Toshiba Thrive Packs Android 3.1, Shipping July
Toshiba has confirmed its Android-based Thrive tablet, which is scheduled for launch this July and will be available for preorder in just a couple of weeks.
Unfazed by the sheer volume of tablets at Computex this week, Toshiba has revealed that its 10-inch Thrive tablet will be launching next month. Boasting a 10.1-inch screen, the Thrive packs Nvidia’s dual-core Tegra 2 chipset, Honeycomb 3.1, a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera (and a 2.1-megapixel job up front), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a full-sized USB port, HDMI, and a 7- to 8-hour battery life.
As we saw this week, there are at least a couple of manufacturers pushing the ‘bigger smartphone’ angle with tablet docking stations that do nothing but add a larger battery and a larger screen to your phone. However, that’s not Toshiba’s train of thought with the Thrive. Toshiba is trying to target ‘laptop people’ with this device, as opposed to people who just want a larger smartphone.
"There are two approaches you can take to a tablet," CNet cites Jeff Barney, vice president and general manager of Toshiba's digital products division, as saying. "One approach is as a smartphone with more functionality and a bigger screen. Or more from a laptop down to a tablet. We're laptop people, so we took that approach."
At 1.6 pounds, it’s a little beefier than some of the sexier tablets we’ve seen so far this year (think iPad 2 and Samsung’s new Galaxy Tabs), but it’s also a little bit cheaper. Prices ring in at $429 (8GB), $479 (16GB), and $579 (32GB).
Preorders start June 13. Who’s in?
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Cool tablet... My opinion, beefier is better, I don't want something that feels like it's going to shatter in my hands...
I guess it will be a bit Asus-ish. Far superior to the iPad and lightyears ahead of the mostly mediocre other Android tablets, but only mildly succesful because there's no rotten fruit on it and it actually runs the software you want it to run, even if that's flash.
Why do no tablets include Infra-Red controls?
Far superior to the iPad and lightyears ahead of the mostly mediocre other Android tablets,
Ey?
Same price, same size, same sort of processing power, same battery life, more weight, worse aspect ratio (4:3 is better on small displays), most likely no IPS panel....
the only advantage it has is a USB port and better cameras (which is pointless. Nobody needs cameras on a tablet except for video conferencing and most people don't do that)
Ey?Same price, same size, same sort of processing power, same battery life, more weight, worse aspect ratio (4:3 is better on small displays), most likely no IPS panel....the only advantage it has is a USB port and better cameras (which is pointless. Nobody needs cameras on a tablet except for video conferencing and most people don't do that)
- Lower price for similar (often slightly better) hardware performance.
- The Asus Transformer has an IPS and I guess this Toshiba does as well
- Has a USB port.
- Runs an OS that supports Flash and is far superior from a technical point of view.
- Worse aspect ratio remains yet to be seen - a tablet is a media consumption device primarily and a netbook replacement in a pinch. The media part is far better in widescreen.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4216 [...] enchmarked
From what I have seen the Ipad 2 has better graphics. This coming from a day 1 Xoom User
IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colorsSize 1280 x 800 pixels, 10.1 inchesiPad 2 specs : 9.7″ LED display with 1024×768 screen resolution at 132ppi
Strangely they don't mention IPS in their own spec sheet but alright. Comparable displays then.
http://www.thetoshibatablet.com/pdf/Toshiba_PDF_V3.pdf
Still 20% heavier and slightly smaller battery.
Pretty sure the Nvidia chip stomps the Apple one.
Do u have any source for that?
Both have the same CPU (Cortex A9 dual core clocked at 1GHz). Only difference is the GPU and the RAM and if I remember correctly, the Motorola Xoom (also Tegra2) got stomped by the iPad 2 in some graphics benchmarks.
- Lower price for similar (often slightly better) hardware performance.- The Asus Transformer has an IPS and I guess this Toshiba does as well- Has a USB port.- Runs an OS that supports Flash and is far superior from a technical point of view.- Worse aspect ratio remains yet to be seen - a tablet is a media consumption device primarily and a netbook replacement in a pinch. The media part is far better in widescreen.
- $20 price difference is insignificant when buying a tablet.
-Flash is nice, but what about purpose made apps? How many honeycomb apps are there in the android market? A tablet is pointless if you don't have good software.
- widescreen only makes a difference when watching a movie or widescreen TV show that actually take advantage of the widescreen format, and I can assure you that you don't want to do that on a 10" display, no matter what the aspect ratio.
For most things you'll do on your tablet (surfing the web, reading documents, email, games) 4:3 is better.
