Although it's not the lightest or cheapest handheld, Toshiba's e800 provides the performance and robust software that mobile professionals require.

Design

The Toshiba Pocket PC e800 has many of the e750's features, but when it comes to design, the new model has a simpler, squarer aesthetic. Measuring 7.7cm by 13.5cm by 1.67cm, the e800 is bigger than the e750, and the two expansion slots bring the weight to 198g. The solid-feeling handheld has an eye-catching cobalt-blue casing.

Offering a generous 4in. view, 65,536 colours, and a 240 by 320-pixel resolution that you can change to 640 by 480 for full VGA support, the transflective TFT display is the e800's main attraction. Below it are the navigation controls. A rectangular four-way toggle enclosing a small but easy-to-press Select button; clustered around the pad are four standard Windows shortcut keys -- they're customisable, but their icons denote their default assignments (calendar, task list, contacts, and the Home menu). A small speaker in the lower right enables voice recording and audio playback, and an indicator light glows during alerts and battery charging.

We like the jog dial, which doubles as a Select button and is easy to use one-handed. It sits on the unit's left-hand side beside the voice-recorder key, which can also activate a different function. The nearby infrared port lets you transfer data between the e800 and another handheld. A tiny hole for soft resets is on the right-hand side.

On the bottom of the device are the cradle/accessory port, the power cable's socket, and switches for hard resets and Wi-Fi connectivity. The memory-expansion slots, the 3.5mm stereo jack for headphones or a microphone, the power button and the stylus holder are on top. Pulling out the stylus is rather difficult, but once you have it, you can collapse it to a smaller size.

Features

The Toshiba Pocket PC e800's feature set packs a powerful punch. The handheld's zippy 400MHz Intel PXA263 is on a par with the e750's. The included memory is generous: 128MB of RAM, 32MB of ROM and a separate 32MB of flash storage. You can even expand the capacity via the dual CompactFlash II and SD slots.

In addition to 802.11b Wi-Fi connectivity, the e800 supports Voice over IP (VoIP), which allows you to make phone calls via an Internet connection. However, to use VoIP, you'll need to subscribe to a service provider. There is a Bluetooth version of the e800, but if you want to add Bluetooth to the Wi-Fi model, you'll need to do so via the CompactFlash or SD card slot.

The e800's Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC operating system includes all the staples: Word, Excel, Outlook and Internet Explorer. You also get MSN Messenger, the Solitaire and Jawbreaker games, and more. The Terminal Services Client enables you to connect to and control a Windows XP Professional system. The e800's multimedia features include Windows Media Player 9, Microsoft Reader and a voice recorder. The device's ATI IMAGEON 3220 video controller has its own 2MB of memory, which results in faster and better graphics.

Along with the virtual keyboard, Letter Recognizer and Transcriber, you'll find a fourth input method: Block Recognizer. It's a Graffiti-like program that uses a pop-up area on the screen. You can also navigate and operate applications with Toshiba's text-to-speech feature and Microsoft's Voice Command software.

We did have a couple of complaints with the included accessories. The AC charger's cumbersome design leaves you tangled in cords. The cradle enables charging and PC synchronisation, but if you want to connect the e800 to other USB devices, such as a keyboard or a mouse, you'll need to purchase the USB host cable. Toshiba also sells a presentation pack, which lets you run an S-Video cable from a projector to the handheld.

Performance

We were generally pleased by the Toshiba Pocket PC e800's performance. Thanks to the 400MHz processor, programs loaded painlessly and video ran smoothly. Our Jawbreaker gameplay suffered a couple of hiccups, such as the occasional frozen image, but we didn't experience anything too distracting.

The e800's display is among its finest attributes. A large size, crystal-clear resolution, and rich colours make the screen easy on the eyes. Ten brightness levels keep the view just as usable in sunlight as in dim conditions, and you can set the backlight to sleep after intervals ranging from just a few seconds to several minutes. We had to bump the speaker volume quite high to fully hear the sound, but it was clear.

The e800's videos were a mixed bag. The fast processor ensured that clips never hit any speed bumps, but the picture sometimes looked pixelated and blurry, especially during action scenes.

When we first tried to establish a Wi-Fi connection, the device couldn't locate the IP address. But once we'd switched Wi-Fi off and then on again, we were up and running in no time, and we were impressed. Web pages loaded quickly; the wait for even graphics-intensive pages was relatively short.

The e800's battery life came in at 30 minutes longer than the rated 4 hours. That's above average, beating the e750's by 30 minutes and the HP iPaq H5550's by 65 minutes. Another positive is that the e800 lets you replace the cell yourself.

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