Inside The Box

Inside the box you get an AC adapter, Headset, CD software and manual.

Design

The Toshiba Protégé G500 comes with a quality 2.3” QVGA screen, weighing in at 135g and measuring 96 (H) x 49 (W) x 22.9 (D) mm, but its design is hindered by its chunky casing, which is a touch backwards compared to the style of modern Smartphone’s. It does not spoil the enjoyment of using the phone that much, but it just doesn't feel right in the palm of your hand.

Interestingly when you slide up the top part of the screen- to reveal the keypad underneath - you will notice at the back of the screen a finger print reader. This is used to secure your device from unwanted intrusion by coding the unlock sequence to your finger print and also to allow you to set program shortcuts, so with a swipe of your finger a program can be opened. This takes a couple of attempts to get working but when mastered it’s a rather unique way of using your phone.

The keypad was comfortable to use when texting and likewise the joypad allowed easy navigation around the phones menu options.

To the sides and the base of the phone you have various covers protecting your USB and memory card slots and at the back you have the 2MP camera lens.

Software

The G500 comes with the older WM5 operating system (with its standard apps), though Toshiba have tried to add some of their own software (finger print recognition, Picsel viewer, for viewing office documents). Unfortunately Toshiba have no plans to release a WM6 upgrade for this device, so if this is a key factor in your purchasing decision you will have to look elsewhere.

Features

The Toshiba makes up for the latter with a hi-spec feature list, as well as 3G HSDPA (3.6) for internet access, you also have the added inclusion of Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g support, which was pretty easy to configure thanks to the integrated WM5 connectivity manager.

The back features a 2MP camera and it does provide a built-in flash of sorts, it’s mainly a small light that helps by illuminating areas in low light conditions, but there is no auto focus and images tended to suffer as a result.

Memory/General performance

Its general performance was good thanks to the 416Mhz processor, but we did find that our test video was a little choppy at times during play back.

For memory you only get approximately 37mb of free storage memory to play with (once all the applications have been taken into account) but eXpansys do provide additional storage via a 512mb microsSD card.

Call Quality

Call quality was fine during our tests, with both parties feeling that the conversation was clear (using our Orange Sim). The 0.3mp front mounted camera can also be used for 3G video calls.

Battery

Battery life is not too bad considering all the technical wizardry on the device and the manufacture claims a standby time of 240 hours and a talk time of 240mins or 180 if you have 3G.