Rating: 
Summary: My best...... PDA yet!!
Review: Because of my job and my personal interest, I've had my share of PDAs. I'm not kidding, but I've owned (or currently own) the following PDAs since 1994: HP 100LX, HP 200LX, HP 320LX, Palm Pilot 1000, 5000, Palm Professional, Palm III, Palm V, Palm IIIc, 2xPalm VII, Palm m100, iPAQ 3630, and now the Toshiba e310. I started out with a DOS based handheld, then switched over to Palm-OS based PDA for about 5 years. For the past 2 years, I've been using the Compaq iPAQ Pocket PC. It has been working well for me, but I've always disliked the iPAQ 3600- and 3800-series for several reasons: 1. It's rather large and heavy, when compared to most Palm-based PDAs.
2. (3600-only) It has no expansion capability except for adding the sleeve, which makes the unit even larger. (3800 has SD built-in).
3. The notorious problem of dust getting under the screen, which is lit by the side-light
4. The screen is bright, but has always been somewhat "milky", or cloudy.
5. The infamous stylus latch is always broken So it's blessing in diguise that my wife broke the screen of my iPAQ a few weeks ago. It gave me an opportunity to re-evaluate the current Pocket PC market. After researching, I purchased the Toshiba e310 and have been using it for about two weeks. To put it simply, I love the Toshiba e310. I would venture to say that it's the best PDA I've ever owned. It's not perfect, but it's the best PDA for me at least. Before I purchased the e310, I looked for a iPAQ/e310 comparison review, but couldn't find it anywhere. Since there are many great general Pro/Con comparisons here at epinions as well as other sites, I'll focus on how this unit compares with the Compaq 3600/3800 series for those who is thinking about switching. 1. Size, weight, and form-factor: The Toshiba e310 is very thin. It's currently the thinest and lightest Pocket PC on the market. At 4.9 oz, it weights the same as a Palm m515 and the Clie 615 (both color). After carrying the iPAQ 3600 for 2 years, this is a very welcomed change. 2. Screen: While it's not as large, the color LCD on the e310 is visibly brighter and clearer than the iPAQ (I can still do a A/B comparison). It also doesn't have the nasty problem of dust getting trapped under the screen that iPAQ is notorious for. 3. Expandability: The e310 does come with a SD slot and there is no way to add a CF slot. After owning the iPAQ for 2 years and having all kinds of CF/PCMCIA accessories (wifi, wireless modem, memory card, GPS, etc), I can say with 100% certainty that I will not need anything other than memory expansion capability in a PDA. This may not be the case with you, so if you need to use CF accessories, look elsewhere. Currently there is only limited SDIO accessories available (memory and BlueTooth), but there will be more available in the future. The iPAQ 3800-series also has a SD slot built into the PDA itself (not the 3600-series), and it has the capability to take CF and PCMCIA accessories with optional sleeves. 4. Battery Life: Somehow the little unit out lasts my iPAQ by quite a bit. I read a lot of ebooks on my PDA, so I usually have to recharge my iPAQ several times a day (say, 100% to 65% after a 1 hour, especially with a CF memory card installed). With the e310, I find it lasts a lot longer (say 100% to 85% after 1 hour, even with a SD memory card installed). 5. ... Overall, I love e310's form-factor, screen, battery life, and price. I would highly recommend it to anybody who is looking for a Pocket PC. (We'll save the Palm OS vs. Pocket PC debate for another day).
