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Toshiba e805 Pocket PC with Windows Mobile 2003

Toshiba e805 Pocket PC with Windows Mobile 2003

List Price: $599.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: unreliable!
Review: Finally a Pocket PC to please the geekiest of the geeks. With the patch provided by a kind programmer, the e805 can display VGA (640x480) in native mode, and the results are stunning. Webpages and especially Excel will look tiny, but I never use Excel on Pocket PC anyway, so to me that complaint is moot. (Obviously if you do use Excel on your PDA this is important to know.) In addition to the great screen, I also love the 805's speed, memory and built-in wi-fi. Let's not kid ourselves: this is a high-end PDA and not everyone will find it a good value. But if you want VGA, this is the only game in town, and it's a good game.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Beautiful screen and loads of memory
Review: Finally a Pocket PC to please the geekiest of the geeks. With the patch provided by a kind programmer, the e805 can display VGA (640x480) in native mode, and the results are stunning. Webpages and especially Excel will look tiny, but I never use Excel on Pocket PC anyway, so to me that complaint is moot. (Obviously if you do use Excel on your PDA this is important to know.) In addition to the great screen, I also love the 805's speed, memory and built-in wi-fi. Let's not kid ourselves: this is a high-end PDA and not everyone will find it a good value. But if you want VGA, this is the only game in town, and it's a good game.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: unreliable!
Review: i got my unit and as soon as i took it out of the box, i found that the screen would not respond to the stylus. so, i could not use it past the initialization stage! this unit has all sorts of problems that you can read about on forums, such as:

- screen taps not responding
- noise coming from the unit
- batteries not holding charge

although i was aware of bad experiences some people had, i really wanted the vga screen and thought i would try it out anyway...

turned out to be a big waste of time, since i had to wait about 3 weeks for this thing to get off back order!

i have purchased all kinds of technology items and have never had anything with such a major defect upon opening it; this is just unacceptable.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I love mine, more pros than cons
Review: I had the iPAQ but I had to have an expansion pack to use a CF card and the battery seemed to die everyday. This has everything I want built in. I know it doesn't have Bluetooth, but either does my laptop or cell phone but both have IR so the included IR on the e805 was important. I have a 1gb CF card and a 512sd card which are recognized without a hitch (not the case on my iPAQ where I constantly had to soft boot) WiFi configured really easily. I backed up my new unit and did a hard reset and restore, which worked perfectly and easily. I love the large screen for viewing my photos and short mov videos and my maps from pocket streets, the included apps are great but I did have one multimedia app from my iPAQ that I use and love. Battery lasts about 3 days w/normal use. Not as large as I expected, but then the iPAQ w/expansion was very large and heavy. I use a leather case for the e740 which was tight at first, but works great. Toshiba isn't the greatest with support or customer service and this unit didn't come with ANYthing, no cards, no screen cover, no case, which did come with my iPAQ. But I love the built in CF and SD cards, the large screen, ease of use voice recorder. The only thing I don't like is the stylus.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A very unhappy camper
Review: I placed one of the earliest orders for this unit. The unit is fine, as far as that goes.
Feb 2, 2004
Now I am having problems with the device (see appended comments below)

March 18, 2004
More problems: the unit is now inoperable (see appended comments)

Additional Comments as of 2004-02-08:
1) The touch screen is now starting to malfunction. When I first turn the unit on I am getting many clicks (as if I am tapping the screen, which I am not). Also, later, if I even touch the case at the upper/right corner (not even near the actual display) the unit clicks (as if I am tapping the screen). Also upper sides of case sometimes.
2) Status of Toshiba Order for critical supplies (screen overlays and replacement styli):
Shipping is Waiting to Pack Order (from Toshiba account status)
In other words, they still don't have the items. About March 10, 2004 the screen overlays FINALLY arrived. Not a bad turnaround for something critical - two months. However, the unit is now inoperable, the screen does not respond. Did a total system reset, was operable for awhile. Then, screen clicking like a geiger counter it has stopped responding again.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Works Fine !
Review: I purchased the e805 dispite the bad reviews here and let me tell you mine works fine. I use it with navagation software and find it works way better than I expected.(travroute) E-mail works fine as does connecting to wireless internet services. I have had no problems with the screen. Not to mention I got lucky and paid $499.00 from COMPUSA. 2 THUMBS UP...Anyone interested in navagation software should give TRAVROUTE a try.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: VGA is beautiful, but too too tiny
Review: The e805 has 128 MB of RAM, a 2MB video card (quite speedy graphics compared to the standard 384KB), 400 MHz XScale 255 processor, WiFi, CF, SD, 32 MB NonVolatile Flash Memory, 4 inch screen. Everything works just fine. The WiFi connetcs easily due to the Mobile 2003 OS. The really important part about the e805 is its 4 inch screen with VGA capability. Otherwise its an e750 with more RAM.

