Hands on to Toshiba Thrive 7 Tablet – Review

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Toshiba Thrive is one of the decent tablet nothing really great. Well the question is that is it the greatest 7-inch tablet around? It is clearly not the most preferred most people, maybe till you don’t really require HDMI & miniUSB.

This doesn’t even seem like a question to be raised. When you have options of cheap 7″ inches devices like $200 Kindle Fire & $250 NOOK Tablet in the market, Thrive 7′s $380 the starting range is same like that of 10.01 original Thrive, which is one major stuff that is going to reduce the number of its customers, irrespective of its advantages.

Price: $380 ($430 for 32GB)

Availability: December 14th

Specifications:-

• 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor
• 7″ LCD display (1280×800 – 216DPI)
• 1GB RAM
• 16GB storage (approximately 13GB usable)
• microSD card slot
• miniUSB port
• microHDMI port
• Bluetooth 2.1
• Android 3.2 Honeycomb (stock)
• 15Wh battery / 6 hours claimed battery life
• 5MP rear camera, 2MP front camera
• Weight: 376 grams (0.83lbs)
• Thickness: 12mm (throughout)

Pros

• This Thrive 7 is slimmer, very light in weight, & sturdy in comparison to the previous Thrive, one that was cheaper & delicate.
• The combination of 7-inch with 1280×800 resolution is a very deadly one, & when the display is concerned It is really good.
• Even you will see old gripping rubber backs the previous Thrive is still there, & it is as gripping as before.
• This Thrive 7 which is 3mm slimmer in comparison to the previous Thrive, giving it a very convenient device to be handled.
• This Thrive 7 even now includes the choices for ports, consisting of miniUSB & microHDMI, and so does the microSDHC slot, & channels your laptop-style AC recharging port which favors the better multi-pin to USB connector.

Cons

• This Tegra 2 has started displaying to ware off, & in comparison to better tabs such as Samsung  Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, Thrive 7 is very evidently slow and weak as well.
• If you see the Battery backup is one of the best – but do not anticipate that it will stay till 4 hours of extensive use.
• The previous Thrive has a full-sized USB, HDMI, & SD slots are not there anymore, & even the detachable battery has been reduced. Obviously the economized substitutes are still there.
• It seems that the touchscreen firmware issues exist even now.
• This is a small complaint, though power, volume, & screen lock controls lie on the left hand side of the tab which is kind of awkward.

Design & Build Quality

The moment you take a view of Thrive 7, the first thing that comes to your head is “Aww, what a cute Thrive.” Which obviously doesn’t look the same? Whenever you get your hands on the tab Thrive 7, in comparison to the previous on it’s a complete different device.

Since the detachable the back-end cover that staged your 1st Thrive detachable battery now no more exists, and the complete device looks sturdy. The old school days are far behind where flex & squeaking problems were seen in the previous one. Rather it is one which is strong and accommodates everything in proper arrangement. You will see that the cover of port also seems to be nice & appears also good. Upgrades have been done when power, volume, & screen lock controls are concerned.

This grippy, and non-flexible of the backend cover is certainly better than the previous one.  One feels like holding the tab for its looks in comparison to its competitors having more slippery kind of texture which makes the users less confident about their device.

While I talk more about the Tab & and say words in its praise, I wish to bring to the readers notice that though Thrive 7 looks significantly better in terms of built and looks in comparison to the first Tab but Tab7 is not as strong as compared to Samsung Tabs, one among them being Samsung Tab 7.0 Plus which is Thrive 7′s one of the biggest competitor.

Thrive 7 if seen is very clearly thicker relatively to a Tab (12mm in contrast to 9.9), for me it seems a good move from their side as it makes it easy to handle and easy to hold. On one hand it is popular that slimmer is better for the high end tech handhelds; on the other it is also important for a device to have some weight.