Who cares if there are black bars on a widescreen youtube video or a 20minute sitcom?
snip
You are an idiot. "LED" is not its own display type, it is the backlight. The iPad 2 has an LED backlit IPS LCD.
lol at the apple idiots saying 4:3 is the best ratio and you can just watch YouTube and videos with black bars. Just watch the videos full screen and zoom to width on web browser but maybe apple "geniuses" cant think of such complex things. They obviously cant figure out many other things which is why IOS or should that be POS, has to be so locked down that it will only work the way apple sent it off. As one of the idiots may otherwise come across a problem and without a "genius" around to tell them what to do their heads will overheat and suffer a nuclear meltdown.
Wouldn't you be better off with full screen video making a larger image on a 16:9 screen when your talking a 10 inch screen rather then letter boxing the video on a 4:3 screen and making the overall image even smaller on a 10 inch display this way having to shrink the image to fit in your 4:3 screen perfection.
Web browsing is fine on 16:9 displays all you have to do is zoom the screen to match the width and web browsing is great then. With all displays being predominantly 16:9 and therefore most software is written for the screen real estate it provides why would you want a 4:3 screen these days anyway.
You realize I copied and pasted that right? http://osxdaily.com/2011/03/02/ipad-2-specs/I never said anything about the panel specs, you just assumed I did. Even funnier is how you think I didn't know that LED is just a form of back lighting. I was going more towards the bigger screen and higher resolution part....but okay. Anything else you'd like to assume while we're here?
lol PandaBear, you like post so many comments
lol PandaBear, you like post so many comments
And you, like, use like all the time. Annoying.
It's because I'm a PandaBear. Panda's are very forum social. Now you know!
Of course, what else is there to do between bamboo munching and Apple adoration?
lol at the apple idiots saying 4:3 is the best ratio and you can just watch YouTube and videos with black bars. Just watch the videos full screen and zoom to width on web browser but maybe apple "geniuses" cant think of such complex things. They obviously cant figure out many other things which is why IOS or should that be POS, has to be so locked down that it will only work the way apple sent it off. As one of the idiots may otherwise come across a problem and without a "genius" around to tell them what to do their heads will overheat and suffer a nuclear meltdown.Wouldn't you be better off with full screen video making a larger image on a 16:9 screen when your talking a 10 inch screen rather then letter boxing the video on a 4:3 screen and making the overall image even smaller on a 10 inch display this way having to shrink the image to fit in your 4:3 screen perfection.Web browsing is fine on 16:9 displays all you have to do is zoom the screen to match the width and web browsing is great then. With all displays being predominantly 16:9 and therefore most software is written for the screen real estate it provides why would you want a 4:3 screen these days anyway.
the iPad is primarily not a video device. It's a web surfing device.
4:3 allows you to read websites more comfortably both in landscape (more vertical space->less scrolling) and portrait mode (less narrow).
It's also better for documents because ISO / DIN paper sizes are closer to 4:3 than to 16:10.
Another advantage is that it makes reaching the center of the screen with your thumbs easier when holding it landscape mode and it makes the onscreen keyboard bigger when in portrait mode.
16:10 makes a lot of sense on 24" displays, but on 10" displays it's just too narrow.
There is a reason why widescreen monitors didn't become popular back in the days of 15" display diagonals. They only started to make sense once they were big enough to display 2 documents side by side.
The iPad2 doesn't need flash because pretty much every major website has an app for it OR the site has it's own "subsite" for the iPad. How many people are going to actually do video conferencing? exactly... I'm far from an Apple funboy but the iPad2 is by far the best tablet out there and it has nothing to do with hardware. I spent weeks researching which tablet to buy and the deciding factor was one thing...apps.
I like Apple products. I have an iPhone and a MacBook Pro. Having said that, I strongly disagree that the iPad is "by far the best tablet out there." Who cares if there are a billion apps? So many of them are similar. I mean, how many weather apps do you need? It's gotten to the point that don't even like accessing the App Store anymore. Not only that, the notification system is the worst. It's obtrusive, you can't read more than one at a time, and you have to close out whatever you're doing just to read it.
I think these new Droid Tablets like the Asus eee Pad Transformer, Toshiba Thrive and Samsung Galaxy 10.1 have really made headway and offer true competition to the iPad. Their hardware is on par if not better. Their OS is open and not restrictive like Apple's. You can add expandable memory to many of them. The list goes one, so there is a lot to like about them. If you're in the market for a tablet, there's no reason why you shouldn't consider one instead of an iPad. I would absolutely purchase one over an iPad and not think twice about it.
Oh my penguin, it's true that Apple makes you stop thinking.
If you think 16:10 is too wide for web browsing and reading documents, then just rotate it.
Seriously, this really can't be that hard to realize.
Me having a gorgeous girlfriend trumps all of your opinions about tablets or computers or whatever.
Looks good, although battery life is underwhelming. For a tablet, 10 hours is the sweet spot right now.
For most things you'll do on your tablet (surfing the web, reading documents, email, games) 4:3 is better?
