Toshiba Thrive Review

Review Summary:

Toshiba may have taken its time getting the Thrive on store shelves, but that time was obviously well spent crafting an excellent tablet that offers a productive computing experience and fills a much-needed niche.

Pros

• Full-sized USB, SD card, and HDMI inputs
• Good build quality, grip friendly design
• Works with USB keyboards and other USB accessories

Cons

• Mediocre display
• Subpar speaker

Toshiba Thrive Full Review

 

The Toshiba Thrive Honeycomb tablet has taken its sweet time getting to store shelves. First announced and demoed on CES 2011 alongside another Honeycomb tablet, the Motorola XOOM, and sans an official moniker, the Thrive finally hit the market in July, six months after CES and four months after the XOOM. Since then, Samsung, Acer, ASUS, and LG have released Honeycomb tablets, and Lenovo and Sony have four additional models on the way.

The challenge for Toshiba is designing a Honeycomb tablet that sticks out from the crowd, and they’ve done that by stressing function over design. The Toshiba Thrive features a replaceable battery as well as full-sized USB, HDMI, and SD card inputs, which make for a bulkier (especially when seen next to the ultra-thin iPad 2 and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1), but more practical tablet.

TabletPCReview puts the Toshiba Thrive through the paces to see if the handy function trumps slick form in this Honeycomb tablet review.

BUILD & DESIGN

The Toshiba Thrive looks tough, and that’s probably because it’s a bit more rugged than some of the other 10.1-inch tablets. That’s not to say that it has a better build quality, just that it would be harder to snap in half owing to its thickness.

Viewed head on, the Thrive resembles its competition in that it is rectangular, with a 16:10 screen ration, with a thick black border framing the display and rounded corners. The top edge, when held in portrait mode, features a plastic silver half circle that houses the two-megapixel front-facing camera lens, indicator light, and on-board microphone. The edges also house power, battery, and wireless indicator lights as well as the ambient light sensor.

In another attempt to distinguish the Thrive from the competition, Toshiba went with a semi-rubberized back panel with an easy grip pattern, which rounds off at the edges. I find Toshiba’s choice to be far preferable over competing devices, which often feature sheer plastic or aluminum. The Thrive is just easier to grip and hold than the iPad 2, XOOM or Galaxy Tab 10.1. The silver circle carries over to the backside and houses the 5-megapixel rear camera.

The Toshiba Thrive is also the only tablet of its kind with a removable and replaceable battery. The back panel pries off with a bit of force, revealing the innards. The Toshiba six-cell replacement battery currently costs $90, so it is not cheap, but shelling out the cash is better than buying a whole new tablet should the battery no longer hold a charge (which is bound to happen with tablets as it too often does with smartphones). Also, business travelers might consider picking up a spare to ensure enough juice for long trips away from charging opportunities. Toshiba also offers alternative back covers in green, blue, silver, red and purple for $20 each.

A quick tour around the sides reveals a back panel locking switch on one, and the AC-in, 3.5mm audio jack on the other. 

There are also a full-sized USB 2.0, full-sized HDMI, and miniUSB port hiding behind a secure access cover.

The long sides include two stereo speakers with a covered proprietary docking port on one side, and a full-sized SD card slot, orientation lock switch, volume rocker, and power button on the other.

The full-sized ports and SD card slot are excellent additions, especially the USB, given that Honeycomb 3.1 supports USB hosting and works with keyboards, mice, thumbdrives and gamepads (I could not get the Thrive to recognize my Western Digital external hard drive, however). If one USB input is not enough, the Thrive also supports USB hubs. Also, the HDMI output mirrors the display on the HDMI-enabled screens, which could be helpful for business users come presentation time. With full SD card support, the Thrive is closer to a PC than it is a smartphone in terms of file management (more on that under PERFORMANCE). Yes, some other tablets support microSD, but I think microSD cards are way too small to move from device to device regularly.

The only complaint I can lob at the Thrive design is that the buttons and switches are a bit mushy and hard to press/push. Also, some of the panel covers are tough to pry off, especially the cover to the docking connector. Finally, the Thrive is the only Honeycomb tablet we’ve tested to date that ships with a power brick for charging. Most emulate smartphones and utilize a micro- or miniUSB cord, but the Thrive has a full-on 19V power supply.

Display & Speakers

Unfortunately, the Thrive display does not hold up as well as its design and features. Compared with the two best tablet displays on the market, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Apple iPad 2, the Thrive monitor is dull and not nearly as crisp. At the maximum setting, it’s not as bright as the other two tablets, which might not be so bad as screen brightness has the biggest effect on battery life. The colors strongly tend to blue/green, whereas the iPad 2 has more of a magenta tone.

