Toshiba announces the TG01 smartphone

Toshiba plans to take on the smartphone market with their TG01, based on Qualcomm's Snapdragon platform running Windows Mobile 6.1. The 9.9mm thick device sports a 4.1-inch widescreen VGA (800x480) touchscreen, a GUI designed specifically for easy one-handed navigation, and the standard HSDPA 3G, WiFi, and GPS/aGPS connectivity options.

Qualcomm and Toshiba are promising that the 1GHz Snapdragon CPU will make the TG01 the fastest smartphone on the market (that is, until the second Snapdragon-based smartphone hits the market), and that the battery will last you an entire day without having to be mindful of actually using the multimedia and connectivity capabilities of the device.

The oddly inadequate 512MB of on-board storage can be expanded using the microSDHC slot which supports cards up to 32GB - which you'll want to do to make full use of the fact the TG01 can play DivX video. And before you scoff at the fact this otherwise hip device runs Windows Mobile, remember that means full Flash support with Internet Explorer Mobile 6.

For more hands-on photos, videos and media impressions of the TG01 than you could get through in an average afternoon, check out Techmeme.

Tim Hanlon