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.