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| Home >> Handheld & PDA Reviews: Toshiba e755 Pocket PC with Windows Mobile 2003 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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User Submitted Toshiba e755 Pocket PC with Windows Mobile 2003 Reviews (cont...)Date: 2003-10-04 Sweet PDA I have had this unit for a few weeks now and I am still amazed by what it can do. I was a tad skeptical about the usability of the wireless browsing, but I am sold now. The only thing I could wish to be better would be battery life, but hey, you can't have everything! It still amazes me that I can watch full two hour movies on this thing. Date: 2003-09-26 Great PDA!!! Upgraded from a Jornada 548, and very glad I did. Pros: Processor is very fast; moving between programs and views is a breeze; screen redraws almost instantaneous; screen is bright and text clear; 3.8" screen vs. the usual 3.5" is nice; WiFi is a nice feature; has tons of memory--96MB RAM, CF and SD. Also nice to have a switch to turn the battery off completely. Cons: comparatively minor for what you get w/ the 755, particularly at the Amazon price. The record button is located on the upper left side of the unit about where I put my hand to remove it from the docking station, inadvertently engaging the record function, so I disabled it. Not quite as easy to insert and remove from docking station as some units, such as the HP Jornada, but again minor stuff; WiFi switch a bit difficult to switch on/off. Manual doesn't have an index. Great out-of-the-box experience. Purposely did not read the directions; took only a couple of minutes to set up the PDA (select proper time zone, align screen) and then I flipped the WiFi switch and 20 seconds later I was connected to my wireless home network. Wireless syncing is a bit more difficult to negotiate though--still working on that. And while some find the Toshiba design uninspiring, it has nice clean lines I would term as simple sophistication. While some improvements come with the new MS OS, you'll still want to download the now standard plug-ins for the Today screen. Pleasant surprise: handwriting recognition appears improved from the 2002 version. Have tested it numerous times and it has worked near flwlessly--I might actually use this feature now. All in all, a great unit--if I had it to do again, I'd make this purchase again. 1. WiFi works great even with WAP encryption tunred on. However, setting up wireless ActiveSync was painful even for someone who is familiar with networking. The configuration just isn't intuitive at all and is scattered in many different places. 2. The extra large screen is a big plus. 3.8 inch vs 3.5. 3. Media player works fine. I am able to stream live TV program to this unit without skipping frames. This is a pleasant surprise. 4. I was able to get ActiveSync to work with Outlook after several tries. I havn't tried synching with Exchange Server. Again, if you are none technical, you will most likely run into problems. 5. The built-in speaker sucks. Most other PDAs have better speakers. 6. Soft Reset will be your daily activity. I don't believe Toshiba is at fault. It is a built-in Microsoft "FEATURE". 7. There is no COM port built-in. If you want to use serial GPS, you will need to get the software driver that turns USB into simulated COM port. Even then, it is painful to use and requires lots of resets. 8. 32MB build-in extra FLASH storage means you probably don't need memory card soon. 9. No Bluetooth 10. The manual is pretty much useless except for telling you how to soft reset the unit. 11. Be careful with hard reset. You DO lose everything that's not in the flash memory. Unfortunately, Toshiba and/or Microsoft still have a long way to go. What's the big difference between this device and my Palm? It has built in WiFi, a web browser, e-mail, and Windows Media Player. 1) It is constantly losing connection to the wireless LAN (three different wireless LANs that I tried), so browsing is difficult. 2) It has IMAP support, sort of. Regardless of whether I configure it to download just message headers or the entire body, it will only download message headers. It also shows my other IMAP folders (besides the Inbox) but will never display any messages in them. 3) Despite claiming to play various Windows Media file types and streams, it has so far only been able to play the sample file that comes with the player. Not very entertaining after you've seen it once. 4) Despite claiming support for my Microsoft Exchange server, despite repeated ActiveSync attempts, this unit never would synchronize my Calendar and Contacts, just Notes and Tasks. The handwriting recognizer (Transcriber) is superior to Jot and Grafitti, but only if you are writing out more than a couple of words. For e-mail addresses and web site URLs, you're better off using the keyboard. Basically, I have an overpriced Palm with a fancy screen and lower battery life. Unfortunately, I can't recommend this item. I'll be trying out the Sharp Zaurus to see if they're any better.
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