Today, we have a tablet to review where it positions itself on the king of the ring. How will this device make the cut? Letssee. First off, this is a tablet by Toshiba, called Toshiba Folio, running on Android 2.2 Froyo in built and it comes with Toshiba’s Software Updater in built in the device. It features an NVIDIA Tegra 2 Graphic Chip for image processing. 10.1 Inch display, 1024 x 600 capacitive touch display, 512MB RAM, 16GB SSD, n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 1.3MP webcam, 7 hour battery and Android 2.2.USB 2.0, mini USB, audio jacks, HDMI and card reader. So thats much it for the highlights. Lets start off with the Hardware review and lets take a look into the physical features. The front of the tablet is a nice 10.1 inch screen, its capacitive,
similar to the iPhone, Pinch to Zoom enabled (Through a software upgrade), However, it doesn’t feature an edge to edgescreen which make it looks quite bare, and it collects fingerprints easily.
On the back is a big Toshiba branding and it comes with a small piece of NVIDIA sticker attached.
When the device is opened, a battery compartment can be seen, in fact, there is a Sim Card slot in the device which have been sealed too. The battery is not exactly very big considering that it is quite slim.
The carrying case given by Toshiba is sturdy and hard, it looks like it could resist a drop or 2 but it is quite bulky. But hey, its almost bulletproof protection.
The screen is bright and nicely lit, the auto brightness worked well. However, the viewing angles is really bad, to use the device properly, you must position the device to your eye level to use it. If you tilt it slightly the words will be really unclear and you can’t see much on the device anymore. So it would be good if this can be worked on. Other than that, the screen is sharp, and there is no obvious sign of ghosting and flickering.
On the front, it contains 4 touch sensitive keys. Primarily for the (Top to bottom) Srearch, Back, Home and Menu (Options).
The buttons would actually light up when you click on them.
On the side of the device (If you hold it in landscape) or the top of the device (If you hold it in Portrait mode), you would definitely get to see a lock switch, I would say that the plastic switch feels a bit cheap, and the sliding mechanic isn’t really very smooth, but its reasonable.
When we talk about docking, this is their propreitary dock connector. No comments about it as there is no international standard for it yet. It seems that my package did not come with a dock, I think that could be bought seperately though.
The only bet for the status of this device is a small LED light located at the top right of the screen, it is not exactly very bright, but its visible in a well lit room, but doesnt reflect well at all outdoors. I feel that it could be better positioned, probably at the side of the device so it could be seen easily in the bag or something like that. Nevertheless, the LED indicator really indicates the device status from charging to standby and to sleep.
A 1.3MP camera is available, but its not exactly the best camera yet, its only good for video calling or taking images of yourself for fun. Other than that you can forget about it. Images looked washed out and colour details is not really there at all. I believe it would be good for Toshiba if they ended a rear camera as well, which the device lack.
I am impressed for the connectivity of the device, it comes with a adaptor to charge the device (Although I have to say that the adaptor is really bulky, its like the laptop type of adaptor), and the charging port is the most extremely left of the photo (With one small stick at the centre of the port). I am particularly pleased with the HDMI and the standards compliant MiniUSB port for transferring data to the computer. SD card slot is welcomed as well, in fact that is one good selling point of the device.
There is two small speakers at the bottom left and right of the device. It is quite an interesting pair of speakers as the sound quality is average. The clearity is there, but it would get muffled when the volume increases. The volume is not enough for a few people to hear, but personal entertainment should be okay. The speakers should be looked into.
An acclerometer is included to change the screen orientation, which only works on one landscape side only and portrait. A 3-gyro accelerometer (Gravity Detection) could be added as well, but it might cost slightly more to the manufacturer which might be transferred to the end user. However this tablet’s offering for this price range is already considered as a high end computing device.
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Lets move to the software, lets see how an extra graphics processor will value-add to the device.
This Toshiba Folio is running on Android 2.2 and its heavily skinned and running on its on Toshiba Launcher. The software that Toshiba have modified slowed down at times especially when opening and closing the app drawer frequently. The app sections at the bottom which is to split between Settings, Widgets and Apps is slow to respond to my touches and it is quite frustrating as the hit area is quite small, especially with the carrying case given by Toshiba.
When navigating between applications (Sliding between the first page of apps to the next page), it was again slow to respond to my touches as compared to the stock Android launcher. However, it is really touch friendly, we could access to any option easily with no trouble. My friend have no issue using the device even though he have no prior experience of using and owning an Android tablet.
An upside is the smoothness of the Live Wallpapers of the device (Which is like interactive wallpapers, wallpapers responding to your touch), it must be due to the NVIDIA graphics processing chip.
Do note that you do not get any of the stock Google apps like Gmail, Market, Maps, Car Home, Voice Search and etc. Which is really a let down for such a device. Cutting off Market is already a lost of almost 100,000 apps to the customer with no software add on’s, let alone email features and services provided by Google. Toshiba however tried to make up with their own (Not very good, really) app store.
