Price: $535.5 (16GB)
Website: Toshiba.com
If you’re after all-round value in
these financially afflicted times, Toshiba’s latest 10-incher might just hit
the sweet spot between performance and price.
Toshiba
AT300-101
It’s not quite as cheap as the Samsung or
Archos, but unlike either of those tablets it offers quad-core processing power
thanks to its Nvidia Tegra 3 CPU. It’s certainly nippy, with web browsing,
gaming and even more demanding tasks such as photo editing all running
smoothly; unlike on the Acer, we never suffered any glitches or lag.
Its display is a 720p HD 1280 x 800, which
places it on a par with the Samsung and Archos for resolution. It’s decent
enough, but the Galaxy Tab 2’s is superior, with colors on the AT300 looking
washed out in sunlight. The 5MP camera gave up pale, blurry images – though we
wouldn’t let a tablet’s snapper take up much of our time.
Design-wise it’s also best described as…
fine. Nice and thin at just 8.9mm, but unlikely to get you salivating. And that
pretty much sums up the AT300 – it’s good at everything it does, with no major
flaws to hold it back and a great price in its favor. It won’t set the world
alight, but it’ll prove a sound purchase all the same.
Stuff says 4/5 stars
A better screen would be nice, but this ICS
powerhouse offers great all-round value.
The proprietary charger is on the chunky
side, but at least the battery lasts around 9 hours, so you shouldn’t need it
that often
The AT300 runs unadorned Ice Cream
Sandwich, which should mean you won’t have to wait too long for OS upgrades.
Hello, Jelly Bean
The Tosh’s speakers are alright, but at
high volumes you will feel the back of the tablet vibrating – not the most
premium of effects.
Tech specs
Display 10.1in, 1280 x 800 TFT
CPU Quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 @ 1.3GHz, 1GB
Ram
Storage 16GB (+ up to 32GB SDHC)
Camera 5MP (rear), 2MP (front)
Connectivity 3.5mm socket, microHDMI,
Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi, microUSB
Battery 8hrs 42min (tested)
Give it a slot
The AT300 may be skinny, but Toshiba has
found room for microUSB and microHDMI slots as well as a full-sized SD slot.
Getting photos and vids on and off it is a doddle
Fake metal jacket
With its metallic-looking plastic back you
might think the AT300 offers the best of both worlds. But while it might the
good news for Wi-Fi reception, the design leaves us could.
Asus Transformer Pad Infinity
Price: $974 (64GB, Wi-Fi)
Website: uk.asus.com
How do you improve the best 10in
Android tab out there? If you’re Asus, you take the all-conquering Transformer
Pad Prime, slap a new screen on it, and call it the Infinity.
Asus
Transformer Pad Infinity
As upgrades go, it’s a biggie. The Prime’s
1280 x 800 display was one of the best we’d seen on a table, but the new iPad
soon left it looking low-res. The Infinity isn’t quite Retina-sharp, but at a
full HD 1920 x 1200 it’s still mightily impressive. Viewing angles are great,
which is good news for film fans, and if you crank up its Super IPS + mode it’s
also incredibly bright.
But there’s much more to the Infinity than
its screen. Its quad-core Tegra 3 chip gives it enough power to breeze through
the latest games and handle demanding multimedia apps. The sexy spun-metal back
and reassuring weight are also present and correct, as is its genius
battery-filled keyboard dock, which features a full-sized USB 2.0 port and SD
card slot. The keyboard, though not perfect, offers the best on-the-go typing
experience on an Android tablet and even the 8MP camera is great.
The only negative is its price tag, but
that pays for 64 GB of memory and a keyboard dock that boosts the battery to 14
hours. Really, no other Android tablet comes close.
Stuff says 5/5 stars
A pin-sharp HD screen, quad-core power and
battery-boosting dock make this the top Droid
The 64GB Wi-Fi model is the only one on
sale in the UK; 32GB and 3G options are also available in the US, but the 3G
version has a dual-core CPU. So, get this one and tether it to your mobile
Asus’ only tweaks to ICS let you switch to
Super IPS + and view battery levels from the homescreen. You also get 8GB of
free cloud storage via the WebStorage app.
Shallow, slightly cramped keys mean the
Infinity’s otherwise brilliant keyboard dock is better for short typing stints.
The trackpad can also be a little erratic.
Tech specs
Display 10.1in, 1920 x 1200
CPU Quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 @ 1.6GHz, 1GB
Ram
Storage 64GB + up to 32GB SDHC
Camera 8MP, 1080p (rear); 2MP (front)
Connectivity Tab: 3.5mm socket, microHDMI,
microSD, Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi, Sock: UAB2.0, SD
Battery 14hrs 24min (tested w/dock)
Plastic beach
The Infinity has a plastic strip on its
back in order to improve Wi-Fi and GPS reception, following complaints from
Prime owners. We had no connections issues in this test
Slot machine
The tablet slots smoothly into the dock
with a satisfying click and beep. The hinge feels sturdy too, but as a unit,
the combined weight reaches MacBook Air levels.
Archos 101 XS Gen 10
Price: $487 (16GB)
Website: archos.com
The space-age styled Gen 10 is
bravely gunning for the Transformer Pad’s title of best hybrid tablet in the
world. A tall order, but its super-thin 8mm form, skinny magnetic keyboard and
positively lean price of just $487 provide a good start.
Archos
101 XS Gen 10
It doesn’t have the quad-core Tegra chip of
the Infinity, but neither will the Archos let you down when it comes to power.
In fact, other than the odd app or game crashing (to be expected on an early
review unit), Ice Cream Sandwich ran silkily. The Chiclet-keyed, magnetic Cover
board isn’t a particular improvement over third-party Bluetooth or USB
keyboards, lacking a trackpad and neither extending battery life nor adding
ports to the tablet. But it’s a neat extra at this price, even though the way
you twist it off the front of the tablet before docking is on the clunky side.
But the Gen 10’s Achilles’ heel is its
distinctly average 1280 x 800 display. It can’t compete with the eye-popping
colors of the Galaxy Tab 2 or the sharp, bright full HD displays of the Asus or
Acer, and given that a screen is pretty much all there is to a tablet, that’s
enough to leave it lagging behind the others in this test.
Stuff says 3/5 stars
The Archos will give you hybrid Android on
a shoestring, but it could do with a better screen
The Archos’ lone speaker sits to the right
of the screen, with the power button and volume hiding on the bottom right hand
side. Not exactly elegant.
Archos has thrown in all sorts of genuinely
useful OS extras, including a Remote Control app and Media Server for streaming
media to smart TVs and consoles.
The Cover board doesn’t have a built-in
battery, but if you treat it as a docking station and leave it plugged in at
home, it will charge the gen 10 when docked
Tech specs
Display 10.1in, 1280 x 800
CPU Smart Multi-core ARM Cortex A9 @
1.5GHz, 1GB Ram
Storage 16GB + up to 32GB microSDHC
Camera 1.3MP, 720p (front)
Connectivity Tab: 3.5mm socket, Bluetooth
3.0, Wi-Fi, mini HDMI
Battery 6hrs 10min (tested)
Upside your head
The G10’s 720p webcam is on the left hand
side of the tablet, or on top when in landscape mode. It’s a rather odd
placement whether for video calling or 1.3MP stills
Magnetic man
The G10 is top heavy, so it’s important
that you snap out the magnetic kickstand just right when attaching the
Coverboard – if not, the slightest movement will topple it.
