Toshiba Portege G900

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Features
With its bulk, you'd expect features galore. And we dare say few will be disappointed with the breadth found on the G900. For starters, this device has a wide VGA display. That's 800 x 480, one of the highest you can find in any handheld. A higher screen resolution lets you display more on one page, which is particularly useful when browsing the Internet. One drawback to this is that fonts may become too small for some users. The size of the screen is 3 inches, which isn't much wider than some devices with QVGA (320 x 480) displays. This can be overcome somewhat by increasing the font size, but those with poor eyesight may still want to take a look if they are comfortable with it before making a purchase.

	The fingerprint sensor hidden behind the sliding screen (click for larger image)

Another relevant concern because of the display is whether third-party applications will work on it. While we cannot test out all programs, we did try some popular ones from Download.com. Graphics were stretched in a game we tried, while some others worked fine including the popular VoIP software Skype. That said, we recommend you contact the developer first if there is any application that is crucial to your well-being to see if there will be any issues.

The G900 supports HSDPA, which is great for those who need a high-speed data connection over the cellular network. The 3G radio in this PDA-phone operates only in a single frequency, unlike some others handhelds which have triband 3G radios. That said, the 2,100MHz band is a very popular one and users who stay in this region will probably not miss the other two. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 (with A2DP support).

One of this Toshiba's most distinctive features other than the screen is its fingerprint sensor. This is found behind the panel when you slide out the display, and is a swipe style one like those found in some business notebooks. Fresh out of the box, you need to register your fingerprints using the bundled setup application. After that is done, if password lock is activated in settings, your fingerprint becomes an option for unlocking instead of keying in the password. While this doesn't make it anymore secure than normal, it does make unlocking more convenient. Finger swipes can also be used to launch predetermined applications, one for each registered fingerprint.

GoldKey is another security application found on the G900. This one uses Bluetooth to determine the device's proximity from a paired computer. The computer can then be set to lock once the G900 is out of range, reducing the risk of leaving your computer open to unauthorized use.

A 2-megapixel camera is found on the back of the device, together with an LED flash. Sad to say, images taken with this camera are quite poor in quality, suffering from lack of sharpness as well as an inability to compensate for different lighting conditions when indoors.

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