now is a very good sign that the TG01 combined with Windows Mobile 6.5 will be a much more sleek and powerful beast.