Toshiba Thrive review
This isn't the first time Toshibahas showed up fashionably late to a party. Back in 2009, long after most everyother consumer electronics maker big and small had jumped on the netbookbandwagon, the company belatedly released its first mini, the NB205. And it wasfantastic. So we were optimistic when the outfit finally got around toreleasing the Thrive, its first Android tablet for the US market. Surely, wethought, it's learned a thing or two from everybody else's mistakes.
And in that regard, at least,this 10-inch tablet doesn't disappoint. It has full-sized USB and HDMI ports,an SD card slot, and a removable battery -- all features you'd sooner find on alaptop. It comes with a raft of practical apps already installed, so that youdon't have to go hunting for them in Android Market. It's one of the first outof the gate with Android 3.1, an undeniably improved version of Honeycomb. Oh,and it starts at $429, undercutting many of its competitors. Right there, inless than a paragraph, we've laid out why you might want this over any of theother umpteen tabs crowding the market. But should you get one? Well, folks,we'll need more than a paragraph to tackle that. Join us after the break, won'tyou?
Hardware
If the Thrive were a person, it'dbe weeping on the couch with a pint of Ben & Jerry's right about now. Evenbefore it went on sale earlier this month, it was fielding taunts for beingsomething of a fatso. It's a shame, really, given that most of the bullieshaven't seen it in person. That's not to say the Thrive is skinny -- at .62inches thick it is, indeed, chunkier than other slates on the market. Why,that's nearly double the thickness of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1, which measures0.33 inches deep. And at 1.66 pounds, it's a touch heavier than thefirst-generation iPad, which has since gone on a diet.The thing is, it's not a bigdeal. In fact, you might even find it feels lighter than you'd expect. Now it'strue, after getting some hands-on time with Sony's forthcoming S2 slate, wewere reminded that the Thrive is heavier than most. Still, it doesn't feel asdense as the Motorola Xoom, even though the Xoom weighs a whole tenth of apound less. All told, it's still light enough that we didn't think twice abouttossing it in our tote bag and walking around with it all day. And when itcomes to web surfing on your couch with it propped up against your leg -- alikely scenario with a WiFi only tablet -- the Thrive's plump derriere makeszero difference. If anything, we take issue with the Thrive's dimensions. At10.97 x 6.97 inches, it's about as narrow as other 10-inchers such the GalaxyTab 10.1, but longer. That doesn't make a difference in portrait mode, but itdoes make holding it in landscape that much more unwieldy.
Even after a week of testing, wehad a hard time coming to terms with the Thrive's decidedly inelegant design.The back side is decked out in a rubberized finish that makes it look somewhatcheap (the flimsy port covers don't help). To its credit, though, that softmaterial makes it near-impossible for your fingers to slip off. The lid'stextured pattern reminds us of Toshiba's netbooks, except the lines cross theback side at symmetrical diagonal angles. That lid, too, is removable, as isthe battery -- something we'll touch on more in a bit. Although the Thrivecomes in black, you can buy swappable, colorful covers in "Blue Moon,"Raspberry Fusion," "Lavender Bliss," "SilverySky," and "Green Apple" for $20 a pop.
Unlike most tablets, whichrequire you to hold them in landscape mode to take photos, the Thrive placedboth cameras along one of the shorter edges, so that you can hold itcomfortably in portrait mode while you shoot. As you can see, Toshiba framedthem with a metal piece that drapes over the edge of the tablet. On theoutward-facing side, you'll find some prominent "With Google"branding, along with the rear camera's 5 megapixel resolution, spelled out.When we previewed the Thrive last month, we noticed more than a few commenterssay this metal flourish alone would be a deal-breaker. We disagree, though wethink the branding is especially unfortunate-looking. It calls to mindsomething you'd pick up at a hardware store -- an odd, faux-industrial flourishfor a tablet that otherwise feels like a toy.
