Hoping to preempt its rivals, Toshiba on Tuesday launched itself into full touchscreens with its first model. The TG01 is envisioned as a performance device with a large, 4.1-inch touchscreen display and an 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon that's unusually fast for the category; Toshiba claims the TG01 will be the fastest phone available and that it will also be thinner than the iPhone at just 9.9mm (0.39in) deep. It will also include a G-sensor to recognize motion that is reportedly more advanced than an accelerometer.

The handset is still based on Windows Mobile 6.1 but will have a customized front-end and full support for Flash-based video as well as DivX. The TG01 should carry both HSDPA-based 3G and Wi-Fi for mobile data as well as GPS with a data assist feature to speed up position lock-in times. About 512MB of storage will be onboard but can be supplemented by microSD cards.

Toshiba hasn't set pricing but anticipates shipping the phone in the summer to at least Europe. The company normally doesn't offer cellphones to the US and hasn't said whether the TG01 supports the necessary 850MHz GSM, EDGE or HSDPA. [via Pocket-lint]