Ratings: 4/5
Price: $210
Website: www.ilgs.co.uk
Toshiba
AT200-101
AT200 was first launched at IFA, where
Toshiba said it was the
thinnest tablet. Based on the fact AT200 is 7.7mm in thickness, this claim is true
in 6 months later. However, AT200 does not bring back the thinnest feeling as
some other tablets we've evaluated. The edge is not slim,
there is black center strip at
the silver edges, making them seem thicker.
Despite the slim body, these flat edges have a lot of ports and slots. Headphone jack and Micro
USB, HDMI and SD slots are at
the left corner of the surface, so there is no gate or port blocking the way
when the lid plug everything into. However, there is no SIM slot and 3G version.
On the right, there are power button, volume switch and slide switch to lock
the orientation of the tablet. There’s also a 5MP camera at the back, but picture
quality is normal and it is not as good as iPad version.
The bottom of the tablet has a big
proprietary connector. It can be used for a docking station, but it’s not
available at this time. Tablet comes with proprietary USB cable, which can be
used with 2 ampere chargers for speed charging or connecting to a PC for data
transfer and slower USB charging. Micro USB connector can also be used for
charging, it’s quite handy if you take along Micro USB wire for your phone.
In our test of video games, the tablet played
a repeated video, it achieved an impressive result with 8 hours 40 minutes, which
can compete with the best 10-inch Android tablets. Toshiba did not disclose the
battery capacity of its technical characteristics, but Toshiba obviously had a
large cell in the AT200 slim design. Tablets seem smart, though dim metal panel
at the back looks good, Toshiba did not need to put too many things into it – which
did not belong to table class.
Bright 10.1-inch wide screen with
reflective cover increases the contrast. However, the vivid colors and contrast
of the screen is not the best. On the Android home screen, you hardly see it,
but after research the testing images for a while, we feel that the other devices
like Motorola Xoom 2 have the advantage in image quality. It is a small
difference, because AT200 does not use high-quality IPS screen as the
competitors. AT200 also has the most powerful tactile feedback we've ever felt
from a tablet, every keystroke on the screen make clear sound.
TI OMAP 4430 dual-core of AT200 is similar to
the chipset used on competitive Motorola Xoom 2 and has clock speeds of 1.2GHz.
In the SunSpider JavaScript test, it reaches 1941ms - nearly Xoom 2. This
tablet has been launched with Android 3.2.1 and has no exact time to upgrade to
Android 4.0, although some competitive tablets have received such updates.
Toshiba almost did not change Android
default setting. They added some weird applications, but nothing significant. However,
we like the application tray, which has My Apps tab, so you only see the
applications you have installed. It defaults with this tab whenever you select
the application tray.
There is just a few wrong with AT200, but
also little things to excite about it. It is a good tablet with practical design,
and cheaper than its nearest rival. If you like Android, Xoom 2 provides better
screen, IR transmitter to control AV and a waterproof cover with the price of $
26. However, unless you have some Android applications that you can’t live
without them, you should definitely pay $ 45 more to buy iPad.
Toshiba
AT200-101
Summary
Comment: We like slim but practical AT200, but it’s not good enough to be
prominent in the crowd.
Tablet: TI OMAP 4430 1.2GHz, 1GB RAM, 16GB drive, PowerVR SGX540 graphics, LCD
10.1-inch wide touch, Android 3.2.1, 256x176x7.7mm, 535g, one-year RTB
warranty.
