The Thrive has specs pretty much the same as all the other Android tablets of the same generation. It has a 1GHz dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 CPU, a 10.1? 1280×800 display, 1GB RAM, 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth, 5MP rear camera, 2MP front camera, 32GB of built-in storage, etc. It is a little bulkier than the other tablets – but that is due to its unique features. The back cover of the tablet is removable and swappable for different colors, though the main reason it is removable is to allow the battery to be swapped. This is the only Android tablet I’m aware of with a removable battery.

The bulk is also due in part to the inclusion of full size ports. While other tablets may have microUSB, microHDMI, microSD – or may even lack some or all of these features entirely, relying solely on a proprietary connector – the Thrive has a full size USB port, a full size HDMI port, a full size SD slot, and a miniUSB port, in addition to a docking connector. The inclusion of full size ports allows you to use standard cables, and to connect standard USB input devices (keyboard & mouse) if you wish. Connect a keyboard and mouse to the USB port (using a USB hub if you need to), and connect the HDMI to an external display, and you can use the Thrive like a desktop machine.

The 32GB Toshiba Thrive sells new for $479.99 at Amazon, so this is a pretty good deal.

The Thrive has specs pretty much the same as all the other Android tablets of the same generation. It has a 1GHz dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 CPU, a 10.1″ 1280×800 display, 1GB RAM, 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth, 5MP rear camera, 2MP front camera, 16GB of built-in storage, etc. It is a little bulkier than the other tablets – but that is due to its unique features. The back cover of the tablet is removable and swappable for different colors, though the main reason it is removable is to allow the battery to be swapped. This is the only Android tablet I’m aware of with a removable battery.

The bulk is also due in part to the inclusion of full size ports. While other tablets may have microUSB, microHDMI, microSD – or may even lack some or all of these features entirely, relying solely on a proprietary connector – the Thrive has a full size USB port, a full size HDMI port, a full size SD slot, and a miniUSB port, in addition to a docking connector. The inclusion of full size ports allows you to use standard cables, and to connect standard USB input devices (keyboard & mouse) if you wish. Connect a keyboard and mouse to the USB port (using a USB hub if you need to), and connect the HDMI to an external display, and you can use the Thrive like a desktop machine.

The 16GB Toshiba Thrive sells new for $399.98 at Amazon, so this is a pretty good deal.

The review is perhaps the most thorough I’ve seen to date, and well documented in photos and video as well. If you’ve been thinking about the Thrive, Brad’s review really covers all of the high, and low, points of the tablet. It is generally favorable, but as we’ve seen with other reviews, whether or not the Thrive is right for you really comes down to size & weight vs. expansion. If the full size ports are useful to you – easy connection to external displays via full size HDMI, the ability to use full size SD cards up to 128GB, connecting USB drives, and USB HID devices (keyboards & mice). With a USB hub you can connect a keyboard, mouse, and external drive, and practically turn it into a PC. The trade off is, of course, a tablet that is physically larger and heavier than its peers. So you have to weigh the options – maybe literally.

Read his full review.

Inevitably, whenever a new tablet comes out, we find ourselves asking, “Why would you choose this over everything else?” And to be honest, in a marketplace with so many forgettable options it’s not always an easy question to answer. In the case of the Thrive, at least, you’ve potentially got enough built-in reasons to count on both hands. It’s got full-sized USB and HDMI ports, not to mention an SDXC slot allowing you to make good use of one of the memory cards you’ve no doubt accumulated over the years. It comes with lots of useful apps — some of which cost money — which means if you’ll be up and running immediately (and so will any low-tech person you give this to as a gift). It runs Android 3.1 at a time when most tabs don’t. Oh, and it’s priced to sell. It starts at $429 for 8GB, making it stand out in a market that absolutely does not need another $500 or $600 slate. We say, get the 8GB version, pair it with an old SD card, and have yourself a party.

So if the features unique to the Thrive are useful to you, it isn’t a bad choice. But if not, there are slimmer, sleeker tablets with longer battery life that are probably better choices. Read the full review for all of the facts.

How things can change in a year.

For the second quarter of 2011 the iPad’s share of the market dropped to 61.3%, while Android tablets had clawed their way up to claim 30% of tablet sales. You might’ve noticed that, jointly, they claimed 91.3% this year – but 96.9% last year. So where did the rest go? Well, coming in at number three, Windows tablets claimed 4.6%. Yes, Windows tablets. What about RIM’s PlayBook, which launched during the quarter? It managed a measly 3.3%. These figures are according to a study by market research firm Strategy Analytics.

