Last year Toshiba released their first mobile phone handset in an attempt to follow fellow computer manufacturers Apple and Acer into the world of smartphones. The TG01 went down a huge success due to its massive 4.1″ screen and for being the first mobile phone to feature the Qualcomm 1GHz Snapdragon processor. While there were a lot of firsts for the TG01, the fact that it was a first for Toshiba meant that there were many teething problems that needed ironing out.

Now almost a year later and Toshiba has announced some new handsets to join the TG01 in its catalogue of mobile phones. The TG02 is no doubt the main successor to the TG01, picking up where it left off and ironing out the problems some encountered with it, such as the less-than-desirable responsiveness on the screen. The TG02 is essentially what the TG01 should have been originally. The K01 on the other hand is a new device entirely, opting for a sophisticated sliding design with full QWERTY keyboard and sexy AMOLED screen.

Screen Quality

The TFT screen employed on the TG02 is very much the same as the one found on the TG02 albeit with the much more responsive capacitive touch sensitive technology (compared to the TG01’s resistive). The screen resolution is still set at a very high WVGA (480 x 800) and the screen itself is still a very spacious 4.1″. The colour depth has taken a tumble from 256k to 65k although this is completely unnoticeable as the TG01 was effectively running on 65k colours anyway.

The K01 enjoys the same screen specifications as the TG02 including the WVGA (480 x 800) resolution, 65k colour depth, 4.1″ diagonal size and capacitive touch sensitivity. The key difference for the K01 is that it uses the much brighter and more vibrant AMOLED screen technology (compared to the TG01’s fairly standard TFT screen).

Both handsets include an accelerometer allowing you to auto-rotate the display between portrait and landscape. A good example of when this would be fully appreciated on the K01 is for messaging. As you will most likely hold the phone in portrait orientation most of the time it is really beneficial to be able to turn it into landscape to make good use of the QWERTY keyboard.

Entertainment

The TG02 and K01 are excellent phones to keep you entertained, thanks to the inclusion of a media player that supports a wide range of music and video formats. The large 4.1″ screens employed on both phones make them ideal for watching videos. While most phones today support the playback of videos it is fairly pointless to try and watch a movie on a 2″ screen to say the least.

It might not just be movies you might like to watch which is where the YouTube app comes in handy, allowing you to quickly search for videos or load up your favourite clips from the online service. There are also apps for social networking services like Facebook allowing you to quickly update your status or check what is going on with your friends.

Both handsets feature the same 3.15 megapixel camera. This includes autofocus and can record VGA video at 30fps. If you like you can also use the camera for video calling, so people can have the pleasure of seeing as well as hearing you. Pictures taken on the camera can be uploaded to Facebook or other services easily, or you can just play around with them in the photo editor if you like. To store all your photos or music and videos there is up to 16GB available through microSD cards on the TG02, and the K01 supports a gigantic 32GB’s worth of microSD cards.

OS and Connectivity

Both of the new handsets from Toshiba run on Windows Mobile 6.5, but also employ a 3 dimensional user interface developed by Toshiba. You can watch the video below to try and get some idea for the look and feel of this interface. The Windows Mobile operating system means that many great features are included such as Pocket Office, allowing you to view Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and PDF files from the comfort of your phone – great for professional phone users. The use of WinMo also means that the TG02 and K01 come with excellent email support, supporting MS Exchange as well as push email which will automatically notify you when a new message is received.

Both handsets support threaded view for SMS messages, as well as the sending and receiving of EMS and MMS messages. To browse around online you can use the preloaded Internet Explorer which runs on WAP 2.0 and xHTML. To connect online you can just hook up to any open network in your vicinity through Wi-Fi or you can also connect through 3G (HSDPA/HSUPA).

For phone calls both handsets primarily operate on quad band GSM networks and also come with support for GPRS and EDGE. As well as this there is the already mentioned HSDPA and Wi-Fi supported, but both new Toshiba phones also come with a microUSB socket and support for Bluetooth with A2DP allowing you to connect up some wireless headphones.

Summary

The TG01 had been hotly anticipated right up until its launch, mainly due to rumours of its massive screen and (then) unheard of Snapdragon processor. The TG01 did meet with some tuts as many users found irritating little problems with the device which no doubt Toshiba have gone to great pains to rectify.  Even though this is the case it must be noted that the Snapdragon is becoming a more and more common sight among mobile phones and 4.1″ is no longer that unusual for a phone, so the TG02 has a lot more to compete against than the TG01 did a year ago.

The K01 offers very much the same deal as the TG02 albeit with a sliding keyboard and greater capacity for microSD cards. It also features a much more vibrant screen thanks to its AMOLED technology. These are both very nice looking phones and evidence of a superlative effort on Toshiba’s part, it just remains to be seen whether Toshiba will enjoy more success this time around. You can read more Toshiba TG02 reviews and K01 reviews or find out what deals are available for the Toshiba TG02 or Toshiba K01.