At the moment, 10-inch Android tablets are fairly indistinguishable from one another, especially when it comes to what they have on the inside. Sure, some are thinner than others, but for the most part they are all pretty similar. This could be due to Honeycomb, or maybe all of these manufacturers are just trying to aim their arsenal at the iPad, but the result is almost bland when you read the spec sheets on several of them lined up.
Despite this the Toshiba Thrive shot out of the gate with a desire to not be lumped in with the rest. In my opinion, they succeeded, but perhaps not in the way they thought they would. Toshiba’s marketing machine was hard hitting and targeted. “The perfect sum of all of its parts” was the main line, which was combined with more than a few potshots at anyone in their way, including Apple.
This tablet was originally part of a pair, coupled with a Windows 7 tablet in the same body, which was later removed from the production schedule by Toshiba, along with their plans to make a Chromebook. The Thrive, which was revealed back at CES and was known to be a little thicker than some of its tablet siblings, prides itself on being complete. So, what is it about this device that makes it special? What makes it the perfect sum of its parts?
Ports, Cables, and Batteries
I’ve had probably a dozen devices, be they phones, tablets, or computers, that have had some form of HDMI out capability. With the exception of my Home Theater PC, which I plugged in once and left connected, I’ve never used the HDMI out on a device. Furthermore, I don’t know anyone who uses it regularly. Anecdotal though this may be, many analysts have speculated that the AirPlay/DLNA style devices, being essentially devices that transmit data to your TV wirelessly, are simply preferred over plugging something into the HDMI port. Until I got the Thrive, I was inclined to agree.
The Thrive, however, is the first major Android device to include a full HDMI port, not a port that required some kind of adapter like every other mobile device on the market right now. I have found myself using this feature more and more, just because it is there and it is crazy easy. The Plug and Play nature of the feature is second only to the way it is implemented. Instead of directly drawing everything from the Thrive to the monitor, you are shown the dynamic space you are working in. This means that things like navigation and your notification windows are not shown on the screen, and as a result even if you get notifications during a session connected to the TV you aren’t interrupted. The more I use it, the more I realize that all of these devices had HDMI out, but none of them made it really easy to use. They all require an adapter or a special cable in order to operate. I think Toshiba has made a big point by adding a full HDMI port.
A standard USB port is also included, and Android 3.1′s host mode support takes advantage of this nicely. The File Manager on board springs to life when you connect a hard drive or flash drive, and every keyboard and controller I have thrown at it so far has just plain worked, including my Logitech wireless keyboard, which was nice since the dongle is so small and there is no cable. In my opinion a real USB port, or a very easy way to get a real USB port like the included adapter in the G-Slate, is a critical thing in order for a tablet to replace the mobile computer for many users, but especially businesses and schools. As great as cloud based storage is, we wont be doing away with flash drives any time soon, so supporting those devices so completely is a necessary function in my opinion.
Another productivity port is the SD card slot. The majority of cameras are still running on SD cards, and while there are cameras on the Thrive and cameras on our phones, the standalone camera is still a big part of most consumers lives. With the Thrive’s SD slot, there’d be no need to bring a laptop with you on vacation to upload pictures. Productivity ports like these are addressed by other tablet manufacturers with adapters, but having the port right there is a much simpler answer for many users.
The power cord on the Thrive was a flashback for me, taking me back to my first Toshiba Satellite. The large pin power adapter with the brick in the middle has been seen with laptops for years, but this is the first tablet I have seen it with. The message this sends is two fold for me. The first thing I got when I took it out of the box was that it was clearly not meant to leave the house. Like your laptop power adapter, you dread winding that thing up and sticking it in your bag. Mobile devices, specifically tablets to date have opted to keep their bulk at the outlet, with a cable coming to the device that was thin and light. The second thing this told me was Toshiba’s image for this device really was geared at replacing the mobile computer for you. Toshiba might as well have taken a 10″ netbook and ripped the keyboard off of it to start off the design for this device, which is imagery we’ve associated with what we thought a tablet should be to begin with.
Remember that list of things that made Android phones better than different from the iPhone? Think back to the G1. MicroSD card slot, user replaceable battery, physical keyboard, open source OS. Are any of those even left in today’s devices? The Nexus S, for example, with its beautiful keyboardless design has absolutely no removable storage and is hailed as one of the best Android devices out there. Tablets? No removable storage, no replaceable battery, most dont have a keyboard, and we already know Android will be without source until Ice Cream Sandwich. What happened? The Thrive didn’t forget, as the whole back of the device peels off to reveal a 2030 mAh replaceable battery and even some options from Toshiba for colored backplates. There’s not currently any news of larger or third party batteries, but it is pretty safe to assume they are on the way. As for battery life on the stock experience, the Thrive took me about two days of moderate usage (read: 4 hours of video games, 6 chapters in a book, and 2 movies, and many more hours on Google+) to kill, and has a truly impressive idle rate, allowing the battery to go for days if left alone.
Honeycomb – still broken, and Toshiba’s software doesn’t help.
The Thrive is pretty clearly geared towards a portrait experience. The boot animation, camera and logo positioning all point pretty clearly to this. Unfortunately, there is still a large portion of Android 3.1 that does not rotate to accommodate. The initial login, half of the menus, and the Android Market are all landscape only, while the rest of the OS is portrait. Despite being Android 3.1, the Google Movies app is missing from both the tablet and the Market, and the UI still hangs when rotating from Landscape to Portrait in the Gmail app, forcing you to leave the app entirely and come back to it to complete you task. Honeycomb still strikes me as being an unfinished project, even with Android 3.2 on the horizon I have my doubts as to when some of these seemingly simple issues will be fixed.
Toshiba’s software that is included struck me as being a really odd combination of software that you’d normally see on some of their laptop. A mobile version of Kasperky Internet Security is included in the app, and I admit mildly jarring to see included, especially since the app isn’t even Honeycomb optimized. Toshiba also saw fit to include their own app store, though the selection of apps are pretty clearly pointed at business solutions and productivity enhancers, and very little of their app store is for free apps. A copy of Need for Speed is included on the tablet, with a re-direct to the Toshiba market in order to buy the full version. Naturally, these apps aren’t removable
Conclusion
I think the Toshiba Thrive would be great for someone who actually wants to accomplish something with a tablet. Most of the tablets that are out there right now are largely entertainment devices. These media portals are fantastic for bringing with you anywhere to absorb content and maybe check some email. The Thrive seems to exist as an opposing force, geared more towards productivity and usage that more closely mimics the mobile computer. For $480 the Thrive is priced comparably with existing tablets, and if you are the right user, it will add functionality that many existing devices aren’t going to so easily deliver.
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Tagcloud: Toshiba Thrive , Honeycomb , batteries , Toshiba Laptop akku , Toshiba Satellite A100 akku , Toshiba PA3534U-1BRS akku
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