Toshiba's unusual G450 cellphone / MP3 player / HSDPA USB modem reviewed, liked

After a flurry of leaks and announcements caught our attention last year, we've heard nary a peep from Toshiba about its multi-faceted device since. Suffice to say that's it's out in parts of Europe and countries with a penchant for the backward "R" and "N." Great, but what is it and how well does it do what it does; that's the convoluted question. Fortunately, IntoMobile went hands on with the USB memory stick / alarm clock with snooze / MP3 player / 7.2Mbps HSDPA USB modem / tri-band GSM cellphone and came away with the opinion that "the device is excellent." It pulled a respectable 2.7Mbps off O2's UK network and performed reasonably well as a "backup phone." The 160MB of storage for MP3 / AAC music playback was disappointing but it served its purpose in a pinch. Still, that's a lot of device for £140.

[Via IntoMobile]

[welbert @ Nov 18th 2008 3:53AM]

Made in China

[Jay @ Nov 18th 2008 4:26AM]

...like a every other device on the planet...?

[Level 5 @ Nov 18th 2008 7:11AM]

@Jay

Spot on, spot on.

On another note... one could get and internal HSDPA card for their notebook, a Razr and a small MP3 Player for the $209.20 US that Google says £140 equates to. Or hey how about a phone that isn't a travesty to dial on that also is an MP3 player, USB's or BT's to a notebook for tethering, and..

wait what's that? This is every phone post 2004? Oh yeah.

[LostPhil @ Nov 18th 2008 9:04AM]

@ Level 5

The currency conversion will only apply if you're buying from the UK. It's more likely to be priced around $150 at a rough guess.

[LostPhil @ Nov 18th 2008 9:19AM]

Also worth mentioning that the phone can be had unlocked/sim free for that price - A similarly priced handset is the Nokia 6300 (sim free/unlocked). Not sure how much that handset is over there?

[domoPod @ Nov 18th 2008 4:27AM]

if i had this phone i'd keep it on vibrate all day...

[Kris @ Nov 18th 2008 6:04AM]

*speechless*

[MM @ Nov 18th 2008 7:27AM]

huh?

[M. Scofield @ Nov 18th 2008 4:40AM]

I'm interested. Does anyone know an other non-expensive cellphone/usb modem?

[insane.uk @ Nov 18th 2008 4:52AM]

Er, pretty much all cellphones do it.

[KIFF @ Nov 18th 2008 5:05AM]

Exactly, my E51 can be used as a modem and it is pretty cheap. Plus it has expandable memory and has a proper keypad...

[Ugar @ Nov 18th 2008 5:06AM]

I've used my old Nokia 6120 as:
tri-band GSM cellphone, mp3-player, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, usb-memory and alarm clock with snooze.
Ok it used to cost more than £140, but you probably could buy it for cheaper nowadays.
I'm not actually sure if you can use it as an Usb HSDPA-modem, but bluetooth is fast enough and wireless.

[Patriks7 @ Nov 18th 2008 5:20AM]

Nothing new here.. they've been selling these here (Central europe) for quite some time now..

[insane.uk @ Nov 18th 2008 6:11AM]

You know it reminds of the Nokia 3650 with that Horrible round keypad.
* Shudder *

[rock99rock @ Nov 18th 2008 10:00AM]

I was going to say the same thing. I had that for over a year and NEVER got used to the numberpad. That sucked.

[tekdroid @ Nov 18th 2008 8:47AM]

in that "it's an mp3 player" pic you can see the lady is thinking "if only it played my FLACs..."
http://flac.sourceforge.net

[gavinovz @ Nov 18th 2008 10:06AM]

"It's a piece of crap."

[Janet Reno @ Nov 18th 2008 12:00PM]

If was a vibrator too, I'd be sold.

[pheer6224 @ Nov 18th 2008 1:27PM]

This thing was a UTSTARCOM prototype at CES a year ago, I can't remember the modem functionality being built in in the first place, but this would certainly be nice on T Mobile's AWS 3G network.

[YunG @ Nov 18th 2008 9:17PM]

It's a modem, it's a cell, it's a mp3 and it will never be mine.

[grabbydad @ Nov 19th 2008 9:52AM]

This will fail like the Bang & Olufsen Serene did. Worst keypad layout ever.