Toshiba Thrive 7

Excellent display with high pixel density; good grip and lighter than the Kindle Fire; no annoying UI skin or bloatware

Some laggy performance, especially in the browser; odd camera lens placement and long autofocus; no Micro USB charging

TIMES ARE, LET'S SAY, challenging for anyone who makes a 7-inch tablet but doesn't also own some type of bookstore. The Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet could look the Thrive 7" square in the eye and say, "You're good, kid, but as long as we're around,...

High-res display ; Great size, easy to hold

Exceptionally short battery life ; Cheap build quality ; Similarly priced tablets are faster ; Taking photos is a slowgoing process

Thanks to its short battery life and chintzy build quality, the Thrive 7" is bested by other tablets in its price range, and even some budget models.

High resolution, 7-inch display ; Good port selection for the size ; Nice size and form factor

Poorly made, plastic creaks ; Can get very sluggish ; Less than five hours of battery life ; Camera placement makes no sense

A good display isn't enough to make this tablet a good choice

The 7-inch, dual-core Thrive’s sharp 1280-by-800, 225-ppi display renders text beautifully, and it’s a promising smaller-size tablet for anyone who wants expansion options. It offers Micro-USB and Micro HDMI ports, as well as a MicroSD slot.

Superb 1280-by-800-pixel display. Stable performance

Inaccurate touch input. Disappointing battery life

The Toshiba Thrive 7 is an average tablet with a great screen, but its poor battery life and lack of compelling features make it hard to justify choosing it over some of the better 7-inch tablets out there.

Great size/comfortable in the hand ; Brilliant screen with high pixel density ; Very responsive

Lost all of its full-sized ports ; No more removable back cover and interchangeable batteries ; Tough price point, especially for 32GB of internal memory

When it comes down to it, the 7-inch Thrive is a solid, albeit hefty, little Android tablet. Even without the full-sized ports, there’s still quite a bit of connectivity there and we saw perfectly acceptable performance the whole time. However, the...

Strong performance ; Beautiful high-res display ; Light and comfortable to hold

Pricey for the screen size ; Few specialty apps or interface enhancements ; Poor sound quality

This well-built, compact tablet has an exceptional screen and runs well. Its high price for the size and a lack of special features will dissuade some buyers, however.