In your opinion. I found browsing, reading, e-mail and games to be quite disingenuous on the iPad 2. 4:3 does not offer a significant difference in screen shape to justify itself. 16:10 on the Motorola Xoom and other tablets allow you to either use the tablet very broadly or lengthily, giving two discernible modes of operation in relation to screen shape. Also, in regards to your statement that 4:3 in general is bigger for smaller screen sizes. What are the vast majority of smartphone aspect ratios, even your beloved Apple iPhone uses a non-4:3 ratio. So I believe the 4:3 ratio argument is very much an invalid one.
I spent weeks researching which tablet to buy and the deciding factor was one thing...apps.
Thats why a pad running Win8 with x86 processor could be the thing of the pad future if it even has one...
Thats why a pad running Win8 with x86 processor could be the thing of the pad future if it even has one...
Epic win comment
+1000
The second a good tablet with Windows 8 comes out there will be no discussion of "does it do?" or "can it run" because the answer is yes.
All your existing software - MS Office and Photoshop spring to mind, as well as about 10 million others.
Your printer - sucks that you can't just load up a driver doesn't it?
Your peripherals - why can't I attach a USB DVD drive so I can watch a movie from disk?
Your files - I really want to watch those hi-def .MKV files or listen to FLAC audio, but can't seem to install codecs, why?
Diss x86 all you want, but it has been serving your requirements fine for years, all you are fauning over with tablets is the form-factor, not its feature rich operating systems.
I'm not buying a tablet till Kal-El. That is all.
Apple is evil and apple is sly
And if it can eat you
Well then it will try.
You are all idiots... Apple Fanboys will be apple fanboys (I call them Apple Drones because there is no Alternitave to the Apple God
). Android fanboys will be android fanboys. I LOVE the Honeycomb OS, and think it trumps the IOS. But, there are WAY more apps for IOS (Tablets-iPad) as they had a head start.
. Most honeycomb devices have almost equal screens (IPS), come equiped with Tegra 2 (Faster than either iPad CPU's), and have a better OS. But if apps are all you care about, then go that way.
The iPad 2 is a mediocer tablet, overpriced (For a 'Web Browser'), and Apple is arrogant
IOS is way too limited for me. I own an iPhone, and I can't beleive how simplistic it is and how limited that makes it. Honeycomb is both simple and has horizons of potential (No, its not complicated, take 10 minutes to learn Honeycomb). But once again it lacks apps.
Performance is null to me. I mean, get a game for the iPad, and put the same game on a Tegra 2 device, they will perform almost identicly.
Just buy an Acer W500 or msi 110W. I have the Acer, and while its not a screamer of a cpu at 2x 1ghz, it still lays a hurt on the atom cpu's and has integrated GFX but uses alot less power. This machine connects to tv's via HDMI, bluetooth keyboards and mice, SD memory card slot and even has usb ports for a printer, and plays flash. Oh yeah and it runs windows.
Interesting tablet from Toshiba and the pricing is good.
NOT an IT guru here....just an informatics-savvy Nurse who needs a new laptop, but realizes market going to tablet & abandoning laptop architecture...need something easier to carry (than a laptop) & do not want add'l wireless service.
I was one of the 1st home pc users, remembering when a 10 meg hard drive was something special. So, I've obviously witnessed new model pc's become obsolete in 6 mos time d/t advancing technology. I'm sure history will repeat itself with tablets. I could wait a while longer if I knew that a revolutionary design was just around the corner.
But, like many, I've been waiting ~ 6mos for the Toshiba Tablet. $$$ isn't really an issue, since I've had the cost of a Xoom tucked away for a while (almost dove in when the Xoom was being released).
Now, with all this said, if you were in my shoes, would you take the dive now? Or, do you have the inside scoop on some revolutionary, world-changing design that's planned for release in another 6 mos and suggest I wait just a little while longer? Thanks
As long as it runs Android, no thanks. Honeycomb is laggy as molasses.
Great write-up. Check out more on the Toshiba Thrive at http://ThriveForums.com
OK so the big question is.... Is this tablet going to include 3g or 4g? I don't see that anywhere. Would like to have the option of using it away from wifi. I see some folks connect through wireless tethering either through bluetooth or wired tether (without incurring a tethering charge from wireless provider) but I haven't seen anyone saying discussing if that is possible on the toshiba tablet. Anyone know if either 1) 3g will be avaialbe or 2) can do a wireless tether to phone and not need 3g?
all I want is a computer I can rest on my chest while i lay on my bed and surf the web or read .pdf and .mobi books including textbooks wi/pictures. I want infinite zoom for the web and for books. a usb port if what i have been waiting for. why? duh how about if i want to add a keyboard or mouse, or a 1.5 tb ext drive with 200,000 books and movies on it? why is everyone who comments on tablets overlooking these aspects? I already have 3 computers with every app in the world. how many do i need on my little bedroom reader/browser?