Orange has become the first operator in Europe to launch the Toshiba TG01, the first phone based on Qualcomm’s new 1GHz ‘Snapdragon’ chip. In a statement, the France Telecom-owned mobile firm said it launched the device in France last week and today in the UK in a three-month market exclusive. It will be available in Switzerland in a six-month exclusive later this month and in Romania from August. The arrangement is Orange’s first ever pan-European agreement with Toshiba. The operator said the device will be combined with a select range of country-specific flat-rate tariffs and will be customised to work with Orange’s network. In the UK for example, Orange will offer shortcuts to the best of Orange Video (such as Sky 24/7 Football), while, in France, customers will have access to Orange mobile TV which has over 60 channels.

The device is the first phone to use the QSD2850 Snapdragon chipset, which boasts a 1GHz processor core, twice as fast as the chipsets used in most current smartphones. It is based on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6.1 platform and features a 4.1″ Wide-VGA high-resolution touchscreen, which Orange said makes it ideal for watching TV, videos and viewing high-quality pictures. Toshiba launched the phone at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in February.