Rating: 
Summary: A solid product, but not perfect
Review: The biggest selling point of the e310 (besides its competitive price) is its thin factor. At .47 inches, this is the thinnest Pocket PC, and compares well with Palm-powered PDAs. It's also the lightest. The length, however, is the longest of all Pocket PC PDAs, and Toshiba disappoints us by not including a larger display than the same 3.5" LCD used by other Pocket PC 2002 PDAs. The e310 looks pretty sleek, albeit a bit too large due to the elongated shape. But it's something you'd be proud to whip out on a subway or train and show it to the passengers next to you. The buttons, including the D-pad, are a bit too small for my taste, and the D-pad feels a bit flimsy. It's not clear whether the D-pad works in all 8 directions. One big letdown is the continued presence of the audio pop that comes up every time with a new track in Windows Media Player. The screen is so-so. It has the same resolution and color depth as all Pocket PC devices, but does not look as good as the nice display on the iPaq. In fact, the frontlight is quite uneven, and there is a slight bluish tint. Some people say the colors also look "milky." I don't have good eyes for colors, so I can't comment on that. I do wish Toshiba made the screen better, at least on par with the iPaq. The e310 comes with a non-user replaceable LiIon battery that lasts about 4 hours with the frontlight set to "medium bright" and an SD card loaded. Without the SD card the battery life seems to almost double -- but since the e310 comes with only 32MB of internal RAM (which Pocket PC 2002 OS uses for both running programs and storing files), an SD is a must-have if you want to store digital music and other multimedia content. It would have been nice for Toshiba to include a CF slot; but given the thin factor, that would have been too much to ask for. (It would also have shortened the battery life.) Unlike the previous Toshiba, the e310 has a jog dial on the side. I never found the jog dial quite useful, because, let's face it, there isn't much you can do with just one hand, without using the stylus. But I guess some people like it. The e310 is a sophisticated device and I have only touched on some of its major features. There's a lot more to explore, and let me emphasize that I do like it's thinness and light weight and generally pleasing styling. If you don't need to wait for the upcoming Xscale Pocket PCs (which will be out any time now), the e310 is a definitely worthy of a look.
Rating: 
Summary: many important problems
Review: I think this PDA has problems that would make it a better paperweight than PDA.
first of all, I agree with another reviewer, WILL NOT CHARGE to 100% even with days on charger, and spontaneously discharges at a fantastic rate-to 30% over three days just sitting on my dresser. Starts to warn you when there is over 40% of battery left, annoying, but necessary, since 40% battery left means you have about 10 minutes more in my experience.
The alarms are always going off, but there is nothing to tell me what the heck it is alarming about, I can search all over sometimes and not be able to figure it out. My husband's Treo puts the alarm message right there on the front page for you to easily see what's up.
I used a San Disk backup card, and it froze the system, losing all data from my first couple of weeks of input. Toshiba says " large San Disk cards (128) not compatable"
I thought I would be able to listen to MP3s but the volume adjustment jumps in levels. One level is too loud and the other too soft. went to a PDA site, others were complaining about the same thing with the volume adjustment.
Rating:
Summary: All the fun, for a nice price
Review: this is less $$ than a sony clie or visor treo or palm m515, that's the reason why I buy this.
I bought a 128M SD card (since many people have problem with 64M/128M sandisk SD card, I chose the lexar 128M SD card)
that's a lot! now my tiny 32M memory has 15M free space, I installed applications on SD card only, I even have memory backup on SD card and i have backup for everything on my HD at home. 1.nice sound, I have 50M wma files on it, which is about 2 hours of music.
2.great speed, I installed pocketDivx, pocketRealOne, compressed some southpark on it, and it plays great! full screen at 320*240
3 The only problem is that this wont handle keystrik nicely. so you'd better play some non-action games.
4.battery life is shorter than 8 hours, for playing music, around 4 hours so far. but I can carry that power adapter with me.
5.buttons for starting system are annoying, I changed that instant record button to HOME, so that at least I wont record anythign accidentally.
6.toshiba CD has many ebooks on it, so you can easily start reading from it.