At first glance the VGA screen is stunning (provided you download the two essential hacks from brighthand: resfix and undead.) You can browse web pages easily with marginal panning. The photos are crisp and clear. However, if you plan on browsing, or looking at spreadsheets for more than a few minutes then there is a strong chance you are going to think that the text is too hard to read. I have very good close vision, and I found myself reaching for my e750 to rest my eyes. Also, when you're using the PDA to enter appointment and task information the small text seems really unnecessary. Three fourths of the screen is unused.

The bottom line is that if you think that VGA is going to be really great, then I recommend you reading some text for a few minutes off the screen at the store first.

By the way, if you don't think that you'll use the VGA capability then don't pay the $600 for this machine. The 320x240 resolution looks absurdly large on the 4 inch screen.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: VGA is beautiful, but too too tiny
Review: The e805 has 128 MB of RAM, a 2MB video card (quite speedy graphics compared to the standard 384KB), 400 MHz XScale 255 processor, WiFi, CF, SD, 32 MB NonVolatile Flash Memory, 4 inch screen. Everything works just fine. The WiFi connetcs easily due to the Mobile 2003 OS. The really important part about the e805 is its 4 inch screen with VGA capability. Otherwise its an e750 with more RAM.

At first glance the VGA screen is stunning (provided you download the two essential hacks from brighthand: resfix and undead.) You can browse web pages easily with marginal panning. The photos are crisp and clear. However, if you plan on browsing, or looking at spreadsheets for more than a few minutes then there is a strong chance you are going to think that the text is too hard to read. I have very good close vision, and I found myself reaching for my e750 to rest my eyes. Also, when you're using the PDA to enter appointment and task information the small text seems really unnecessary. Three fourths of the screen is unused.

The bottom line is that if you think that VGA is going to be really great, then I recommend you reading some text for a few minutes off the screen at the store first.

By the way, if you don't think that you'll use the VGA capability then don't pay the $600 for this machine. The 320x240 resolution looks absurdly large on the 4 inch screen.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Read between the lines!
Review: The e805 is not all it is claimed to be. FOr starters the Bluetooth feature is not included. A seperate SD Card must be purchased. When installed into the e805 it sticks out of the top by a good 3/4 inch making it impossible to store with teh unit without breaking it off. As far as configuring it, the Toshiba Bluetooth card is very flakey with this devise. After several attempts to connect to both my laptop and cell phone, I gave up. It must be reconfigured between use of each device - settings conflect and just don't work. After speaking to Toshiba they were no help. BTW - the CF and SD slots are so close to each other that with the Bluetooth card in the CF BarCode reader can't be used so you had better plan to store what you scan or use WiFi.

Have had to return several options purchased directly from Toshiba because although they were offered to be compatible, they are not. Many options on there website (now redesigned after my problems) don't fit into the connector on the bottom. They are not conmpatible with any other Toshiba model. Toshiba is being good about returning my money for the options but I can't return the device itself since it was purchased through Amazon and it took several weeks to discover all this. Look again at the HP - they don't tent to lie about product spec's like Toshiba has on this device.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Read between the lines!
Review: The e805 is not all it is claimed to be. FOr starters the Bluetooth feature is not included. A seperate SD Card must be purchased. When installed into the e805 it sticks out of the top by a good 3/4 inch making it impossible to store with teh unit without breaking it off. As far as configuring it, the Toshiba Bluetooth card is very flakey with this devise. After several attempts to connect to both my laptop and cell phone, I gave up. It must be reconfigured between use of each device - settings conflect and just don't work. After speaking to Toshiba they were no help. BTW - the CF and SD slots are so close to each other that with the Bluetooth card in the CF BarCode reader can't be used so you had better plan to store what you scan or use WiFi.

Have had to return several options purchased directly from Toshiba because although they were offered to be compatible, they are not. Many options on there website (now redesigned after my problems) don't fit into the connector on the bottom. They are not conmpatible with any other Toshiba model. Toshiba is being good about returning my money for the options but I can't return the device itself since it was purchased through Amazon and it took several weeks to discover all this. Look again at the HP - they don't tent to lie about product spec's like Toshiba has on this device.


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