Normally, we don't have much tosay about ports when we review tablets, but in this case, they're the star ofthe show. Starting on the side with the cameras, you'll find a lock switch forthe locking down the removable lid. Moving clockwise to the right side, there'sa power button, volume rocker, and lever to lock the screen orientation, withthe full-sized SDXC slot sitting at the other end. On the bottom of the tablet(this would be the edge opposite the cameras), there are open headphone and micports, along with a covered door behind which you'll find full-sized USB andHDMI ports and a mini-USB socket. Finally, on that last long edge you'll find acovered 30-pin docking connector flanked by small speakers. So, just to re-orientyou, if you were holding the tablet in portrait mode with the cameras sittingup top, the docking connector would be on the left side. Given that weoccasionally see USB ports on tablets, it's the combination of all thesesockets and slots that's really bowling us over.The Thrive is reminiscent of alaptop in one other, more unfortunate way. It has three LED lights built intothe bezel so that you can see white-and-orange sparkles when the battery islow, when Bluetooth is on, and, at the very least, when the power is on. Evenon our laptops, we like our LED lights hidden, and we feel even more stronglyabout it with tablets, where we've just come to expect a cleaner design.
Display and Sound
The 10.1-inch display crams in1280 x 800 pixels, matching the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and other identically sizedslates. Though it's plenty bright, the viewing angles aren't particularly wide.We had an easy time watching a movie with the tablet placed face-up on a tablein front of us, and we were also able to make out the screen while watchingfrom an off-center position. But as we moved further to the side and triedwatching from more oblique angles, the contrast ratio started looking moresevere. As a bonus, Toshiba threw in the same Resolution+ technology it uses toclean up and upscale video on its laptops, but you'll be hard-pressed to noticethe difference on such a small display. If you like, you can disable thisfeature, though we didn't feel the need to.The small stereo speakers areloud, but never too loud. While watching a movie alone indoors with a noisy airconditioner whirring in the background, we kept the volume cranked to the max,and didn't really feel the need to turn it down. At some point during ourtesting, a friend joined us while we ran the benchmarks Nenamark 1 and 2 in thebackground. Ultimately, the sounds emanating from the tests were just loudenough to be distracting, but not so deafening that we couldn't carry on aconversation over them.
Aside from volume, Toshiba alsoincluded software designed to enrich audio quality -- a feature that doesn'tcome enabled out of the box. Back when we previewed the Thrive, we said evenwith this enhancement, we could still detect some tinniness coming out of thesmall speakers. After a week of testing, we stand by that -- the sound qualitydoesn't stick out as terrible; it's just not extraordinary.Removable battery
We must have looked pretty sillythe first time we tried to remove the back cover. The thing is, it's mucheasier to pry the lid off a phone, when you can cradle it, and bear down on theback cover with your thumbs for leverage. Try doing that with a 10-inch tabletand see how far you get. After much fumbling, we figured out the best way to goabout this is to first open the door covering all those full-sized ports. Thenwedge your fingernail into the crack underneath that compartment, and pull thelid toward you until the whole thing falls away with a discomfiting snap.(Digging your fingers into the openings near the speakers also works.) Once wegot past that learning curve, removing the lid was a cinch. Hopefully, we justspared some of you a bit of frustration.
Battery life and power management
BatteryLife
Toshiba Thrive 6:25
Apple iPad 2 10:26
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 9:55
Apple iPad 9:33
HP Touchpad 8:33
Motorola Xoom 8:20
T-Mobile G-Slate 8:18
Archos 101 7:20
RIM BlackBerry PlayBook 7:01
Samsung Galaxy Tab 6:09
The Thrive has a 23Wh, 2,030 mAhbattery that's rated for a max of eleven hours. Should you want to carry arounda fresh one to swap in, Toshiba sells spares for $80 each.
And depending on your lifestyle,you might want to think about getting one. Compared to other products, theThrive's small battery craps out pretty quickly. It lasted six hours andtwenty-five minutes in our test (movie looping, WiFi on, and Bluetooth off),trailing far behind the iPad 2's nearly ten-and-a-half-hour run and the 10.1'sroughly ten-hour spin. Even tablets whose battery live we'd call mediocrelargely manage to land somewhere in the seven to eight-hour range.That said, with lighter usagepatterns we found we could get away with not charging it every night. After anhour of checking email, watching an HD YouTube trailer, tweaking the tablet'ssettings, glancing intermittently at Engadget and Google Calendar, anddownloading three apps, we still had 87 percent charge left. We did notice thatweb surfing (including some Flash sites), drained the battery life faster thanany of those other activities we mentioned earlier. After just ten minutes ofbrowsing, our battery life rating fell five percent. On the bright side, theThrive sips little power when it's sitting idle: after two hours and fortyminutes, its battery life rating fell just two percent.
