Toshiba Thrive Review. Thickest Tablet on Market, Worth Buying?
by Antonio Wells
Aug 11, 2011 8:20 AM –
Toshiba Thrive (review) is an Android Honeycomb powered tablet- baking full peripheral ports right into the device without the need for attachments. It’s powered by NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 processor and allows for an impressive gaming and multimedia experience. However, it is one of the thickest and heaviest tablets on the market while all of the competitors have opted for slimmer and sexier designs. Is this tablet worth buying? You will be better equipped to know in this thorough review!
Price: $419 for 8GB, $559 for 32GB
Buy on eBay
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Dual-core processor to pack the punch needed for power-hungry apps and games.
- Tegra 2 processors on-board, allowing you to experience the best gaming and media consumption experience.
- Pre-installed with Honeycomb to give a true tablet experience.
- Has full HDMI, USB, (less common) Mini USB ports, and a SD Card slot.
- Rubberized easy-grip and color inter-changeable back covers.
- Removable battery.
Cons
- Thickest and heaviest tablet on the market; overall poor design.
- Poor battery life.
- Poor camera quality, even worse video camcorder quality.
- Charger is equivalent to a laptop charger.
- Proprietary docking port.
- Power/wake & volume buttons near flush to body of tablet, making it difficult to access without looking at it.
- Minor: Front camera on the side, therefore when video calling/chatting the image position is slightly off.
- Minor: Power LED stays constantly lit, a bit annoying in a dark room; doesn’t pose other useful functions, such as for notifications.
Who Should Buy This Tablet?
The Toshiba Thrive may appeal to Android tablet seekers who are seeking a bit of a pricing deal and actually prefer the full ports that bulk the design. It offers nifty removable and changeable back covers with a convenient easy-grip surface on the back; which helps with usability.
Design:
I have to express my sheer frustration for the overall design of this tablet: it is probably the thickest and heaviest tablets on the market at 0.62 inches and 1.66 lbs respectively. I feel like Steve Jobs’ snarky remark about iPad 2 being “the year of the copycats” in reference to the slew of mocking tablets doesn’t even apply to this one. I would have personally desired this design follow conventional tablet design successes; meaning thinner, lighter, more battery power, and more features equals better.
Toshiba Thrive Thickness Compared to Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 from Side
To give you a real world use case of the feelings and functionality I personally was faced with in evaluating the Thrive, I’ll share a story. In Chicago, TechWeek was an amazing tech start-up conference we gave media coverage to. At this event I chose to only bring a tablet, an Android phone and an iPhone for journalism. However, I chose to bring a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 over the Thrive and here’s why.
- To show off a slimmer and sexier Android tablet to my iPad counterparts.
- To use it as an information recording and media creation device. The poor video camcorder quality would not allow me to record video like this on a Toshiba Thrive.
A few other peeves I have with the design is how flush the Power/Wake & Volume buttons on the top are too flush to the body of the tablet, plus the placement of the front camera is on the side versus the top-center. With most phone or tablet devices the exterior buttons have some differentiation to feel where they are once you get adjusted to the device. I often found myself actually looking for the button or fumbling around several seconds trying to feel for the button. This oversight is a product designers No-No! Finally, and this is very minor, but the placement of the front camera on the side bezel is a bit odd when you’re video calling/chatting and the image of yourself is slightly off center. So you find yourself either accepting that quark or holding the tablet slightly off to the side to center yourself. 
Toshiba Thrive Thickness Compared and Design to Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. Note: near flush buttons on Thrive and raised on Tab.
I thought I was done beating up on the tablet but one more gripe. Why is the charger cable the equivalent to that of a laptop charger? Consider the glaring battery power issue, which I’ll complain about shortly, this changes the portability dynamics of the device. No my friends… you are not carrying a cool notebook-like case protecting the tablet, yet you must have your charger, thus you’re now carrying a mini laptop bag… or murse- you choose.
