While Sharp’s reputation in the world of consumer electronics is unquestioned, it was largely an unknown quantity in the UK mobile phone market until those wily foxes at Vodafone successfully launched the GX10 in November 2002. Now Sharp is successfully established as a respected mobile phone brand (thanks to some canny marketing by a certain David Beckham), Vodafone is turning its attention to another unrecognised mobile company in the UK, Toshiba.

Toshiba’s profile is very similar to Sharp’s: it’s a big player in consumer electronics and also successful in its native Japanese mobile phone market. So, while it’s not hitting the UK bereft of mobile handset experience, it has certainly jumped right in at the deep end with its debut UK handset.

Exclusive to Vodafone, the TS921 is a 3G-enabled handset sporting a very Japanese design with minimalist lines and a fetching two-tone black and gun-metal grey motif. Also, the similarities to the Sharp 902 (another Vodafone 3G member) are uncanny. The size and weight are almost identical, making the TS921 a beast of handset. After witnessing the compact 2.5G-esque torso of the Samsung Z500 last month, the TS921 almost feels like a step backwards. This contributed to our disappointing initial impressions. It felt plasticky and cheap compared to the metallic touch of the 902, although after time in its company we started to warm to it. The handset is extremely tactile with a keypad that’s slightly ribbed and buttons that sport a soft sponge-like effect that is equally responsive.

The user interface is Vodafone’s now familiar proprietary system which is very intuitive, so you shouldn’t encounter any problems there. The soft keys activate messaging options and Vodafone’s Live! portal but can’t be customised. Instead, the four-way navigation keys are your only option for customising access to your favourite features. The TS921 also has a dedicated side key that can be used to activate the main menu, calendar, silent or torch features.
The main display is up there with the Sharp 902 for sheer brilliance. With 320x240-pixel resolution and 260,000 colours, the generously sized screen is a cracker. Your pictures, videos, web browsing and games appear very vibrant and detailed.

Just above the screen sits a VGA camera for two-way video calling. A dedicated button allows you to initiate calls straight from the contact book or by inputting the number. You also get a self-portrait preview to check you are looking good before making the call. We made a video call to a Sharp 902 and the results surprised us. For a VGA lens our mug shots were clear and quite detailed. It was one of the better video calling performances we’ve seen. The audio did let it down a tad but we recommend listening through the supplied headset for a more audible conversation.

The TS921 is also a slick video streamer. It handled the ITN news flashes and movie trailers we streamed like a pro. Even The Dukes of Hazard film trailer, bursting with lightning, car chases and fist fights, displayed little digital noise or drag. The sound through the headphones was less impressive, though, sounding digitised and weedy. Luckily, this didn’t distract from our enjoyment.

As a music player, the handset’s biggest selling point is the supplied 3mm headphone jack adapter. It means you’re not confined to using the bundled earphones, although these weren’t at all bad. The TS921 can take MP3 and AAC digital files but we downloaded full tracks from Vodafone Live! in the compressed MPEG4 format and the sound was very dynamic, if lacking a bit of bass thump. Unlike its Vodafone cousins, the Sharp 902 and Sony Ericsson V800, there are no features to enhance the fidelity. The 22.5MB internal memory is unsubstantial for major stockpiling but its SD card memory slot is ripe for expansion, although the supplied 32MB card still isn’t enough for the serious multimedia hoarders.

One of the TS921’s major attractions is its 1.92-megapixel shutterbug. The handset adopts the ‘pseudo stand-alone camera pose with a 180° swivel mechanism similar to the Sony Ericsson S700. The shutter button and zoom switch run along the top of the phone and you get a choice of landscape and portrait modes. You can only snap pictures in a 1600x1200-pixel resolution when in landscape and VGA quality (320x240 pixels) snaps in portrait.

While it’s just shy of two megapixels, the resultant snaps rank alongside the Sharp 902 and Sony Ericsson K750 two-megapixel camera phones. The pictures below are brimming with colour and detail – good enough to print without any loss of quality. While impressive on paper, if pushed to the max, its 20x digital zoom can give pixelated images, so seems a bit worthless. However, there is a macro setting to help focus on those detailed close-ups.
Admittedly, the TS921’s uncompromising physique might dissuade some people, and it doesn’t help the 3G cause. However, we can’t deny its 3G performance won us over, and Toshiba should be more than pleased with its debut UK mobile handset.