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Toshiba's Pocket PC E405 bears a family resemblance to its enterprise-oriented sibling, the E800, but it's half as expensive at $299. It's also slimmer, has half the RAM, and lacks the E800's Wi-Fi connectivity. Traits it shares with the E800 include Toshiba's useful side-mounted scroll wheel and Hold switch, as well as the customizable, multipaned home screen that provides quick access to all applications, and the handsome dark-blue case color. The scroll wheel can be set as a "back" button to close the active window and return to the previous window, so you can perform many tasks with just one hand.
Installing the included Toshiba Voice Command and Text to Speech applications requires that you shut down all running programs manually beforehand, whereas the E800 closes down all the programs itself. Getting this right takes some time-consuming trial and error. It's too easy to shut down the syncing connection, needed for the installation, along with all the other running programs. And multiple layered dialog boxes on the E405's screen can cause you to press Cancel instead of OK, requiring you to start the installation again. Installing third-party software goes much more smoothly--no shutdowns required.
The E405 puts the same number of pixels, 240 by 320, on a slightly smaller screen than the E800's. As a result, the E405's text and images looked sharper.
The only troubling issue with the unit we tested was that the syncing connector didn't always respond. More than once we had to jiggle the cable to get the unit to connect to ActiveSync.
Upshot: The E405 is an attractive entry-level Pocket PC, but Toshiba's software requires patience.
Rebecca Freed
