Eight inch tablets are hot items right now as consumers are discovering the perfect balance they often present between portability and usability. Apple's iPad mini is an peculiarly popular choice among people looking for a well-polished device with a fantastic selection of apps, but there are plenty of other competitors to choose from.

Toshiba Encore - $280 - $350

  • 8.0", 1280x720 HFFS LCD (189 ppi)
  • Intel Bay Trail Z3740 SoC
  • one.3 GHz quad-cadre CPU, Hard disk Graphics GPU, 2GB RAM
  • 32 or 64 GB internal storage, microSD card slot
  • eight MP camera, 1/3.2" sensor, f/2.2 lens
  • Wi-Fi a/b/g/north, Bluetooth 4.0, nineteen.5 Wh battery
  • Windows 8.1 + Microsoft Office
  • 445 grams, 10.7mm thick

When it comes to viii-inch Windows tablets, the release of Windows 8.1 has seen many companies try their easily at crafting the perfect tablet. Acer was first with the mediocre Iconia W3 and shortly afterwards a ton of other devices came to the market from the likes of Dell, Asus, Lenovo and besides Toshiba, whose 'Encore' tablet is the focus of today's review.

Like a lot of small Windows tablets in the same price bracket as the Encore, specifications aren't stellar peculiarly in the brandish department: we're looking at a 1280 10 800 console, a resolution which Windows device manufacturers seem to honey. There'due south as well the popular Intel Atom Z3740 SoC inside, every bit well equally an 8-megapixel photographic camera and xix.v Wh battery, which makes its hardware bundle overall a little different to the Lenovo Miix 2 8, which we're also in the process of reviewing.

Design

Most eight inch tablets feature some class of the standard, slightly-rounded rectangular prism blueprint. The Toshiba Encore is no exception, although its take on the slate blueprint is rather uninspiring.

The Encore is a fairly chubby device, making no endeavour to friction match the graceful nature of some of its competitors. Its 10.7mm thick and 445 grams heavy profile compares unfavorably to the Lenovo Miix ii 8 (at 350g and 8.35mm thick) and to the highly popular Apple iPad mini Retina (308g/7.5mm). The size doesn't just look bad on newspaper, the Encore feels portly in your easily and the design doesn't try to hide it.

Compounding the issue is the sizable bezel around the display. To either side of the panel is 14mm of plastic and drinking glass, which makes the tablet feel just slightly wider than what would ordinarily be comfortable. Brandish coverage is just nether 65%, although the device is still quite portable overall, significantly more so than a 10-inch device.

Apart from the glass protecting the display, the residuum of the Encore is made from plastic that wraps right around the tablet, providing a rim around the front end console. The plastic in no style gives the tablet a premium feel, despite the square blueprint that's used on the back (as well simply available in silvery).

Similar most other eight inchers, everything is positioned so that portrait is the default orientation. Most aspects of the design are extremely minimalist: the front has a modest piece of branding plus a Windows button and front facing camera to the far right; whereas the back features a Toshiba logo forth the lesser, an Intel Inside sticker that looks somewhat out of place, and a rear facing camera in the top left.

On the lesser border you'll find the tablet's dual speakers. In our tests these didn't perform well at loftier volumes but are certainly usable for casual listening. The correct edge has the fairly weak-feeling ability button and book rocker, and the left side has an exposed microSD card slot. All the ports for the device are forth the height border, such as the three.5mm audio jack, microUSB port and micro-HDMI port, the latter of which some may find specially useful if they want to frequently use external displays.

The design of the Toshiba Encore doesn't stop you from enjoying the hardware in the device, only it definitely lacks a spark that would make information technology a more attractive offering. With an 8-inch display the tablet is portable, nevertheless it's neither as slim nor every bit light as some of its competitors.

Display

Toshiba has gone for an viii.0-inch TFT HFFS LED-backlit LCD panel in the Encore, with a resolution of 1280 x 800. HFFS, which stands for high-transmittance fringe field switching, is an alternate brandish technology to IPS that offers less color shifting and similar viewing angles. Information technology's non a display blazon nosotros ofttimes encounter, just Toshiba might have chosen it to keep manufacturing costs down.

I'm not particularly happy with the resolution of this 8-inch display when other sub-$300 tablets manage to include 1080p panels. Private pixels are reasonably noticeable (189 PPI) especially along the edges of text, just also when looking at photos and videos.

The panel is capable of displaying 720p videos natively, while all 1080p content will exist downscaled to 720p.

This is not to say the Encore'south panel is completely unusable. WXGA is fine for everyday tasks, equally has been the case for many years, but over the past 12 months it has been quickly superseded past lower-cost loftier-density displays. When Asus can produce a seven-inch tablet with a 1080p display for a little over $200, and Amazon can practise the aforementioned at 8.9-inches, the Toshiba Encore seems backside the times.

Aside from screen resolution the overall color quality is boilerplate, especially in terms of saturation, which is noticeably defective compared to IPS LCDs. The panel's contrast is expert, although there is backlight bleed when viewing nighttime images, and a minor amount of color banding when viewing gradients.

One area the Encore's display really excels is viewing angles. Similar an IPS console, the Encore's LCD is viewable at nigh all angles, nonetheless there is noticeably less color shifting and distortion. This is actually surprising considering there is a decent gap between the protective glass and panel itself, which in TN panels would significantly impact viewing angles.

The gap does manage to impact the console's reflectivity, which can make the display a little tricky to view in bright settings. Maximum brightness from the LED backlighting is very good, which negates some of the reflectivity bug, and there's a wide range of brightness levels to make utilise of. The well-hidden photodetector provides accurate automatic brightness, although it can exist somewhat wearisome to accommodate.