Toshiba Thrive hands-on

Here is the part where we eat crow. When the Thrive was first announced , we expressed some preemptive concerns about its weight. At 1.6 pounds, in fact, it’s as heavy because the first-gen 3G iPad. In practice, because it seems, numbers aren’t everything. The Thrive feels light inside the hand — lighter than you’d expect, given both its weight in addition to its chunky profile. We’d even go as far as to assert that it feels airier than the Xoom, which, at 1.5 pounds, is noticeably denser.

What’s more, the Thrive is barely really comfortable to carry. It is easy to rest your fingers at the contoured back, and that soft, rubberized finish makes it near-impossible to your hands to slide. Cosmetically, the back cover reminds us of the textured lids on Toshiba’s 0 netbooks 0 , only rather than a linear pattern, the indented lines cross the backside at symmetrical diagonal angles. We also like how Toshiba tucked the complete-sized USB and HDMI ports (along side the mini USB) underneath a discreet door, thereby keeping the edges relatively clean. Overall, though, despite a metal logo printed on the back and an identical chrome piece surrounding both front and rear cameras, it doesn’t have the identical industrial gravitas because the Xoom. Nevertheless, if the upshot is a more ergonomic design, then that’s a tradeoff we will be able to tolerate.

The ten.1-inch (1280 x 800) display has an entirely responsive touchscreen, and while it’s plenty bright, it’ll look one of the most brilliant in case you stare it down it head-on. In spite of the tablet sitting on a table in front people, we noticed some glare, and the colours appeared somewhat washed-out. We’d also hope that the bezels on Toshiba’s future tablets are a chunk narrower than this one — having a more seamless display may need helped offset the Thrive’s thick, almost toy-like silhouette.

At the software side, the Thrive can be some of the first tablets to ship with Android 3.1. Toshiba chose to not layer its own UI on top (a sensible move, we expect), though it did bundle a number of utilities it’s possible you’ll find handy, including a file manager and a device that allows you to connect with any printers using a similar WiFi network. The printing helper was our favourite, because it provides a listing of apps that will contain printable material, similar to Gmail, at which point you are able to select the document you wish. We adore the assumption of the file manager, especially the undeniable fact that you’re able to tap and hold icons to do things including copy them, at which point you should use the tabbed interface to drop them in internal, SD, or USB storage. That tap-and-hold command was less-than-responsive during our demo, though to be fair, we were twiddling with a pre-production unit with not-final software, so we’ll reserve judgment until our full review.

Moving along, the Thrive comes with 1 Swype 1 on board — another tablet novelty — though we have a tendency to think this sort of keyboard is more useful on a phone since you can hold it one-handed and sort with those self same fingers. Lastly, Toshiba included some software of its own, including the identical Resolution+ technology it uses on its laptops and TVs to wash up and upscale video. What we didn’t know until today was that the corporate also bundled audio enhancement software to assist make bass notes pop. Indeed, it helped squeeze some deeper low notes out of “Rapper’s Delight,” but lets still detect some tinniness popping out of both small speakers. Toshiba also threw in its own media organization software, though we still prefer the native Gallery app’s glossier UI.

So there you will have it — our first couple of minutes of quality time with the Thrive. We’re still itching to place it through its paces for a couple of days, but for now, get your fill of hands-on photos and video (coming shortly!).

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This post is tagged: backside, ergonomic design, linear pattern, metal logo, tablet market, tradeoff