The good
Compact – it’s a little thicker than other 7-8 inch tablets,
but it is a good size for one handed use, with enough bezel surrounding the
screen to get a secure grip. And as far as full computers go, this is probably
as compact as you want to get and still have a useable experience.
Win 8.1 allows split screen multitasking on smaller devices
– prior to the point upgrade, win 8 required a minimum resolution for the dual
screen multitasking ability (1366x768), which would rule out this device.
Fortunately with 8.1 you can now get that feature is the smaller screen
resolutions such as 1280x800, and it is quite handy, with most if not all tile
interface apps I’ve tested working well.
Battery life – I haven’t performed any testing, but in my
general use (youtube videos on one pane, twitter/browser on the other) battery
drain has not been alarming, and I haven’t had a low battery warning yet – once
I’ve drained the battery up to about 20%, I’ll be testing the recharge rate as
well.
Micro HDMI port – as nice as having a computer that is
portable is, I appreciate the option to be able to connect it to a larger
screen if the need arose. Certainly if I was going to be doing lots of text
entry on the supplied (and full) copy of MS Office 2013, I would find the
experience a lot more pleasant on a larger screen, especially since the
on-screen keyboard effectively halves the viewable screen in landscape, and
takes up approx.. a third of the screen in portrait.
SD card – Although the Encore does come in 32Gb and 64Gb
sizes, only the former was available in stores at the time, and the only one to
come under the $400 mark. Out of the box 13Gb are available for use, so having
a microSD slot for storing media and larger files is a good feature to have,
leaving the built in storage for apps.
Price – as alluded to above, the 32Gb model I bought came in
under the $400 mark, which brings it into the realm of the ARM based tablets.
Plus, with the promotion that Dick Smith was running at the time, it came with
a $50 gift card which clinched the deal for me.
Performance of new atom processor – Apart from this device,
I also have the Acer W510, a 10 inch tablet running the previous gen atom
(clover trail) processor, which was no number crunching powerhouse, but was
adequate for everything I threw at it. Running the Geekbench 3 benchmark
software, the performance of the Encore returned a score of ~2600, which was
over twice the score of the W510 (~1100)…so based on this, I shouldn’t have any
issues with getting things done on this device, which aligns with my current
experience.
USB port – although it requires an OTG cable to convert the
microUSB port to a full size USB 2.0 port, it allows for accessing files in USB
flash drives, and even outputs enough power to be able to run external portable
drives (something which is not possible on its nearest rival, the Dell Venue
Pro 8)
The bad
Build quality – maybe I’ve been spoilt by products such as
the iPad mini and the current Nexus 7 (which hovers around the same price
range), but the Toshiba just doesn’t look and feel as well put together, with
uneven gaps in the seams between the plastic silver plastic trim around the
screen and the plastic silver back, and noticeable creaking of the device when
I pick it up. If you want to compare like for like, the identically spec’d and
priced Dell Venue Pro 8 feels a lot more solid, using better feeling materials,
and more in line with the other competing tablets in its price range.
Above: Uneven seam between plastic frame around screen and rest of chassis (red arrow) |
Windows Key only works in portrait – The location of the
capacitive Windows key on the bezel is on one of the shorter sides, and along
with the orientation of it and the Toshiba branding implies that the tablet is
intended to be used primarily in portrait mode. Indeed, if you did use the
tablet in landscape, your thumb inevitably rests near/on the Win key, so in
that way it makes sense that Toshiba would disable the key in that orientation.
Unfortunately, the tablet seems to be inconsistent in when it disables this
key, which makes it feel more like the key is broken. It’s almost as if the win
key uses a different accelerometer to the OS, or perhaps has a lower threshold
for determining when the tablet is in portrait/landscape. I’m hoping this can
be resolved by a software update, or at the very least, provide the option to
always have the win key permanently on or off. (Update - I don't think any disabling of the capacitive windows key when in landscape actually occurs, I think that there might be something wrong with my device)
Charges via same microUSB port as for USB input – This is
probably not that much of an issue for the main use case for this device (ie as
a standalone tablet), but if one were to “dock” the device to a screen and an
external keyboard and mouse, then you wouldn’t be able to do that AND keep the
device powered. Again, the solid battery life promised by Toshiba and the power
efficient next gen atom processor possibly makes this issue moot, but it is
something to think about.
Speaker is a bit weak – Two speaker holes are present on the
“bottom” (in portrait mode), and are adequate for watching YouTube videos in a
quiet room, but struggle with distortion at higher volumes when you want to be
able to watch videos while having the tablet on a stand.
Key Win 8.1 feature doesn’t work in portrait – what I mean
by that is that the killer feature of Win 8 (multi-screen multitasking) is
disabled in portrait mode. Furthermore, if you switch to landscape mode, snap
two screens/apps together and switch to portrait mode, the screen simply
refuses to reorient – which caused me to check more than once that I haven’t
accidentally engaged the orientation lock. Now I’m no UI expert, but not having
a visual queue to tell me that the tablet has acknowledged but actively
ignoring the request to reorient the screen just makes me think that something
is wrong.
Overall, I’m actually quite happy with the Encore despite
the bad points I’ve mentioned. For the price, you certainly get a lot of bang
for your buck, since you are getting a full computer for $400, along with a
full copy of MS Office 2013 (home and student) and with performance and battery
life far superior to the netbooks of old.