Unboxing the Toshiba Thrive Android 3.1 Tablet

Safari

Yeah, I did it. I picked up the new Toshiba Thrive Android 3.1 Honeycomb Tablet. I’m just starting to check it out, but here is a quick unboxing video. More later…

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About the Author

Dan Cohen
Having a father who was heavily involved in early laser and fiber-optical research, Dan grew up surrounded by technology and gadgets. Dan’s father brought home one of the very first video games when he was young and Dan remembers seeing a “pre-release” touchtone phone. (When he asked his father what the “#” and “*” buttons were his dad said, “Some day, far in the future, we’ll have some use for them.”) Technology seemed to be in Dan’s blood but at some point he took a different path and ended up in the clergy. His passion for technology and gadgets never left him. Dan is married to Raina Goldberg who is also an avid user of Apple products. They live in New Jersey with their golden doodle Nava.

7 Comments on "Unboxing the Toshiba Thrive Android 3.1 Tablet"

  1. tablet2cases | July 11, 2011 at 1:48 pm |

    nice vid dan. i guess the full review will include information on how short it falls when compared to an ipad? 🙂

  2. It is a challenge. You want to look at it in its own right but it is difficult to no constantly do a comparison…

  3. …and in those two comments is the succinct summary of why my time on this site has been steadily dropping to nil over the last year or so. I understand there is some levity in the comments, but the underlying sentiment indicates significant bias existing before the box is even open.

    I like Apple products – they are generally well-designed, and in the case of ipod/ipad, Apple clearly understands the value of infrastructure to support use of the product.

    But they are not the only “good” products out there. There are lots of other solid competing products that deserve a fair and unbiased review; comments of “how short it falls…” and “It is a challenge” during the un-boxing taints the credibility of any final review, for me at least. If you think I’m being too harsh, ask yourself how you would feel if, as a visitor, you saw these same comments related to, say, Ford and Chevy on an auto enthusiast site.

    This site has been part of nine home pages that come up when I start Firefox, almost since this site started. Shame that after tonight it no longer is. Farewell, folks.

  4. mcsouth – you have to ask yourself … when someone says tablet, what does the general public hear and what is meant in 99% of cases? iPad. That isn’t bias, but FACT.

    iPad is THE tablet – everything else has failed to gain traction in any significant way, to the point where Samsung was caught ‘goosing the numbers’ doing the whole sell-in/sell-out obfuscation to inflate poor sales.

    Does that mean other tablets are not useful for many? Not at all – but there is just one tablet after the next that has fallen short of the iPad in significant ways. I mean, I went into a Verizon store intending to buy a Moto Xoom the weekend they launched and instead realized how flawed both the hardware AND OS were, and how fundamentally flawed the whole ‘widescreen tablet’ concept was for general use. I mean, I love my Android phone, but they are clearly struggling with tablets – and consumers are constantly asked to beta test.

    Likewise I love webOS but the devices have been mediocre, and sadly that continues with the TouchPad …

    The reality is that every tablet launches in the shadow of the already almost 6 month old iPad 2. There is no launching in a vacuum – and the entirety of context in tablet space = iPad + failures. That isn’t bias, but reality. Look at the proof – people who think ‘if Moto had just added X feature it would have been an iPad killer’ … they are littering the shelves with unsold units and getting lousy reviews.

  5. I’m going to have to agree with Michael and Dan that the iPad is — at least as of now — the tablet by which all others are judged. And rightly so, because so far (at least in my experience), the others have fallen short.

    Dan and I have purchased and reviewed competing tablets, and we have done our best to switch over to something (anything!) other than an iOS device. But there is always ‘something’ that winds up being the deal-breaker. Sometimes it is a lack of applications, sometimes it is a lack of features, and sometimes it is build-quality. So far there hasn’t been a single tablet that got it as “right” as the iPad has … but that doesn’t mean we are going to give up and quit looking for that tablet.

    So that sense of “wow” that you get when you first open an amazing device, versus the disappointment you get when something isn’t quite as nice as a device you already own? That is a reaction that absolutely belongs in an unboxing video.

    Deciding if the things that attracted you away from your previous device when you first opened the box are really all that great, or deciding after the initial disappointment which compromises you are or aren’t willing to make in order to get away from a device that you already know you like — that is what happens during the review process.

    I don’t want to carry the same thing that everyone else carries. I don’t want to be a “sheep”, but guess what? When it comes to Tablets, other than the HTC Flyer, none that I have tried have even come close to the iPad; I have tried to “settle”, but finally decided that it’s stupid to do that, just so I can be ‘different’. So until something else knocks my socks off, the iPad is the standard by which others are going to be judged. If that makes me, or Dan, or Mike biased, then so be it — but at least we tell you what we are comparing things to right from the start. We don’t have any hidden agenda other than to find the next fab gadget.

    Of course, rather than throw in the towel and tell us that you are leaving because we are biased, why not balance us out and tell us about some of the devices that you like better and why? Or are there any? If not, why?

  6. tablet2cases | July 13, 2011 at 7:17 am |

    maybe its a question of comparing like with like. one of the writers at gizmodo (http://gizmodo.com/5820693/are-tablets-really-pcs-as-microsoft-claimsIpad) had an interesting point that iPad is an oversized smartphone while other tablets are notebook replacements.

    but when 1 company dominates the market to such an extent, its inevitable that comparisons will be made.

  7. I’m really not sure I agree with the Gizmo argument. I think one could say EITHER it is an “oversized smartphone” OR “a laptop replacement” about any tablet at this point. (My iPad easily replaces my iPhone or my notebook on any given day… neither completely hence why I still have all of them but to a huge extent.

    “maybe its a question of comparing like with like.”- It is an interesting point and an argument I often have with my wife who will say about many things “you need to compare apples to apples not oranges”. Here’s where I think that breaks down- most people who go to buy a tablet are going to buy A TABLET. They will choose one and only one. In making the decision they will compare numerous tablets (if they shop smartly) and will look at price, OS, features etc. THEY will compare the iPad to Android Tablets to WebOS and Playbook… the comparisons ARE important and when one company or product has the momentum anything new is going to be compared… and will need to compete so people choose it over the default leader.

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