Rating:
Summary: Great, light-weight PDA
Review: I've been using the e310 for 3 weeks and am generally pleased. It's inexpensive and a great introduction to PowerPC. The color is good, the apps are great and it's incredibly light. On the Con side, there was the difficulty setting up Microsoft's ActiveSync (look on the Microsoft website for the answer), there's the cheesy leatherette case with silver striping and weak backlighting with power conservation on (but I'm getting 10+ hours on standby). I sometimes use the case for quickie trips, but replaced it with the Smarter Steel PDA Case (available through Amazon), in "Ginger" leather--very stylish! It may also be a while before Toshiba has some serious accessories, but people I've spoken with promise a keyboard for the e310 and the 7xx series. The power user may want to get a Compaq, especially if you want the Compaq-specific accessories. However, if you want an inexpensive color Windows-based PDA or you haven't owned a PDA before,I recommend the Toshiba e310. Great product!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent entry level PocketPC
Review: I bought the Toshiba e310 for my wife who wanted to use a PocketPC. Toshiba is a relatively new player in the PocketPC world, and I was a little bit skeptical. Having owned three different PDA's myself, I was curious to see if Toshiba could deliver a quality unit in the small and light form factor they were proclaiming. Toshiba has done an excellent job with the e310. My wife was thrilled that it was so light the first time she held it. She was accustomed to holding my older, thicker and heavier PDA's, and this was even lighter and smaller than my iPAQ! The size and weight of this PocketPC make it very functional; its small form factor does not diminish the unit's solid, quality feel when you hold it in your hand. As a basic PDA, it is wonderful. Your appointments, contacts and to do items are right at your finger tips. Plus, you can read and respond to email on the go. Great design in a small package makes the Toshiba e310 a great buy. The Toshiba e310 is the best value PocketPC for the money.
Rating:
Summary: Great Entry Level Handheld Computer
Review: Anyone looking to purchase their first PDA should consider the Toshiba e310. It's every bit as slim and light as any Palm device on the market. Its bright color screen is very visible indoors and outdoors. Colors do seem a bit washed out, but that's the only complaint I have about this machine. Toshiba included a very nice sync cradle to hold the e310 up for you to see and your co-workers to be jealous of. And believe me your co-workers will stop and look. This handheld has a very sharp look to it. MP3 playback through headphones sounds wonderful and plenty loud. The included SD slot allows you to add memory expansion cards for all your data, applications and/or music. Anyone who doesn't need network connectivity from a handheld and wants a solid device that will work hard and play hard will be very satisfied with the Toshiba e310!
Rating: 
Summary: Some problems to consider
Review: I've had an i-310 for over two years now and although I like it and it preforms well for my use (mainly calander and contacts) I've found several problems. These may be inherent in all PDAs, I don't know.
First it interferes with my computer if I leave it connected all the time. I usually put in on the cradle to sync once a day, and then cradle it in the evening after shutting down my computer to charge the unit.
Second, the unit loses it's ablility to turn off manually. It still shuts off automatically, but you can't physically turn it off. This continues to happen, even though I have downloaded the software updates. The main issue this cause is battery use.
Third some of the buttons are sloppy. You push them once and they click twice, so can't use the button short cuts and have to use the stylist all the time.
Fourth, and this is the biggests for me, is the battery is wearing out. You can only get a new battery by sending it back to Toshiba. They quoted me today a price of $120-$170. So you might as well consider this a disposable unit that will last about 2.5 years. This is a big issue, because if you aren't careful this can screw up your info on your PC, and you will also have to resync (no big deal) and re-download all updates if you get it repaired.
If you have the budget I would highly recommend buying a unit with a replaceable battery.
Rating:
Summary: DO NO BUY
Review: Had my 310 less than a year. Battery will not charge up above 25% now. Called customer service for new battery purchase. They said you cannot buy a new battery. You must send it in for repair. Who can do that when they use this product for their work appts and clients etc. DO NOT BUY this product. It is absurd that the battery does not last longer than a year, BUT even worse that you cannot just replace it when it quits operating properly.
Rating: 
Summary: Decent PDA but could do better
Review: First off, if you have a Mac, don't even look at PocketPC's for a PDA. The e310 is a decent PDA but it lacks the ease of the Palm OS. For instance, the active sync that is used to sync the 310 with the computer stopped working at random. This is despite downloading the newest version of the software and uninstalling and reinstalling the software. The e310 is too much like a PC it crashes too often and requires the use of a hard reboot. Plus the battery life is very short. I needed to charge it every night and that was only with a few hours of use. I'd recommend going with the newest IPaq that allows the battery to be switched out, or a Palm OS PDA (the OS is more stable and battery life is better).
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