With so many different internet tablets presently flooding the marketplace it can be challenging to know which one is right for you. The Toshiba Thrive internet tablet is Toshiba's primary tablet offering and it is a little late to enter the marketplace. The New York Times said, "Faced with the challenge of making its thin slab of plastic and glass seem different from other thin slabs of plastic and glass, Toshiba is pitching the Thrive as the shortest step down from a laptop." But is the Toshiba Thrive tablet in fact all its promising? It's received a lot of publicity and many people have been really getting pumped up about its publish date. But the question stands, is it all just talk or is it really worth it?
Design
The Thrive is a quite nicely designed internet tablet which appears very stylish and premium quality (feels solid too). There are also three status lights for the Battery, Wi-Fi and Power around the rim of the tablet. One very cool feature is that the back of the internet tablet is coated in rubber and this makes it much simpler to grip the Toshiba Thrive tablet. This also means that it's reasonably comfortable to grip. The back rubber coated wrapping can even be removed and replaced. Assorted colors available include pink, green, lilac, blue or silver.
Battery
Different from numerous tablets (including the iPad and iPad2) the battery on the Toshiba Thrive is removable (big plus over the iPad). This means that demanding users can in reality carry around a spare battery if they need to. On average, we've seen the batteries go on for around 7 hours of normal use, which is on par with most other tablet computers.
Expandability
The Toshiba Thrive is available in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB versions, but it can also be expanded by using SD cards. Lots of internet tablets feature SD cards nowadays to increase the storage space. Nonetheless, the Toshiba Thrive Tablet is one of the first which truly supports the use of SDXC cards. This means that you can put a 128GB SDXC card inside if you really need that much storage. The added benefit of a SD card slot is that you can check over the photos from your digital camera without needing to use a dongle or take the trouble connecting it to USB.
Camera
The cameras on this internet tablet are quite high quality. The back camera is 5 mega pixels and this makes it possible to take some excellent photographs. We found it works best in well-lit conditions but will struggle in low light levels. There is also a front facing 2 Mega Pixel camera which is excellent for video chats.
Ports
A further area which causes the Toshiba Thrive stand out are the amount of ports around the edges of the tablet. At the right side of the internet tablet there is a little flap which can be pulled up with your fingernail. This reveals mini USB, USB and HDMI ports. What is so great about this is that they are full sized USB and HDMI ports. In other words, there’s no need to be concerned about carrying around adapters or using special leads. Instead, you will be able to make use of any standard USB lead and link it straight up to your camera. As it runs Android Honeycomb 3.1, it supports USB host. This means you can connect USB hard drives, webcams, or anything else which is supported. You can even use a USB mouse or keyboard if you prefer. We loved this.. There is also a 3.5mm headphone jack at the bottom, and a power port on the left hand side of the internet tablet.
Verdict
With numerous internt tablets already on hand in the market today, it is becoming increasingly complex for manufacturers to differentiate their internet tablets. The way that Toshiba has done this with the Toshiba Thrive is by developing a solid, top quality tablet with useful ports. The best thing about this internet tablet is that it has full sized HDMI and USB ports. This makes it possible to attach a variety of peripherals without any adapters. The addition of an SDXC slot is excellent for expanding storage space and even looking at photos from your camera. If expandability, screen size and connectivity are tops on your list when choosing an internet tablet, then the Toshiba Thrive is ideal for you.
Specifications:
Operating System: Android 3.1 Honeycomb Display: 10.1” Disk availability: 8-32 GB Resolution: 1280 X 800 CPU: 1 GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 Dual Core RAM (MB): 1024 Lbs.: 1.69 Price ($US): Starting @ $329.99