However, technical users could hack in Market and other Google based features in the device with aftermarket custom firmwares, some examples include Cyanogenmod or Folio or the XDA-Developers community.
The keyboard is an unmodified Android keyboard, which is stretched vertically for the tablet which makes it really hard to use, we have to hit a key at least twice or thrice to get it correct. It was a frustrating and wailing experience using the on screen keyboard to input text. Toshiba really need to look into this (Strong emphasis), as it took us quite some time to type out a sentence as we kept hitting the wrong words on the keyboard. The bad viewing angles on the LCD display made it much worst.
After conclusive test, the battery life of the device could barely even hit 7 hours as claimed by the manufacturer (Toshiba), we only managed to hit about 5 hours on the device leaving wifi on and doing some basic web surfing and listening to some music on the device. It would be good if Toshiba could increase the battery life especially competing devices such as the iPad have a rated 10 hours battery life.
The USB port is quick to transfer my files and folders to and fro from the device, the SD card slot is also very responsive, with no lag when using Toshiba’s built in File manager. The HDMI port is able to display out vivid colours and the display is acceptable.
The built in Toshiba Media Centre is touch friendly, and do not suffer from obvious slow-down and really user friendly (Can’t fail to emphasize), whatever files and videos we copied to the SD card played like a charm and it looked like a real media centre. The media centre did not took long to detect the files that we copied to the device.
Included in the Toshiba Tablet is 2 different browsers, one of which is the Opera Mobile browser, which looks stretched on the device. However the experience online is quite smooth and the rendering of the web is really quick.
The stock Android Webkit browser is really interesting and it’s really lightning fast when we surfed the internet. We had a great time enjoying content online. Especially with the large screen in place and the lightning quick rendering of webpages on the device. We can’t fail to emphasize such a beautiful online experience.
The Toshiba File Manager allows the user to copy and paste a file from one place to another, from the internal 16GB storage to the SD card and the USB port, it is really outstanding that Toshiba actually made this software specially for it. Thumbs up. No slowdowns or major flaws in this file manager app in the tablet.
The portrait camera is so-so, the image quality is covered earlier. Toshiba used the default Android camera, and it includes the normal features like resolution, colour settings, ISO and such. Nothing too big or a difference. Again, a rear camera, come on.
A big letdown is the lack of flash on the device, which it initially promised. No not there, and if you remember, there is no Google Applications installed in the device, means there is no Market to get the YouTube app and there is no preinstalled YouTube. Bummer. Completely no YouTube for you! Too bad! However, a long way around it is to download the vieos online and transfer it to the device. (Toshiba, look into this)
Ah, one good feature, their in built sotware updater, the Toshiba Service Station which could be used to update the software seems really good and easy to use. It took me about 35 minutes to upgrade the software before I did this review. The upgrade did help to fix some of the slowness and slug that I was encountering, but the update didn’t do much to justify the interface slowdowns.
The stock Android Gallery app is fast to respond to all my touches and the rendering of the images is almost sub instant. Making it one of the most responsive tablets I see in terms of image processing (Not too much of the user interface). The pictures which was taken by the built in camera and transferring images to view them was a breeze. A good photo gallery to use.
Preinstalled in the device is Singleclick Connect which is a remote desktop solution used for controlling and accessing a computer without you being physically there. You could also use it to obtain access to your documents on the remote desktop.
Although its useful only in times of need, its good that they actually included it free of charge. Luckily, it is not a bloatware, like a 30 day trial or something like that which is really annoying to users.
The Settings menu is nothing too special, the stock Android default settings screen which is easy to use and intuitive, which Google have done a good job in.
The device is overall a good attempt of Toshiba’s entrance to the tablet market, especially in the Android platform. There is still lots of room for improvement in the product. It should actually consider about many factors before rushing out a tablet before the holiday season. Users should weigh carefully before buying the tablet. Nevertheless, the graphics is unbeatable for such a small tablet.
A side by side comparison to the iPad size. A smaller but taller screen makes it easy to play videos on the Folio. However the lack of features and access to Google’s Applications such as the Market, Gmail and YouTube is a bummer for the device, the battery life isn’t all that fantastic. To round up, its a good hit for Toshiba on the Android tablet market, more customized applications with sleek and quick user interface have to happen, Flash 10 was promised but not delivered well. A basic tablet for a heavy price good for in house entertainment.
PS:
I managed to hack Angry Birds in. Look at the textures rendering, it is truly amazing, don’t you think so?
J.
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Jeremy Goh
Jeremy is a friendly geek with a passion for Social Media and all things Technology/Design. When he is not obsessed with anything tech related, you can catch him emceeing, speaking in public or at Toastmasters, playing a quick game and coming out with some killer ideas! And yes, I offer Social Media Consultancy and Branding services. (more..)