Viewing angles are decent though, as is the touch sensitivity. The settings have a haptic feedback option for the keyboard and Android softkeys, but I could only hear and not feel the feedback when enabled. Maybe my fingertips aren’t sensitive enough. 

The speakers are also subpar. They are barely loud enough to fill a room and the sound quality is heavy on the treble. Users won’t have trouble with video chat, but music will sound much better played elsewhere. As with every other tablet with the notable exception of the BlackBerry Playbook, the speaker placement doesn’t help things. Toshiba placed them on the bottom of the device, opposite the power button and volume rocker. Even when held upside down, the Thrive speakers still do not direct sound at the user. RIM gets it right with the PlayBook by having the speakers on the display edges, facing forward. To date, no Honeycomb tablet makers have followed suit.

Toshiba Thrive specs:

• Android Honeycomb (3.1)
• 10.1-inch diagonal widescreen 1280 x 800 multitouch LED backlit touchscreen
• NVIDIA Dual Core Tegra 2, 1GHz
• 1GB RAM
• 8GB, 16GB or 32GB internal memory
• Front-facing 2-megapixel, rear-facing 5-megapixel webcams
• 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0 + HS
• Full-size USB 2.0, miniUSB 2.0, full-size HDMI, full-size SD card slot, 3.5mm audio jack, proprietary pin connector
• Replaceable prismatic litium ion battery (23Wh)
• 10.7 x 7 x .6 inches
• 1.6 lbs
• Ships with AC adapter, miniUSB to USB cable
• Price at Launch: $429.99 (8GB), $479.99 (16GB), $579.99 (32GB)
• PERFORMANCE
  The Toshiba Thrive sports a similar NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor as the other 10.1-inch Honeycomb tablets, so it’s no surprise it’s a very capable and stable tablet. It takes about 30 seconds to power up, which is near the average for tablets in its class, and I encountered very few hiccups in day-to-day use, but I did experience a few crashes after three hours of streaming video while trying to drain the battery, and I definitely didn’t encounter the sleep/wake bug some users have complained about. To be fair to those stuck with a buggy Thrive, Toshiba has admitted the sleep/wake issue is a real problem and they are working on a fix.
  In an email to us, a Toshiba spokesperson claimed:

  A limited number of Thrive Tablet users have experienced a Resume issue when in Sleep mode. Toshiba has released a software update to resolve this issue, improving the sleep-and-resume performance, as well as enhancing the multimedia playback capabilities of the device. The software update can be downloaded through the Toshiba Service Station utility app found on the Thrive Tablet.

  
  

  Flash support is great and apps launched and closed with no problem. Videos render quickly and completely, even HD, and for some reason, Toshiba offers both a proprietary video player and the embedded Honeycomb player for video playback. It’s hard to discern the difference between the two other than scroll bar and play button aesthetics, but it’s always nice to have a choice. Despite the subpar display quality, HD video looks surprisingly smooth, at least on the limited video sources available (the Thrive does not support Netflix or Hulu Plus at the time of this review, but users can rent Google Videos through the online Android Market).
  The Thrive battery lasted for 4 hours and 25 minutes of constantly streaming HD video with the screen set to maximum brightness and Wi-Fi on, which is about average. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 lasted 19 minutes longer with the same test. 
  Looking at the benchmarks and it no surprise to see that the Thrive slots in with the rest of the Honeycomb lineup in both browser and general performance as Honeycomb tablets feature very similar hardware.
  Quadrant measures CPU, 3D, and memory performance. Higher numbers are better.
  
  Sunspider is a Javascript benchmark for measuring browser performance. Lower numbers are better.
  