Nonetheless, the Thrive is farfrom perfect in the power management department. While testing it, we sawreports that the tablet doesn't always wake from sleep mode -- not unless youperform a cold boot, that is. At first, we said to ourselves, "Sweet! Wemust be one of the lucky ones." Not so fast. Soon after, we tried to wakeup our sleeping tablet, but were left pressing the power / lock button in vain.This always happened after we recharged the Thrive using the bundled ACadapter; it hasn't been an issue when we've left it sitting around unplugged.
As of this writing, Toshiba hasat least acknowledged the issue and said it'll push out a fix through theToshiba Service Station app that comes pre-loaded on the tablet. Alas, though,it's unclear when we can expect Toshiba to pull through. Suffice it to say, wesee this not as an excuse to ignore the Thrive, but more of a reason to holdoff on buying one right now.Performance
Like so many other tablets on themarket, the Thrive runs on NVIDIA's Tegra 2 SoC. A cold boot took about 20seconds, matching the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, which packs the same 1GHz chip.Once we swiped through the lock screen, the tablet took less than two secondsto bring up Honeycomb.
For the most part, the Thriveresponded snappily to our taps and swipes, as well as multi-touch gestures likepinching and zooming. Occasionally, though, we noticed a slight pause when wepressed the home button to abruptly minimize applications. All told, we saw thebiggest performance drops while browsing websites built on Flash -- an areawhere we've seen other Honeycomb tablets stumble. The New York restaurantLattanzi, for instance, only displays four items on its menu at once, forcingyou to press a "Next" button to see more. The Thrive struggled withthat, leaving us jabbing blankly at the screen before our taps finally took. Inanother instance, we were perusing Uniqlo.com, and found that when we pulled upan item of clothing to get more details, scrolling suddenly became choppy. Atleast the Thrive loaded those Flash sites quickly, even if its performancesuffered once we started poking around. In any case, we're more inclined to saythat Google -- not Toshiba -- could still stand to enhance the Flashexperience.
On the bright side, typing on thestock Android keyboard felt consistently breezy, with few spelling errors toreport after a week of testing. Really, the speed is limited only by yourability to peck out letters. Incidentally, the tablet is narrow enough thattyping in portrait mode is easy, even if you do have dainty hands (like some ofus). Incidentally, the tablet also comes with Swype installed, if you thinkdragging a line between letters would be a more ergonomic experience thantapping away with two fingers. Personally, we remain dubious -- after all,isn't the beauty of Swype that you can hold a device with one hand and usethose same fingers to type? Still, it's nice that folks have the option of usingit.
If you're looking for some hardnumbers, we ran the Android-compatible benchmarks Linpack, Quadrant, andNenamark 1 and 2. As you can see, its Quadrant score of 1,584 matches the 1,546the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 notched after an update to Android 3.1. ButQuadrant, of course, is just one piece of the benchmarking puzzle, though wethink it's meaningful that the two tablets share the same chip and also happento be well-matched in real-world tests, such as cold boots. If you're abenchmark junkie, though, you'll find a handful of other scores in the handychart below.
Benchmark Score
Quadrant 1,584Linpack 2.79 MFLOPS (single thread) / 2.93 MFLOPS(multi-thread)
Nenamark 1 43.8 fps
Nenamark 2 18.3 fps
Vellamo 968
Neocore Would not run
Cameras
In the grand tradition of tabletcameras, the Thrive's 5 megapixel rear-facing one struggles in low light and insituations where your subject is moving. The Thrive does other tablets oneworse, though, by casting a bluish tint over pictures. We also found grainybits in many of our photos, even if we took them with ample lighting, and evenwhen we viewed them in their shrunken, resized form.
To boot, this isn't the smoothestpicture-taking experience you'll get on a tablet. Remember how we said Toshibastuck the cameras on one of the shorter edges, so that they'll be on top if youshoot in portrait mode? That's all well and good if you want to frame shotsvertically, but if you start snapping pics in landscape, you might find thatyour mitts accidentally obscure the lens. Not exactly a problem we've had withother slates whose cameras sit on one of the two longer sides.
In terms of unwanted tints, wehad better luck with the 2 megapixel front-facing camera, though as you canimagine, the sharpness and level of detail aren't good enough for actual, youknow, photography. But for video chatting the bright image quality should dojust fine.
Toshiba Thrive sample shots(rear-facing camera)
Toshiba Thrive sample shots(front-facing camera)The Thrive also records 720pvideo, though, any movies you make will be just as susceptible to that faint,blue overcast. You'll also see that motion in these videos isn't very smooth.The clips we shot with the HTC Flyer were much fluid, though to be fair, thatcamera presented an entirely different set of problems (read: roaringbackground noise).