Hardware & Performance

Like you might have observed given conditions, that Thrive 7 encourages NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core chipset being the 1st and only Thrive so far. Where Tegra 2 is certainly even now one useful processing option on tab, it looks like Toshiba might have entered within the orbit of useful. Thrive 7, which is when weighed against some tab like your Tab 7.0 Plus , seems very evidently slow. It could be shifting from home screens to home screens, application drawer, & browser, it takes a lot of time and is relatively slower.

GLBenchmark centers all its energies on multimedia & graphics giving, hence it is certainly a very good point of gaming reference & HD video playback functions, and so does for either UI activities which require the hardware acceleration. Here we will notice one more time, that Thrive 7′s Tegra 2 processor is simply not really cutting it in comparison to the latest chipsets (Amazon’s Kindle Fire is using the Texas Instruments dual-core processor, Tab 7.0 Plus is using Samsung’s Exynos).

In case the raw processing horsepower was not always the obvious choice for Thrive 7′s big draw though when you talk as a hardcore performer, having Tegra 3 & Qualcomm quad-core tabs on horizon, half a year from hear on Thrive 7 might not be even ready for playing some high class games.

Of course, if you plan on using it primarily as an eReader and productivity device, these results are of a lesser, though still material, concern.

Now I would like to talk about the connectivity aspects Thrive 7′s considerably low performance is due to its connectivity issues. The first Thrive included full-sized USB, HDMI, and a miniUSB ports, besides a complete-sized SD card slot & one 20-pin docking port. As well as a laptop-style A/C recharge port –according to me it is not necessary, when it already comes with a docking port. Though now they have decided to reduce Thrive 7′s starting with eliminating the full-sized USB & HDMI ports, and also SD card slot.
Although the miniUSB port stays, whereas HDMI port has been switched to a microHDMI, & SD slot has reduced down to a more Android-needed microSD. I do not possess any microHDMI cable, & I was not even going to buy one that to for the sake of this review, henceforth HDMI performance has not been tested. Thrive 7 at this point of time comes with one 20-pin docking connecting device to USB cable & A/C wall adapter for the purpose of pushing up, one important change marked from the first’s solution. Toshiba’s nifty tabbed File Manager app from the first Thrive is back, allowing one to change conveniently in between the USB, SD, & locations of internal storage.

Dual speakers of Thrive 7 placed at the edge of tab come along with SRS sound improvement software and that is honestly making the sounds from the speakers don’t work that well. They are small, slim and give you an experience of some cheap sound coming from cheap system. Even the output volume from headphones is considerably less, and this could be really annoying at times.

One more time, it is very confusing; Toshiba has arranged Thrive 7 with a very active power-on LED. It is not a laptop, friends, & I am not even confident about that tiny light if it would serve any purpose.

Software

The Toshiba has made certain amendments for differentiating Thrive 7 when the software is concerned. In reality, it is quite exactly the same know how you will get from any type of “vanilla” Honeycomb 3.2 tab related to this. Honeycomb is not that bad; this functions well, though it even then is a problematic monstrous device. Despite of that I have since long time preferred Honeycomb UI & various amendments  that were made over the Android’s older versions, & an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade is possible to be among Thrive 7 cards (although there hasn’t been anything said from Toshiba sources). Which moment?

Like I stated before, you will get your hands on the Toshiba’s nifty File Manager app, and so does the few audio & video “enhancement” choices (although all those do not seem to be of any help) under menu of Settings. There are some games & few Toshiba applications & eBook installs stuffs, and also there is no necessary reasons why one should have their look.

The major issues of software Thrive 7, is application’s suitability. There are some applications games, need updates for working in fresh devices, & 7″ tablets involving Android 3.2 actually are a latest concept, which actually means that few developers have not really reached there till now. Amazon’s Kindle application, like, was recorded as unsuitable in Android Market for Thrive 7 (which is quite strange as it did work for Amazon Appstore, but certainly it’s little problematic.

There are some major problems for the domestic devices like we have Thrive 7 – in case the developers are required to maintain their apps for working in accord with one device which could result reaching very small group of people, few applications can sometimes end up being as unsuccessful in compatibility. Like always games are the major player but I doubt the support of Thrive 7.

