Toshiba Thrive Tablet Comparison :Review

The Toshiba Thrive isn’t the first Android tablet to hit the streets. It’s not the thinnest, lightest or cheapest. But Toshiba’s tablet manages to stand out from the crowd in a few ways that makes this 10 inch tablet worth considering if you’re looking for a more PC-like experience from an Android tablet.

Toshiba’s tablet features a 10.1 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel capacitive touchscreen display, a 1 GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual core processor, and runs Google Android 3.1 Honeycomb. It comes with 1GB of RAM and includes front and rear-facing cameras. If those specs sound familiar, that’s because the describe nearly every other Android tablet released from a major consumer electronics company in mid-2011.

Here’s what makes the Toshiba Thrive different: It has full-sized HDMI, USB, and SD card ports, status LEDs, and a removable back panel which makes it easy to swap out the battery.

That might not sound like much, but at a time when there’s very little distinguishing one Android tablet from the next, the Toshiba Thrive is one of the easiest tablets to customize or use with third party peripheral devices, and that makes it special. It might not be the best option if you care more about size and weight than expansion ports. But the Thrive is designed to appeal to business customers and geeks alike, and may also have something to offer for long-time PC users that expect Android tablets to work a little more like Windows computers.

Toshiba offers three different Thrive models: an 8GB version for $430, a 16GB model for $480, and a 32GB version for $580

Specifications

Display 10.1-inch LED-backlit capacitive multi-touch display (1280 x 800 pixels; 16:10 aspect ratio) Processor & Graphics 1 GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core mobile processor with GeForce graphics Storage 8 GB internal flash memory Memory 1 GB internal DDR2 memory Wireless Wireless-N Wi-Fi networking (802.11b/g/n) plus Bluetooth 3.0 Audio Built-in stereo speakers with SRS Premium Voice Suite Weight and Dimensions 1.6 pounds; 10.75 x 0.62 x 6.97 inches (WxDxH) Sensors & Location GPS, gyroscope, accelerometer, ambient light sensor, digital compass

Multimedia Playback Adobe Flash support Audio compatibility: MP3, WMA, AAC, eAAC+, Ogg Vorbis, WAVE Video compatibility: MPEG4, H.263, H.264

Ports & Expansion HDMI port (full-sized) for 720p video output 2 USB ports (1 full-sized, 1 mini-USB) Dock connector port 3.5mm stereo headphone jack Secure Digital (SD) card slot, compatible with SD, SDHC, and SDXC media