File storage and transfers
Far be it for us to tell you howyou should use that full-sized USB port and accompanying SD slot, but sufficeto say it'll come in handy for moving files on and off the tablet. Happily,Toshiba made this almost foolproof by bundling its own file manager app dubbed-- wait for it -- Toshiba File Manager. Believe us when we say it's one of ourfavorite of the Thrive's features, and one of the clearest reasons you shouldconsider this alongside the scads of other Android tablets on the market. Usingthe app's tabbed interface, decide if you want to poke around the tablet's 8GBto 32GB of internal memory, an SD card, or a USB hard drive. Once you do that,you'll see all the files displayed in a grid, as you would if you were tryingto locate something in Windows Explorer or Finder in OS X.
Selecting a file to copy, cut,paste, or delete is also idiot-proof. If you just want to work with one file,you can tap and hold it with your finger to see a list of options. Or, if youwant to handle a batch of 'em, tap the "Select File" button at thebottom of the screen, at which point each file will be overlaid with an emptybox that you can "check off" by tapping it with your finger. If yougo that route, options like cut and paste won't pop up onscreen, but willrather appear as boxes in that lower pane. We just walked you through it butreally, the app's intuitive enough that anyone can figure it out in about fiveseconds.
As for speed, this is hardly thefastest drive you'll encounter, but it shouldn't keep you waiting too longeither. Transferring a batch of photos totaling 951MB in size took about tenseconds. That's not exactly lightning-fast, but given how seldom we take thetime to remove clumps of photos from our handset, we don't expect we'd do itthat often with a tablet either. Even if you do so more often, you might agreethat's fast enough for a $429 plaything.
Software
Right off the bat, there are tworeasons to get excited about the software on this thing. One, Toshiba didn'tmuck around with Honeycomb's standard UI, so if you're the kind of person whoalways chooses vanilla Android over, say, Sense, the Thrive will be a slateafter your own heart.
Secondly, this isn't just aHoneycomb tablet, but one of the first to ship with Android 3.1, the latesttablet-friendly version of Android that brings goodies like resizeable widgets,a new host mode, and Google's new Movies app. If you haven't yet handled atablet running the OS, you'll find that those resizeable windows are a joy, andmake the stock Gmail and calendar apps, among others, a whole lot more useful,even at a glance. The thing is, it's up to developers to bring their apps up tospeed, so at this still-early stage you'll find plenty that don't resize.Still, even being able to enlarge the standard Google-made ones is helpful.
Apps
Oh, and we haven't even scratchedthe surface on third-party apps. First off, you can download 'em from"unknown sources" (read: places other than Android Market). And,Toshiba pre-installed a whole bunch of popular ones -- some of which are justtoo useful to be dismissed as bloatware. These include some you'd normally haveto pay for, including LogMeIn Ignition ($29.99), Quickoffice ($24.99), andKaspersky Tablet Security ($19.95 per year). The outfit also tossed in a handfulof free favorites such as Angry Birds, and The New York Times. Missing,however, are any Facebook and Twitter clients. Some, meanwhile, do indeed smelllike crapware. These mostly include a raft of games, which includes NFS Shift,Backgammon, Euchre, Hearts, Spades, and Solitaire. Then there's Toshiba's blandStart Place for news headlines. We're happy never to open it again, and juststick with standalone apps from The New York Times and other favorites.
The company also threw in its owne-reader app, dubbed Book Place. It's actually the second reader applicationthat comes bundled on the Thrive, with the second being Google Books. We getwhat Toshiba is after -- giving low-tech folks like our parents enough apps sothat they don't need to download anything or (heaven forbid) ask for help. Butwe're guessing most of you are a teensy bit more independent than that, and wethink you'll enjoy a better selection if you just download Amazon or Barnes& Noble's apps, since they're backed by enormous libraries with lots ofcurrent, popular titles..
In addition to all this, Toshibathrew in its own app store, though it's pretty useless. Although the categoriesare comprehensive, we counted a max of six apps per section (often, there wasjust one), and we noticed certain titles appeared in multiple sections -- say,Office and Productivity.
