Gadgetory

now the Toshiba Thrive is what I would consider to be of the Android Honeycomb tablets with NVIDIA Tegra 2 technology sort of a very PC approach to it so instead of going with the elegance over functionality approach of something like an aluminium back which looks great but it's kind of heavy it's not very durable it scratches it looks grungy after a while it looks great when it's new but after that it doesn't the Thrive takes a very practical approach to things that I'll get more into as I proceed with the unboxing so why don't you have a look at the overall spec comes with 16 gigs of storage and it is sure as heck not a hard drive that is solid-state storage you better believe that they didn't ship until Android 3.1 was available so they kind of took the we're not going to ship it until it's perfect approach to the Thrive and that's what they say so why why disagree until I've actually tried tried the device itself all right it has a 10.1 inch multi-touch LED backlit screen that's cool 2 megapixel webcam and 5 megapixel camera alright gyroscope sensor so do they all full-size USB 2.0 port there you go BAM so that is part of what feels very PC about the Thrive to me is that they've gone with like they suck it honestly you can't put a full-size USB port on this because it's too thin so toshiba has compromised that elegance in order to give you that functionality so that's what I mean all right full sized SD card slot BAM once again full size SD card slot so that means you can take the 16 gig you can throw in a big old fat SD card so unlike something like the transformer where you have to plug it into the the add-on keyboard and carry that around with you in order to have a full sized slot you can just throw a full-size SD card in here and yeah I mean and you can carry around the USB key which plenty of people carry around USB keys you can carry pretty much as much storage as you want for the Thrive ok next HDMI port BAM HDMI port so it has all the ports it has all that functionality and we haven't even gotten to what I would consider the most user-friendly thing about the Thrive easy-grip back cover stereo speakers good to know box contents they don't even say it unreal it's not even on the box it has a user replaceable battery I know right what other tablet is going to give you the option to actually keep using it a couple of years down the road when your bad really battery life inevitably starts being terrible you can actually replace it on this guy go figure right okay so let's keep going here QuickStart guide for the Thrive we got the locations of a bunch of stuff some system indicator lights where all the ports are homescreen information basic setup stuff cool how to backup your data this is all good stuff to know we have tablet accessories so you can get a bunch of different color back screams that's really nice that's functional customizable you know now you can tell you know little Johnny's thrive from little Sally's thrive if you have a couple of different tablets in the house which more and more people are starting to get into actually it's got a few other first party accessories here cases the portfolio 360 case and power options Toshiba lithium-ion battery pack replacement or additional battery for the Toshiba tablets so cool right only 89 bucks so you can actually carry an extra battery with you if you're on a long flight like imagine having that option for your iPad let's say they don't have a charger on there what are you gonna do I mean you can carry around those little things but those don't last that long those little external chargers so you can actually carry additional batteries the first thing I do when I got a new camera is I buy extra battery for it because I know I'm gonna need it very convenient information for your tablet device cool one year standard limited warranty for tablet device hey tech stuff comes with $10 of music downloads from me music beep oh my goodness look at all this documentation okay enjoy for free ebooks cool we've made the app world revolve around you to give an app place is the smart way to find the opportunity so they've got their own little custom app market and how to use it cool move drive stickers and finally the thing it all came in alright let's see what else we got down here lots and lots of stuff dump out all the stuff okay first we have an AC power cord then we have an AC AC adapter so there's your charger it's a little on the big side okay and then finally we have a USB to mini-usb cable so that's SATA presumably for data transfer so they'll thrive once again it stays away from that that Apple esque type approach which is create a custom proprietary connector no the Thrive instead uses a standard DC power adapter which you could argue that this is less elegant of course it is but it has that functionality you can replace this very very easily whereas if you're running around the office room I go oh my why iPhones out of battery does anyone have iPhone cable and nobody has one you you're screwed you have to go buy one for like 20 bucks or whatever they cost from the max okay and then for data transfer standard USB cable which means if you lose your Galaxy Tab 10.1 custom dot connector and you need to transfer some data you don't have to do it wirelessly you can still sync things you just grab another USB cable which inevitably you have like you know 20 of them at home if you're anything like me and you've got about 20 of them at home all right now let's have a look at all of the stuff that is labeled on the convenience screen protector that is included they even label where to seal it check that up so stereo speakers you've got one yeah let's get this off okay give me a second this is gonna take me a bit so I left on the front screen cover because it's kind of convenient to have all this stuff labeled for me so the stereo speakers down here at the bottom I'm just gonna show you where those are that's a good location so the Galaxy Tab 10.1 has the speaker's here and here which is also fine because when you're watching movies you're gonna watch them like this so if you have the speaker's anywhere around here or at the back here like the stupid iPad this has its peak they're just like the stupidest place in the world it's not even stereo then you cover it up and you can't even hear your movie so that's that's like ridiculous right so the stereo speakers on the bottom is a pretty good place for them I'm I'm I'm on board with that docking connector at the bottom so apparently it does have a dock connector you just don't have to use it me okay and then you've got a little plastic cover so you can just cover that right up if you don't want to use it great you've also got the AC power part right there along with your headphone and microphone port so that's one of those combo ones alright next you've got a cover here which comes off like that you've got a full-size USB hey full size HDMI full size HDMI I know right and then you've also got any mini USB all right so let's cover that back up we go up here full size SD card slot okay up here screen rotation lock that's actually really good button to have I do use that button this is the only Android 3.1 tablet that I've seen I should say 3.1 I mean who knows what Android we'll be using a year from now and someone watches this video but the only honeycomb tablet that I've seen that has that screen rotation lock I do use it on the iPad 2 so I find that a useful thing to have volume adjust other than being oh I guess it's not really backwards ok so here here's a hint unlike most of the Android tablets that I've looked at so far this is sort of meant to be used in portrait mode like the iPad 2 so you look at the orientation of the button so this is volume up this is volume down whereas on some of the more landscape oriented ones they would have a volume up volume down orientation which would be which would be different so here it's backwards if you're using it in landscape it's up down when you hold it like that ok so just something to bear in mind also on the on the I guess on the right hand side of the tablet since I should hold it the way it's meant to be used we've got our power button and then finally we have a back cover lock oh this takes off the back cover I guess somehow are they like two lakhs for it or something because remember it is it is replaceable so you can you can put on a different color or whatever the case may be if you want you know what I'll figure something I'll figure that out later so again in line with the portrait orientation being the intended usage model the Toshiba logo on the back is in portrait mode so you're holding it like this it's right-side up also the camera is the 5 megapixel camera is here and then the 2 megapixel camera is here along with the microphone input so let's go ahead and pull this off you know what let's do a bit of a form factor comparison give me a sec guys so for comparisons sakes I have the zoom transformer TF 101 iPad 2 and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 here so I want you to actually get get down to their level here and you can clearly see that the Thrive is the thickest tablet on the table so it is thicker than even the transformer in the zoom and significantly thicker actually I should take the iPad 2 and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and put those out in the front significantly thicker than those so that is a bit of a disadvantage in terms of the form factor so it is thick it isn't unreasonably heavy though like it doesn't feel more heavy to wield than something like the zoom although it definitely doesn't even begin to approach something like the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in terms of the lightness so it comes down to what has really been the focus of this unboxing for me which is the function out the form versus functionality argument do you want that full-size USB the full size HDMI and that full-size SD card built right into the tablet or do you want that style