  Apps 
  At launch, the Toshiba Thrive ships with Android Honeycomb 3.1, though an upgrade to 3.2 is likely. Toshiba did not tweak the operating system much, so it is pretty close to pure Honeycomb. With Honeycomb comes its strengths and weaknesses. There still aren't nearly enough tablet apps in the Android Market, and app management on the device is a hassle. But, it's a lively OS that allows for active widgets and a good deal of customization.
  The Thrive tablet ships with the basic Google apps, including the excellent Google Maps app, YouTube, and Google Talk. In addition to a generic keyboard, Toshiba also included the superior Swype keyboard, which is available through the settings option.
  Toshiba also included a bit of bloatware in the form of some simple and harmless card games and backgammon, which I actually enjoyed. Unfortunately, there is also some trial bloatware for remote printing and security apps, as well a Need for Speed racing  game, which cannot be removed from the tablet without serious tinkering. Also underwhelming is Quickoffice for Honeycomb, which allows users to view, but not edit or create Microsoft Office documents. 
  Not all the trial software is bad however. The popular remote desktop app, LogMeIn Ignition, comes preloaded with a lengthy trial and then a discounted price of $24.99, saving you $5. It’s expensive compared to other Android apps, but extremely useful for a productive tablet experience. Considering the Thrive works perfectly with USB keyboards and mice, I think a remote desktop app is an essential addition and worth the added cost. 
  Also essential is a file manager, which the Thrive also sports. The Android file system is not as intuitive as its Windows counterpart, so navigation can be a hassle. For example, if you take a picture with the Thrive and want to port it over to an SD card, you’d think the image resides in the Pictures file on the Internal Storage tab, and you’d be wrong. Any picture taken with the Thrive camera is actually stored in the Camera subfolder, which is found in the DCIM file on the Internal Storage Tab.
  Toshiba also packed in its own app market, eBook store that includes New York Times bestsellers, and a news aggregator.
  HDMI Dock
  Along with our review unit, Toshiba also included its Multi-Dock with HDMI accessory. The dock is a solid hunk of plastic that secures the Thrive in a slightly angled landscape mode via the Thrive’s  docking input. The Thrive’s input has a removable, and easily losable, plastic cover, and snaps easily and firmly in the dock. The dock adds two addition USB 2.0 ports, and full-sized HDMI output, DC input for charging, and audio-out jack. While docked, the Thrive’s onboard USB remains functional and accessible, making it possible to connect a keyboard, mouse, and thumbdrive at the same time. With a $60 MSRP, the dock is not cheap, but it does add a bit more functionality for those looking for a more PC-like experience out of their tablet.
  Gaming
  by Grant Hatchimonji 
  I have always criticized the legitimacy of gaming on tablets due to the limited and restrictive options for control schemes; either they are exceedingly simple and gesture-based or they feature the dreaded on-screen joystick and buttons. Either way, controls on tablets are always touch-based—lacking in precision and comfort—ultimately hampering gameplay and even limiting what genres can be successfully brought to the system (the keyword here being “successfully”; don’t try to tell me that FPS games work on tablets). This is no longer the case, as the Android Honeycomb 3.1 update allows for the use of peripherals through full-sized USB ports, and that includes game controllers.
  The only issue is that it’s still a bit early to gauge how well game and app developers will capitalize on this new control scheme option. Using a wired Xbox 360 controller with the Thrive, I was only able to find one game that fully supported the use of a gamepad in lieu of the touchscreen controls: a puzzle-platformer by the name of Cordy.
  Though it was my only option, I must say that playing Cordy with the 360 controller was like a dream compared to my previous tablet gaming experiences. Everything felt fluid and natural, and all of the controls were automatically mapped to the controller (I didn’t need to manually assign actions to the different buttons or anything). Combined with the Toshiba Multi-Dock, which keeps the tablet propped up at a comfortable angle and sports two USB ports as well as a headphone jack, the use of a 360 controller for gaming on the Thrive made for an excellent gaming experience. Now that USB gamepads are supported by Honeycomb 3.1 tablets, gaming might actually have a chance on the platform.
  
  But like I said, you currently won’t have much luck with other games on your Honeycomb tablet. I tried the controller out with a number of other big-name titles — including Angry Birds, Gun Bros, Dungeon Defenders, and Inotia 3 — and none of them worked properly with the peripheral. They could detect that something was there, as one or two of the buttons worked, but they never did anything useful. For instance, some buttons would pause the game while others would minimize or close it. The closest I came to useful support was with Gun Bros, which allowed me to use the left thumbstick to move my character around, but no other controls worked; I was still forced to use the touchscreen to fire my guns or do anything else. So as it stands now, it might be a little while before you can try out your USB gamepads with anything but Cordy, but it’s definitely something to be excited about.
  
  
  CONCLUSION
  TabletPCReview picked the Toshiba Thrive as the tablet of choice for back to school because, in our words, “no tablet offers a better combination of productive function and time-killing fun than the Toshiba Thrive Honeycomb tablet.” That combination of fun and function is a direct result of Toshiba’s design decision to add a bit of bulk in order to house a full-size USB port, SD card slot, and a replaceable battery.
  That said, the Thrive isn’t for everybody. Those looking for an iPad-like experience might be turned off by the Thrive’s PC-like features. The sleeker iPad 2 and Galaxy Tab 10.1 also have much better displays and sound output, giving them an edge in multimedia content consumption (and the iPad 2 has both Hulu Plus and Netflix). But for our money, a tablet should also be able to get things done, and offer a respectable and productive computing experience. Compared with other devices in its class and price range, a traveling businessperson or student will be able to get more done with the Thrive without expensive accessories.
  Toshiba may have taken its time getting the Thrive on store shelves, but that time was obviously well spent crafting an excellent tablet that fills a much-needed niche among like devices.