Toshiba TG01 Vs Apple iPhone 3G

There has been a lot of hype about Toshiba TG01, especially when people perceive it to be a new contender of the iPhone.

Could Toshiba TG01 beat iPhone 3G ? So let’s take a look at below apple-to-apple comparison that we do know so far.

Look & Feel
The big bit of news is that the handset is less than a centimetre thick - 9.9mm to be precise. That’s obviously a good 2.4mm thinner than the iPhone. Other dimensions are around 129 x 71mm compared to the iPhone’s 115.5 x 62.1mm.Weight of the TG01 isn’t known yet.
Update TG01: Weight: 129g

Screen
The Toshiba TG01 features a 4.1-inch (diagonal) colour TFT touchscreen sporting 480 x 800 resolution. That’s a rather interesting 3:5 (or 5:3) aspect ratio compared to the iPhone’s 320 x 480 (2:3 / 3:2) aspect ratio. Neither offers “true” widescreen TV format.
Apparently the Toshiba uses the same LCD technology as found in its line of Regza LCD HDTVs. That means stuff like dynamic gamma correction and intelligent backlighting.

Camera
The TG01 has a 3.15-megapixel camera but it’s not clear what additional features it offers — not much according to the specs so far (no zoom, and flash/auto focus and video capabilities aren’t known). The iPhone 3G, by contrast, still has its paltry 2-megapixel bog-standard camera.
Update TG01: 3.2 mega-pixel, autofocus

Multimedia
Given that this is a Windows Mobile device, you’d expect the TG01 to handle a wide variety of audio and video out of the box, though there’s no specific information as to what just yet. The iPhone 3G handles MP3, AAC, MPEG4.
Update TG01: Sound: MP3, AAC, AAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, WMA, WAV , Video: H.263, H.264, MPEG4, WMV

Navigation
Both phones have a built-in GPS unit. The iPhone 3G makes use of this via Google Maps and third-party applications. Presumably the TG01 will do similar.
Update TG01: Built-in GPS & A-GPS

Communications
Both phones operate on 3G networks and have built in Wi-Fi. The Toshiba TG01 has full Bluetooth 2.1 and A2DP support.
It also has integrated instant messaging, SMS and MMS, while the iPhone lacks MMS and requires third party applications for IM.
Update TG01: SMS, MMS, E-mail, Microsoft Direct Push Technology, Windows Live Messenger

Web Browsing
The iPhone uses the Safari browser while it’s likely that the TG01 will use a version of Internet Explorer for Mobile, but presumably with the option to install a third-party browser.

Operating System
The iPhone 3G runs on OS X. The Toshiba TG01 uses Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional.

Storage
The TG01 has an unspecified amount of internal memory plus the ability to add up to 32GB of removable storage. The iPhone 3G has a fixed 8GB or 16GB internal memory.
Update TG01: 512MB ROM / 256MB RAM, micro SDHC slot up to 32GB

Sensors
Both phones feature ambient light sensor. It seems the TG01 has some kind of accelerometer built in, for such tasks a being able to shake the phone to answer the call (OK then). Others aren’t clear. The iPhone also has proximity sensors.

Applications
The iPhone allows a range of Apple-approved third-party applications to run. Presumably the TG01 will offer as much expandability as any Windows Mobile phone.

Pricing & Networks
It seems that the TG01 will be tied to one carrier in each country, just as the iPhone is tied (in the UK) to O2. Pricing on the TG01 isn’t known yet.

Conclusions
The Toshiba TG01, with its great display and super-fast 1GHz Snapdragon processor, looks to have a lot of potential. It’s a shame that it runs Windows Mobile (albeit with Toshiba’s own extensions on top) rather than Android or even Symbian, because that feels like a bit of a stumbling block.

It’s certainly a contender to the iPhone, though whether its improved specifications win over the usability factor remains to be seen.

Watch this video demo to have an idea how could Toshiba TG01 beat iPhone 3G ?.