Toshiba Pocket PC e310 review (handheld - Windows Mobile 2002 - 3.5")

Makers of Palm OS devices have a great deal to fear from the Toshiba Pocket PC e310. This thin, lightweight, and affordable handheld delivers more powerful features--such as the ability to play MP3 music--than most Palm-based options. The e310's lack of a CompactFlash expansion slot means that some users will need to pass it by, but for most people, this PDA is worth a very serious look. Toshiba took some styling cues from the Handspring Visor Edge and crafted a thin, elegantdevice that's clad in bright aluminum with black-plastic accents. With its 4.9-by-3.1-inch face, the e310 is the same size as previous Pocket PCs but slimmer--a mere 0.47-inches thick. At 4.9 ounces, this Toshiba is also quite lightweight and easy to carry in a shirt pocket. The photo below gives you some idea of just how compact the e310 is.

The Toshiba is considerably larger than a deck of cards.	However, it is slimmer in profile.

Below the 3.5-inch, reflective TFT display are the typical program buttons, the five-way directional pad, and the small, internal speaker. While the speaker's sound is rather weak and tinny, it will alert you about upcoming appointments, though probably not loudly enough to rouse you from a deep sleep. The LED on the upper-left corner blinks amber when the alarm sounds and glows green when the battery is fully charged.

A record button and a jog dial are within thumb's reach.	The cradle is somewhat heavy but equally stable.

On the top edge of the e310, you'll find the silo for the stylus, the power button, the infrared port, the Secure Digital (SD) card slot, and the headphone jack. On the left edge are a jog dial and the voice-record button.

A faux-leather slipcover protects the unit.

The e310 comes with a heavy USB desktop cradle, which also recharges the lithium-ion battery. When you travel, you need bring only the reasonably compact power adapter, as it plugs directly into the bottom of the handheld.

To protect the screen when you're carrying the device, Toshiba includes a faux-leather slipcase with silver edges.

Slot machine: Adding extra memory is easy.

Despite its small size, the e310 comes with features that are typical of handhelds running the Pocket PC 2002 OS, including a 206MHz Intel StrongARM processor and 32MB of RAM and ROM. Most users will find that the included RAM is not quite sufficient. Adding applications, data, and music will quickly fill 32MB, so count on purchasing an SD card to store most of your files and extra programs.

The one feature that's missing from the e310 is a CompactFlash expansion slot for adding accessories such as modem, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi cards. Toshiba sells a Bluetooth SD card to add wireless connectivity to the e310, but there are many more CompactFlash accessory options available.

Toshiba's sole software application is a glorified Today screen.

The only significant software addition is Toshiba's Home application. The Running tab on this interface allows you to quickly and easily stop programs that are running in the background, thereby freeing up memory and improving system performance.

Otherwise, software is limited to the standard Pocket PC 2002 package, which is not too shabby: it includes Pocket versions of Word, Excel, Internet Explorer, MSN Messenger, and more. You also get Outlook 2002 and ActiveSync 3.5 for your PC, although no Mac support is provided. In daily use, the e310 performed reliably and quickly. It took only a few seconds longer to load the game Lemonade Inc. on the e310 than it did on Toshiba's Pocket PC e740, which packs a 400MHz processor. We worried that installing applications on the SD card would result in drastically slower performance, but we noticed only a slower load time with the graphically intense game Chopper Alley, and once it was loaded, even that program ran fine.

We were initially concerned that battery life would be a problem with such a small device but were pleased when the built-in lithium-ion cell held out for nearly 7 hours with the screen set to medium brightness. The e310 was able to last 3 hours, 50 minutes hours with the backlight on while playing MP3s. That's longer than other Pocket PCs that we've tested. However, if you're really interested in long battery life, you might opt for a handheld with a user-replaceable battery so that you can swap in additional packs to keep working.

The Toshiba's screen could be brighter, especially at the top.

The 320x240-pixel screen on the e310 is very usable; like other Pocket PCs with reflective LCDs that we've tested, this screen works well in brightly lit situations. For indoor use, it has a sidelight on the bottom edge that provides reasonably even brightness, although it isn't the most brilliant Pocket PC screen that we've tested. And while the e310's screen is capable of displaying 65,000 colors at 16 bits, the hues on the latest generation of transflective screens--such as those found on the Sony Sony CLIE PEG-T665C and the HP iPaq 3900-series--are brighter and richer. The photo below shows the screen when lit under bright, artificial lighting conditions.