Toshiba TG01 Passes Through FCCToshiba TG01 Passes Through FCC

Beyond things like the Palm Pre and the BlackBerry Tour, AT&T seems to get the good smartphones. That may be changing though, as the Toshiba TG01 has passed through the FCC for a CDMA carrier (Sprint or Verizon), and this phone is a beast.I spent ten minutes with a prototype version of this phone a few months ago, and I was still impressed with the speed. Toshiba's smartphone uses Qualcomm's Snapdragon chipset, which has a 1-GHz Scorpion microprocessor, and a 600-MHz digital signal processor for multimedia. Basically, this phone has a ton of horsepower under the hood.

What struck me about the handset is the big, 4.1-inch screen. We're rapidly approaching the point where screen sizes could become the enemy of your pockets, but the size of the TG01 is not an annoyance at all. The extra screen space is very much appreciated, and I just hope it won't be too much of a drain on the battery. Also, the resistive screen may not be appealing to those who have grown used to capacitive screens like those on the iPhone, Pre, or G1.

The handset will use Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system, as well as an odd, 3D panel user interface layered on top. Reviews of the international version suggest the UI is not the best, but I'm still a fan of Windows Mobile. I think it gets guff because the interaction paradigm is far too similar to how we use desktop computers, and different classes of devices require different interaction approaches. With that said, it's very easy to get used to, and you have a far more customizable and flexible OS than any of its rivals (still holding out hope for Android though).

The TG01 also has a boatload of other features you'd expect from a smartphone: Wi-Fi, 3G, GPS, Bluetooth, full browser, multimedia players, and it should play nice with corporate networks. No word on who is going to offer this, but I think this can be a really strong device for Verizon to position against the iPhone. It's sleek and sexy (it's only .38 inches thick), and if they can throw on a pretty UI, I believe it would be very nice weapon in the battle with AT&T.