Configurations and thecompetition
Don't be scared off by that $579price listed at the top of this review. That's just for the 32GB version, thehighest-end that Toshiba has to offer. The Thrive actually starts at $429 for8GB and is also offered in a 16GB flavor for $479. For now, it's a plain-JaneWiFi-only tablet, but Toshiba has said it plans to release a 3G version laterthis year.
However you slice it, that's someaggressive pricing. Both the 16GB and 32GB versions undercut the iPad 2 andGalaxy Tab 10.1 by $20. We use these as comparisons because they're our twofavorite tabs at the moment. The 10.1, in particular, has the exact same screensize, packs the same Tegra 2 chip, and is also one of the first tablets to shipwith Android 3.1. Both are slim and sexy -- something the Thrive simply isn't.To weigh the Thrive against these is to evaluate your priorities: how much areyou willing to pay for beauty? And if you had to choose, would you rather gofor full-sized ports or a featherweight design?
But let's not count out the ASUSEee Pad Transformer. In a market full of lookalike slabs, the Transformer andthe Thrive both try their darndest to be different. In the case of the Thrive,the full-sized ports are the hook. For the Transformer, it's the dockingstation replete with a full keyboard. It's an interesting comparison, becauseif you buy the Thrive, you might be keen on plugging in a USB keyboard.
We have to say, we'd be prettytempted to have a more integrated keyboard solution, especially while we'retraveling. The problem is, convenience doesn't come cheap. At first glance, theTransformer is cheaper, since the 16GB and 32GB models cost just $399 and $499,respectively. But, if you want to, you know, transform it, you'll have tospring for a $150 dock, rendering any price-saving delusions moot. The pointis, the idea of plugging a keyboard into the Thrive should still appeal topeople who'd rather not invest that much money in the Transformer. Not tomention -- the Thrive's USB port is good for things other than keyboards, suchas connecting external hard drives.
For the purposes of this review,we're not going to go on a long tangent about our favorite 7-inch tablets, eventhough some, such as the Flyer, count among the better ones we've tested. Wefigure, if you've decided 7 inches offers the perfect compromise betweenportability and big-screen goodness, the Thrive simply isn't right for you.
Wrap-up
Inevitably, whenever a new tabletcomes out, we find ourselves asking, "Why would you choose this overeverything else?" And to be honest, in a marketplace with so manyforgettable options it's not always an easy question to answer. In the case ofthe Thrive, at least, you've potentially got enough built-in reasons to counton both hands. It's got full-sized USB and HDMI ports, not to mention an SDXCslot allowing you to make good use of one of the memory cards you've no doubtaccumulated over the years. It comes with lots of useful apps -- some of whichcost money -- which means if you'll be up and running immediately (and so willany low-tech person you give this to as a gift). It runs Android 3.1 at a timewhen most tabs don't. Oh, and it's priced to sell. It starts at $429 for 8GB,making it stand out in a market that absolutely does not need another $500 or$600 slate. We say, get the 8GB version, pair it with an old SD card, and haveyourself a party.
That doesn't mean it's foreveryone. Some of you decided when this thing came out that it was too fat, toougly. We're sure some of you (no, not you) skipped this review and jumpedstraight to the comments to reiterate how oogly this thing is. And if that's adeal-breaker, we wouldn't blame you -- it's true, the Thrive does a better jobmaking up for its heft than other tabs (we're looking at you, Touchpad). Butwhy settle for a chunky tablet if you don't give a hoot about the USB port andSD card slot? It's a fair point, and we'd agree that anyone who buys this needsto be enamored with either the price or the port selection. And even then, thisis best for people who want the USB socket for storage, in particular; afterall, the excellent and ever-popular Eee Pad Transformer renders USB keyboardsmoot -- assuming you're down with spending $150 on a docking station, ofcourse. All told, there are plenty of thinner, sexier, longer-lasting (and yes,pricier) tablets to be had, with the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and iPad 2 coming to mindfirst. Still, we suspect there are some folks out there who've been waiting forsomething just like this
Toshiba has released a Thrivetablet based Android operating system. Toshiba Thrive features with 10.1-inchdisplay with support for multi-touch input and a resolution of 1280 × 800pixels, dual-core processor NVIDIA Tegra 2, a 5-megapixel back camera withautofocus and zoom Digital provides the ability to record 720p video, and alsoa second front camera lens with 2 megapixel.Price:
Toshiba Thrive will be availablein black color with the price tag of approx. $450 in a 8 GB of storage version& $579 for the 32 GB version.
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