Display & Battery Backup

Indeed Thrive 7′s display is undoubtedly beautiful. Even the 1280×800 resolution blends beautifully with the 7″ tablet, & also places the tab at very a high position. Even the Text is smooth and sharp, web pages appear to be goo as well, and images very precise & complete Honeycomb UI simply comes across as amazing. But one issue that I hold against the Tab 7.0 Plus is that it is comparatively less in the pixel density which makes it hard to accommodate content onto its screen, one problem which even Thrive 7 doesn’t contain. Even the angles of Viewing are very prominently better in Thrive 7, having maintained brightness & color misrepresentation. The Screen glare too has been decreased from the original Thrive.

Though, it still is not flawless. Thrive 7′s display does not reach the heights of brightness, which means that reading in sunlight might be a tough task until you change the settings are adjusted to high brightness and still for some may not be quite satisfactory. At one point where you have more pixels, you are even then restricted to 5×6 icon arrangement on every homescreen.

The list doesn’t end here the display has another problem, which is in concern to the touch department. At times, Thrive 7′s display doesn’t give responses to its touch input. This occurs most of the time with lockscreen & the buttons of the software function. The buttons can be really frustrating sometimes – back & home buttons won’t react to any sort of input until when display is switched on and off one more time. You will find the same response from even its clock & settings area which is available in tab’s right. Toshiba should have taken care of this even before launching. As the problem may exist in the firmware of device, and this almost looks impossible that Toshiba to have not tweaked the software, for fixing the same.

Battery life is, sadly, disappointing. To start on a positive note, standby time has been greatly improved from the original Thrive, which I found would often run itself out of juice relatively quickly when it sat unused for a couple of days. The Thrive 7 seems to hold a charge much better, lasting 2-3 days with no significant drain on the battery (maybe 10-15%). Unfortunately, it’s downhill from there. The Thrive 7′s claimed battery life is a mere 6 hours (so, expect up to 6 hours of 720p video playback at moderate brightness). If you start playing a CPU-intensive game like Dungeon Defenders, you’ll be out of a juice in half that time. Crank up the brightness? Even less. For web browsing and such, you’ll get more, but I wouldn’t expect much beyond 4 hours. For eReading at low brightness, you’ll more easily get to those 6 hours. But otherwise, it really is that bad.

Camera

Thrive has camera which is bad as you will find in other reviews but also its not that great either. Your work is sorted and when at the range of 5MP, it is enough when Facebook & shots for other social networking sites are concerned.Front camera comes across as decent on the display, but a 2MP sensor isn’t going to give you a lot in the first place.

Final Words

This Thrive 7 can be seen as major advancement over the first effort that Toshiba made towards the Honeycomb tab, yet it all looks as if they haven’t got it right. It is sort of out dated processor, a very weak battery backup, & the $380 point where price is quoted is a list of few significant limitations which can’ t be ignored when we consider the Thrive 7′s and it’s relative connectivity attributes, particularly at the time where they do not go well with the first Thrive. When there are options like Kindle Fire & NOOK Tablet providing better functionality at really less prices you have Thrive 7 which is quoted at such high prices that completely unjustified the cost Thrive which is not as efficient as its competitors.

Also towards the end I would like to bring to the notice that a lot of people believe that that in case you have loved the first Thrive, you’ are going to love Thrive 7 as well. If you ask me I don’t buy such statements unless there is any sort of significant increase and advancement brought in it in terms of performance.

And in case you all are scouting for one tab which is a 7-incher form factor, then there is no two way about it that those who are budget bound will definitely prefer a Kindle Fire or NOOK Table and those not driven by price are certainly going to stick to Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, or could be anticipating the launch of the 7.7. All I have to say about the Thrive 7 is that it’s a fine deal brought to us by Toshiba, though is analysed it is not really good enough to compete with other leading tabs in the market.

Via