We’ll have to see how they all fair this quarter, and we have a new entrant in the fight, the HP WebOS Touchpad. But the wave of Android tablets also continues to build. The best selling Android tablet, and second best selling tablet overall, the Asus Eee Pad Transformer could’ve sold even more if not for supply issues. Asus seems to have ironed out the issues, and the supply of Transformers has already begun ramping up and will continue to do so. The T-Mobile G-Slate (aka LG Optimus Pad) shipped just before the end of the last quarter. The Toshiba Thrive has just launched.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 is slated to launch next month, sliding in between the 7 and 10.1 inch models, giving consumers more choice. Lenovo has just announced the IdeaPad K1, aimed at consumers, and the ThinkPad Tablet, which is aimed more toward business users – right at the RIM PlayBook. The delayed Cisco Cius, also aimed at businesses, will ship at the end of the month. Archos has a couple of models pending, Vizio has their tablet, etc.

The reality seems very different from the impression you’d get reading articles about the tablet market. From the articles you’d think that everyone wants an iPad and no one is buying anything else. Sales of Android tablets have been weak, makers are even considering pulling out of the market, it is all doom and gloom. Android Honeycomb, the first version of Android optimized for tablets, only released in late February with the Motorola Xoom. That’s when the Android tablet market kicked off for real.

Remember how dismissive articles about Android phones were in 2009 – right up until the Motorola Droid hit the streets with Android 2.0? In the year and a half since then which mobile OS has taken the top spot in sales? It’s been less than five months since Honeycomb hit the streets. 30% of the global tablet market. Let’s see what things look like at the end of the year, by which time Ice Cream Sandwich will be out too.

Report figures via Boy Genius Report.

Edit: He’s posted a blog entry related to the video now too.

Do I want a tablet that’s more like a PC? No. Especially not when “more like a PC” includes pre-loading my device with piles of bloatware that I’ll never use, proprietary crapps that I can’t delete. I do not want to visit your App Place, Toshiba, or your Book Place or any Place you want to take me. I don’t get in cars with strangers. The display? Your scan lines are showing. Do I mention its fatty, awkward size and the shape? Thrive feels like you’re holding a GoKart steering wheel. If this is what it takes to get MiniUSB on a tablet, I’ll pass on the MiniUSB.

I think they’re overly harsh, frankly, and the other reviews are more balanced. But it doesn’t matter too much to me, I’ve pretty much decided to go with the Asus Eee Pad Transformer. I’d already decided to go with that when the Thrive caught my eye, but I think the Transformer is what I really want.

Ars Technica has busted out a review of the Toshiba Thrive Android Tablet which comes across as generally favorable. I recommend reading the full review, and watching the video below, but as they summarize at the end of their review:

The Good

• Hardware runs Honeycomb 3.1 well, with no skinning or annoyances
• The array of full-sized ports makes connecting your Thrive to existing devices a snap
• SD card slot makes expanding the Thrive’s memory easy, not to mention it’s simple to move files to the hardware
• The File Manager gives you a lot of control over the content on your device, including the ability to cut, copy, delete, and launch files at will
• The battery gives you 7+ hours of heavy use, and can be removed and replaced easily by the user
• Ribbed plastic back is comfortable to hold

The Bad

• No support for 3G or 4G connectivity
• Thicker and heavier than its competitors
• Toshiba’s built-in apps are either demos or nearly useless, and can’t be removed without rooting
• The built-in cameras are nice for candid snaps or video calls using Google Talk, but won’t replace your dedicated camera
• The back panel is tricky to remove without using a wince-inducing level of force
• The volume and power buttons on the side of the unit can be hard to hit
• The LED lights on the unit’s face are annoying
• The rear camera’s placement makes it easy to cover the lens when you’re holding the tablet in landscape view
• The interface can be jerky on occasion, and is much less smooth than what we’re used to from the iPad

The Ugly

• The fact that a SD card slot is such a major selling point. C’mon, everyone else, catch up.

Verdict: Buy

As I’ve said before, I’m torn between the Toshiba Thrive and the Asus Eee Pad Transformer, and I still haven’t made up my mind. They both have some very appealing features.

No, I haven’t lost it, product names have just gotten a bit silly. I’m talking about Android tablets. Let me say right now that I’m both a user and fan of Android. I picked up an original Droid at launch and that’s what I’m still using – albeit rooted and running Cyanogenmod 7.1-RC1. It isn’t a religious war for me – iOS and WebOS are fine operating systems. (I’ve never played with the QNX-based TabletOS RIM is using on the Playbook, but I have used Blackberry OS and actively dislike it.) But I have a decent investment in Android apps (yes, I pay for apps – the stereotype that Android users don’t buy apps really bugs me), and it just doesn’t make sense to me to use another OS on a tablet. Plus I just plain like Android so why switch? So don’t suggest the iPad, etc. Thanks.

