The Swiss Army Knife of Tablets: Toshiba's Thrive
Performance Analysis: From a pure performance standpoint, Toshiba's new Thrive tablet handles just about anything you could currently expect to run on a tablet. It's generally as fast as any other Tegra 2-powered Honeycomb tablet out there right now. In terms of the benchmark numbers, there are really no surprises, though this is obviously still a very capable tablet.
In other areas, Toshiba's 10.1-inch IPS display also performs well, with good brightness, color saturation and contrast that allows it to be reasonably visible even in outdoor situations. We haven't found a tablet yet that can match the display in Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1, but that's a tall yardstick. However, Thrive's display is still very nice, even for the most discerning pixel snobs. With respect to battery life, the Thrive isn't exactly going to be a tablet you'd consider your beast of burden, but it'll still hold up to several hours of web browsing on a single charge. Unlike other tablets though, the Thrive's battery is user-replaceable, so carrying a spare is actually feasible.
Toshiba seems to have finally hit squarely on something that many have taken issue with in regards to Apple's dominant iPad offering since its first-gen introduction and even today with the iPad 2. The seemingly simple act of getting your data and content on to a tablet shouldn't be so cumbersome, with the need to synch with proprietary software over proprietary connectors. And a solution to this problem is exactly what Toshiba decided they'd offer users, in order to differentiate their 10-inch Android slate over others in the market. It's not just full-sized USB and HDMI ports that are refreshing; the Thrive's standard SD card slot and removable battery make it one of our favorite tablets on the market currently. Couple that with a price tag of $479 for the 16GB model, or $429 if you don't mind stepping down to 8GB of on-board storage, and you get much more value and functionality in a tablet, so long as you don't mind a little extra bulk. For its uncompromising design functionality, solid performance and competitive price, we'll heartily recommend Toshiba's Thrive to anyone considering an Android tablet PC.

![]() |
![]() |
|
|