Toshiba Thrive: Honeycomb Hits $300
by Vivek Gowri on December 12, 2011 3:00 AM ESTI’ve had a number of Toshiba notebooks, spanning the range from $350 to $1600, and the connecting thread between them all was that the displays were all relatively medicore. You could reason it away on the super cheap units, it was beyond unacceptable on the super-high end R700 I reviewed, but either way, I wasn’t going into the Thrive review expecting a super high-quality display.
Thus, we were surprised to find that the Thrive has a pretty great display. The 10.1” screen has the same 1280x800 that’s the standard of the Honeycomb class. It’s not the brightest panel out there at a max of 343nits, but the contrast ratio of 987:1 is excellent. Not as excellent as the Transformer Prime, but still a very, very solid showing. The white point is set to a temperature of 7687 K, right around where the ASUS Eee Transformer and Eee Slider are set and between the iPad 2 (6801 K) and Galaxy Tab 10.1” (8762 K).
The unfortunate part of the display is that there isn’t actually a glass covering on it, a la the Gorilla Glass or other chemically-hardened glass coverings that many companies use on their smartphone and tablet displays. There’s a bit of give in the screen when you press it too hard (especially if you’re typing particularly vigorously). The cheap feeling it gives off is a bit unfortunate, because it undermines the quality of the display panel.
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wapz - Monday, December 12, 2011 - link
I would imagine the 7" Kindle Fire is a more interesting buy for the money if you want to get a sample of tablet for a budget. And it will run ICS very soon thanks to a lot of dev-support.This will have hardly any dev-support due to probably low sales, and because it runs Tegra, and nVidia still hasn't released HALs and userspace drivers for Tegra open source which means there is a fair amount if reverse engineering to be done to properly make a custom rom based on AOSP.
Try harder, Toshiba, this isn't good enough.
Hrel - Monday, December 12, 2011 - link
I like the cheap replaceable color cases. I like the full size ports... A LOT!!!! The hardware is way above the bare minimum level that is acceptable. Still, build quality matters. I'll be recomending amazon kindle fire or Transformer still. As far as the thickness goes, I REALLY don't care, do whatever you have to do to use full size ports. I don't care so much about full size USB but full size SD card and HDMI are pretty much required.*rant:
Personally I still don't see the appeal of these things. I bought the Asus and used my new toy for like 2 weeks. Then a couple months later noticed I hadn't touched the thing so I sold it off. I have a laptop, which goes anywhere in my house easily and I can take it on the road easily, and I have a desktop. I honestly do not understand the appeal of these things. You're giving up functionality and not really saving any money. I just do not understand. I have the Clevo P151 laptop, not light or thin. I have no issues moving it around. I have a laptop bag and power adapters so battery life is a non issue. I type a lot, and it has a BEAUTIFUL screen. Again, I see ZERO appeal in owning a tablet. Especially when you often get suckered into paying 100+/month to use the damn thing on wireless networks. You can't run ANY windows apps or games, again, I don't get it. I am baffled that anyone buys these things at all. A 4 inch "smartphone" that you can use as a GPS and Mp3 player, I get that... you know, for 50 bucks/month or less. But anything bigger isn't any more portable than a laptop. Baffling. Virgin mobile has a 25/month plan for a smartphone, you can tether anything to it. That seems like a fair deal. But as soon as you start slaping 2GB 4GB 40GB/month bandwidth limits, no matter how big 250GB/month it's instantly worth nothing. Either, you NEED that bandwidth, or you don't. If you do you get charged INSANE amounts of money to use it. And if you don't you're already paying INSANE amounts of money for that bandwidth. If you use 1GB/month of wireless data you should be paying next to nothing. This infuriates me, that people pay it. Because it's never going to change until people say enough. Cell carriers could easily charge 25/month for "access", meaning EVERYTHING in unlimited quantities and still make BILLIONS of dollars/year. Yes ATT you would have to build out your wireless network. Guess what? THAT'S THE FRAKKING BUSINESS YOUR IN!!!!
LancerVI - Monday, December 12, 2011 - link
I agree. My wife loves the Asus Transformer I bought for her.She goes everywhere with it.As for me, I can't stand using the damn thing!!!sprockkets - Monday, December 12, 2011 - link
It's simple, for those people who hate installing software, issues with windows, etc.Belard - Monday, December 12, 2011 - link
Each to their own. A few years ago I bought my first notebook... The concept was... Why bother. My needs didn't warrant the purchase. But going to court and needing a reliable way to show evidence or burn a disc made the $500 purchase worth it. So it was used only a few hours out of it's first year. I use it more when I need mobility but my desktop is my main baby. We bought an iPad for business promotion at a major international convention where any notebook or Netbook would have failed.Just like the notebook, some people or application works best for that formfactor.
Tablets are used like books, far more comfortable than a notebook in bed or sofa. Not for heavy work. When sharing information with people on the con floor, a tablet blows the door off any notebook. Show me a notebook that weighs about a pound, easy to use, with instant on Internet access, 8-9 hours of battery usage? Carrying extra batteries and power brick, etc means weight and space. A real keyboard would have been in the way and awkward to hold when showing clients system operations and materials. Show me a $400 notebook that can be turned on in 1 second and have wifi access in 1-3 seconds... There is nothing else. A 4" screen phone is a personal communications device... Not a sales tool.
( typed on my bed from my iPad). Even thou I have a quad core desktop available...
rpmurray - Wednesday, December 14, 2011 - link
*rantPersonally I still don't see the appeal of laptops. Desktops do the same and more and are generally cheaper to boot. Laptops can't be upgraded (other than memory and hard drive and you pay through the nose for both), have batteries that you need to keep charged, have cramped keyboards and the screens are so tiny compared to the ones you can get for a desktop. Again I see ZERO appeal to a laptop. Even budget desktops have faster CPUs. You can get so much more done with a desktop than a laptop in the same amount of time. And that doesn't even cover all the crap you have to lug around with you when you have a laptop (charger, spare battery, cables and dongles for the ports and any external hardware you use with it, carrying case to haul it all around in). And the INSANE amount of money you have to pay for a laptop in the first place compared to a desktop, even before you get all the add-ons.
piroroadkill - Monday, December 12, 2011 - link
Take notice.Take the 1280x800 IPS panels from these tablets and put them in little netbooks.
Brazos E-450 based netbooks. Done, I'd buy it.
I'm not buying a 16:9 netbook, simple as that.
Impulses - Monday, December 12, 2011 - link
You really gotta wonder why no one's done this already, the panels can't be that expensive if they're going into $350 tablets. Even if it raises the price of such a netbook past $550 there'd probably still be a market for it.One of the several reasons I bought my TF is the display itself...
Oh and btw, it took ASUS for-freaking-ever but they finally released their 40-pin to USB/SD adapters the full size ports on the Thrive aren't much of upside anymore. Sure it's one more little thing to carry but if you wanna use gamepads, hard drives, or thumbdrives without the kb dock then it's well worth it.
A5 - Monday, December 12, 2011 - link
The simple answer is that the tablets (especially the iPad) have killed the netbook market.The other reason is that an ARM SoC + Free OS (Android) is cheaper than an Atom CPU + Chipset + Windows license, enabling manufacturers to spend more on the screen.
melgross - Monday, December 12, 2011 - link
Microsoft has a standard for what is called a netbook for the purpose of selling Win7 Starter (and the earlier versions) to manufacturers making netbooks.The main points are:
1. 10" screen
2. 1024 x 768 max resolution
3. atom CPU.
If a manufacturer moves out of those basic specs, it's no longer a netbook, and they can't buy Starter, they must buy one of the regular versions.