Anyway, I decided a while ago to get an Android tablet, but to wait for Android 3.x Honeycomb. I don’t have a pressing need for one, mainly technolust for a new toy, so there was no reason to rush out and buy one. I decided not to pick up a Motorola Xoom because I tend to avoid the first in any product family to let them work out the bugs, and the pricing was kind of high. I also figured there would be interesting options coming later – and I was right, there are. A friend of mine has a Xoom and I’ve played with it. It is nice, but I still think some of the newer options are better.

So now the Asus Eee Pad Transformer, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, and Toshiba Thrive are all out, or coming very soon. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 looks great, very thin and light, but to get that Samsung cut a lot – no USB & HDMI ports, no expandable storage (no SD/microSD), etc. You basically have to do everything via their proprietary docking connector – very iPad. I don’t want to be that limited, so that’s out of the running.

The Transformer is the one I’ve been eyeing for a while, just waiting for supply issues to get worked out so they’re a) in stock and b) not overpriced to rip off impatient suckers. The Transformer has some nice features, but the most notable is the keyboard dock which basically turns it into a netbook. The tablet itself has a miniHDMI port and a microSD slot. No USB ports on the tablet, but another proprietary 40-pin docking port with a cable for USB and charging. I’m a little unhappy about the dongle for USB again, but that’s starting to feel inescapable. But the miniHDMI and expandable storage are a plus. And the keyboard dock adds two full-size USB ports to connect other devices and a full-size MMC/SD/SDHC/SDXC card slot.

So I was thinking of finally ordering this, as pricing has settled down, but decided to check what else is out there – and saw the Toshiba Thrive.

Like all of these, it has the same processor (NVIDIA Tegra 2), same display size and resolution (10.1” 1280×800), same OS (Android Honeycomb 3.1 (the Transformer shipped with 3.0 but has an update)), front & rear camera (front camera is 2.0MP to the Transformer’s 1.2MP, 5MP rear on both), 1GB RAM, 32GB storage (I’m comparing 32GB models, both also have 16GB, and Thrive has an 8GB model), 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1, etc. The Thrive also has a full size MMC/SD/SDHC/SDXC card slot right in the tablet, and generally all of the features of the Transformer – except it doesn’t have a keyboard dock.

But the Thrive has some unique features too. It has a full-size HDMI port, not miniHDMI, so you can use any standard HDMI cable. It has a full size USB port and a miniUSB port right on the tablet, to act as a USB host device for cameras, etc. No dongles needed, no need for a dock (like the keyboard on the Transformer to get the USB ports & full-size memory cards). The entire back of the Thrive is swappable for different colors, designs – and, more importantly, to provide access to the swappable battery, the only one on an Android tablet. There is a dock connector, and charging appears to be via the dock or the dedicated power port. Just no microUSB charging on these tablets I guess. That would be nice since that’s what phones use and one charger could handle both. Though with the USB port on the Thrive maybe I could charge my phone from it via USB while it charges from the wall.

The Thrive also includes Swype, which I love on my Droid, and has some nice included extras like a file manager to handle the SD & USB mass storage devices, and a printer utility to allow it to easily print to printers via WiFi (the USB port doesn’t have printer drivers it seems), and the USB port apparently handles standard USB keyboard & pointer devices. Though I’d expect Bluetooth to work as well.

While the Thrive is a bit more expensive than the Transformer, tablet to tablet ($580 vs. $480 for 32GB models), the Transformer’s keyboard dock is $150 and up, so even if I buy the $60 multimedia dock for the Thrive (USB, HDMI, audio, and power connectors), the Thrive is competitive on price overall.

I don’t know, I thought the keyboard would be cool and useful to have, but then again I bought my Droid thinking I’d use the keyboard a lot – and now I’m planning to get a touchscreen-only phone on my next upgrade as I ended up using the keyboard less and less, until I didn’t use it anymore (especially once I had Swype). And having all of the ports right on the tablet is very convenient, as well as having the option to have a spare battery. I thought I’d made up my mind, but now I’m re-thinking my choice.

So right now I’m kind of leaning toward the Toshiba Thrive, but what do you think? Am I missing out on something critical with the Transformer – or the Xoom, Tab, or anything else? (Again, please don’t try to sell me on iOS, WebOS, etc. Really, that decision has had all due consideration already.) Of course, there are also rumors of an Amazon Android tablet coming this fall, but if I keep waiting for the Next Big Thing I’ll never buy anything! There is always a Next Big Thing just around the corner.

I still have a small grudge against Toshiba over their back of HD-DVD, but I should probably finally let that go. After all, they got whupped but good.

And I have to start thinking about replacing my Droid, I’m up for renewal this month. I’m tied to Verizon through work, so only phones on their network qualify. I definitely want LTE support, dual-core processor, and a good size screen – qHD would be nice. The Droid Bionic drops soon, but the rumored Nexus Prime sounds like it could be quite the phone, and there are a few other options out there. I’m just starting to look at those.

So if you have any Android tablet thoughts, leave a comment. Especially if you have one and want to share your experience.