The design does have some positives; such as the full HDMI, USB, Mini USB and SD card slots allow for easy plugging, without buying an additional attachment for ports like other tablet competitors. Also, the battery is accessible and most important- removable! We have remedied many by simply instructing the battery removal to clear a host of technical headaches for inquiring fans of the site in the past. Lastly, the back cover offers a convenient non-slip grip and can be changed for different colors to add a bit of personality to the tablet.
Toshiba Thrive Power Charge, Full USB, Mini USB, and Full HDMI Ports
Features:
The Toshiba Thrive is an Android 3.1+ (Honeycomb) powered tablet, therefore, allowing access to hundreds of thousands of apps in the Android Market, seamless integration to Google services like Gmail, Maps, Docs, etc. Also featured is Toshiba’s Start Place, App Place, and Book Place; which require signing up for a Toshiba account.
Start Place is a news aggregate app of topics such as Top Headlines, Entertainment, U.S., World, etc. App Place is a collection of web apps of many categories stocking free and paid web-based apps. Finally, Book Place is Toshiba’s marketplace for searching and buying ebooks.
Toshiba Thrive Android Tablet Specs:
| Operating System: |
Android 3.1 Honeycomb |
| Type: |
Internet Tablets |
| Screen Size: |
10.1″ |
| Features: |
USB
WIFI
Camera
HDMI
Mini USB
Card Reader
Webcam
Replaceable Battery |
| Touch Screen Type: |
Capacitive |
| CPU: |
NVIDIA Tegra 2 |
| Storage Capacity: |
8GB |
| Display: |
WXGA 1280×800 |
| Internal Storage: |
Flash |
| Storage Media Type: |
SD |
| Media Card Types: |
Full Size SD |
| Communications Type: |
Wi-Fi |
| Ports: |
USB 2.0
Headphone Jack
Mini-USB
HDMI |
| Battery Type: |
Li-ion Battery |
| Aspect Ratio: |
16:10 |
| Browser: |
Full HTML WebKit Browser
Adobe Flash 10.1 |
| Webcam Resolution: |
2.0 MP |
| Cameras Included: |
2 – Front & Rear |
| Back Camera: |
5MP |
| Front Camera: |
2.0 MP |
Engadget’s battery test of the Thrive was below 6-1/2 hours, I have to strongly concur… this was about that same that I experienced, even when idle. Just over 5 hours with light to moderate use before the battery died. This is not good when competitors are tipping 10 hours. This means bringing your charger is a necessity if you plan to use the tablet while out. This also alters your case carrying options. 
Photos of Toshiba Thrive:
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Toshiba Thrive
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Toshiba Thrive Portrait View
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Toshiba Thrive Flat Angel View
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Toshiba Thrive Flat Angel View 2
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Toshiba Thrive Angel View
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Toshiba Thrive Angel View 2
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Toshiba Thrive Side Port View
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Toshiba Thrive Side Port Audio Port View
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Toshiba Thrive Power Wake and SD Card Slot View
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Toshiba Thrive Back Cover View
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Toshiba Thrive Angle View
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Toshiba Thrive Angle View 2
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Toshiba Thrive in Hand
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Toshiba Thrive Portrait View
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Toshiba Thrive Landscape View
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Toshiba Thrive Thickness Compared to Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
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Toshiba Thrive Thickness Compared to Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 from Side
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Toshiba Thrive Thickness Compared and Design to Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
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Toshiba Thrive Side Ports View
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Toshiba Thrive Side Ports View 2
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Toshiba Thrive Side Camera View
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Toshiba Thrive SD Card Slot
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Toshiba Thrive Power, Wake, and Volume Rocker Buttons
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Toshiba Thrive Power Charge, Full USB, Mini USB, and Full HDMI Ports
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Toshiba Thrive LED Lights
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Toshiba Thrive Front Camera on Left Side
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Toshiba Thrive Connector for Dock
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Toshiba Thrive Bottom View Port for Dock