Toshiba e740

If you want a stylish, well-made and cheap (OK, cheapish) Pocket PC, go out and spend £369 (or less if you shop around) on a Toshiba e310 right now. Good as the e310 is though, it's not desperately exciting.

For the latest in Pocket PC technology, those with cash on the hip should look at Toshiba's newest handheld.

The e740 is the e310's bigger brother, in every sense of the word. It has the same size colour screen and aluminium case but it's a few millimetres thicker and about a third heavier. As far as Pocket PCs go though, it's still a svelte little number.

That extra bulk is thanks to the extra features and the e740 has both a Type II Compact Flash slot and an SD card slot.

The CF slot opens up a whole host of add-ons, while you can add SD cards to hold music files or more memory. Not that you'll need more memory: the e740 comes with 64Mb, which is more than enough for all but the most demanding applications.

There's also a removable lithium ion battery, which means you can carry a couple with you for long journeys.

The e740's most interesting feature, however, is its processor: the new Intel XScale chip that runs at 400MHz.

Alas, while it sounds like a rocket, in use, it isn't. The e740 feels no faster that other Intel StrongARM 206 MHz Pocket PCs and in some cases (most notably video playback), it's actually slower.

Fortunately, the problem seems to lie with the software rather than the hardware but, until applications optimised for the XScale processor appear, the extra power will remain untapped.

The e740 is available in three models: standard and ones with built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for wireless networking. We tested the Bluetooth model or rather, it tested us.

No matter how much we coaxed, cajoled and cursed, we could not get the e740 to talk to our Bluetooth PC. We'll blame both devices though, since neither was simple to configure and the manuals for each were equally vague and unhelpful.

Price: £500 (incl. VAT)

Contact: Toshiba 01932 828 828
www.toshiba.co.uk

Also consider:
Toshiba E310. Our favourite Pocket PC. £369. Excellent.

See also:

Toshiba e750

A neat, familiar-looking handheld computer.  21 Oct 2003

HP Ipaq H5450

This PDA's fingerprint recognition pioneers biometric security.  26 Mar 2003

Palm Tungsten T

Palm goes for the upper ground in the handheld computer market.  12 Feb 2003

Compaq Ipaq H3970

The fastest Pocket PC currently on the market.  04 Feb 2003

Palm Tungsten T

Compact and wireless-capable, the Tungsten T has everything you want in a PDA.  06 Jan 2003

HP Jornada 928

A handheld computer with two screens  11 Nov 2002

Fujitsu Siemens Pocket Loox 600

Low cost and good design make this an attractive PDA option.  23 Oct 2002

Packard Bell Pocket Gear 2060

Handheld computer gear is getting cheaper.  11 Oct 2002

Toshiba e310

A stylish, slimline handheld computer.  08 Aug 2002

Sharp Zaurus SL-5500

The first commercial Linux PDA hits the shops.  19 Jun 2002

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