Toshiba claims that its new PDA will annihilate Palm's grip on the budget market. Check out the first Australian review of the Toshiba Pocket PC e310.
Toshiba entered the Pocket PC market with a splash late last year with its flagship e570 Pocket PC. The e570 was elegantly styled, it accepted memory in two of the industry's three formats, and it was reasonably priced given the feature set. If you were considering a high end PDA purchase, there was very little to beat the e570.
The e310 addresses a different market; budget PDA buyers and those looking to move from Palm to Pocket PC platforms. It's not as feature-rich as the e570 is, but then again, it's nearly a third cheaper than its stable mate.
The e310 is thin; very, very thin for a Pocket PC device. Thin also means light, in this case a paltry 140g. It really is a PDA that could be put in a shirt pocket without creating creases. Being thin and light is innovative for the Pocket PC market, but that's about where the design inventiveness ends. Just like virtually every other Pocket PC out there, the e310 uses a bog-standard PDA interface; four buttons for quick application launching and a directional pad for selection and cursor movement. A small speaker on the front face provides audio. While it's perfectly adequate for system beeps and the like, after listening to some test tunes through it, we wouldn't throw away that standalone MP3 player just yet. Audio matters were admittedly much improved via headphones.
We were somewhat irked by the physical design of the stylus and power button, both of which sit recessed on the top right hand corner of the PDA. They're recessed to avoid inadvertant presses, but at the same time, they can be hard to access when you actually want to. Unless you've got thin fingers or suitable fingernails, using either is tough, especially as the stylus is only clipped in place, not spring-loaded.
The e310's 3.5in screen handles resolutions of up to 320x240. By default the screen dims when not in use. This is a good idea from a battery saving point of view, but the dimmed screen is all but impossible to read. The automatic dimming can be configured via the settings panel, but we've seen dimmed screens on other models that managed to save power and remain legible at the same time.
PC connection is via USB and a mostly standard cradle. Because the e310 is so thin, small ridges on the interior sides of the cradle hold the e310 in place. If you're in a hurry, it can be a bit fiddly sliding the e310 down onto its docking connector because of these, although on the plus side they do hold the e310 quite firmly in place.
The big trade-off that keeps the price down is the limited 32MB onboard memory and single expansion option. An SD expansion slot on the back is your only way to upgrade memory and add accessories. Unlike the e570, which has an SD and Compact Flash slot, this also means you can't add memory and an accessory card at the same time. At the time of writing Toshiba haven't announced any e310-specific expansions.
Toshiba pitches the e310 squarely in opposition to Palm's high-end PDA devices like the Palm m515. Setting the list price at AU$100 cheaper than the m515 is certainly a good start. From a technical viewpoint the e310 has the high ground; a 206MHz StrongARM processor beats a 33MHz Dragonball in the numbers stakes. Of course, it isn't just a matter of speed; it's what you can do with it. The e310 works well as a Pocket PC device, but uses that extra grunt to simply run its operating system. Palm's rather elegant operating system needs fewer resources to run, so can get away with a lesser processor.
The e310 certainly puts a certain quantity of felines amongst the lower avian life forms. It's not as immediately expandable as some Pocket PC devices, but it's not as expensive either. A good choice for anyone seeking a budget Pocket PC, and a decent argument to move from Palm to Pocket PC for those already equipped with a PDA, as long as you don't need to add much beyond a single SD card to it.
Toshiba Pocket PC e310
Company: Toshiba Australia
Price: AU$899
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: (02) 9887 6000
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