Battery Life, Wrap Up

The Toshiba Encore packs a sizable xix.5 watt-hour battery, which should be more than enough to encounter it through a regular day's worth of usage. Unlike smartphones, the battery life of a tablet is rarely a concern, although it'south never a bad affair to see a device strive to terminal the longest in all atmospheric condition.

That said, the Encore'due south bombardment life doesn't seem to hold as long as some of the other tablets I've tested recently, despite featuring like internals. This could be due to the HFFS console, which is a blazon of display seldom used on tablets, but other software and hardware choices may also be contributing factors.

Our video playback bombardment benchmark backs this up. The Lenovo Miix ii eight, which is very similar to the Encore spec-wise manages to last nearly 2 hours longer.

Closing Thoughts

Toshiba's first foray into the world of 8-inch Windows 8.1 tablets isn't the fantastic product the company was hoping for. The drab, chubby design is particularly bromidic, failing to make an impression upwards against slimmer and more portable competition. The inclusion of an HFFS display is interesting, although its overall quality falls behind IPS-blazon panels, not to mention the disappointing resolution.

It's not all bad news for the Encore, though. Similar all previous Bay Trail-powered devices, I was one time once more pleased with the performance from Intel's low-power SoC, which competes well with offerings from ARM.

The Sony-made 8-megapixel rear camera is surprisingly good, although information technology'due south of little effect when you consider a tablet isn't exactly a become-to device for photography. Windows 8.1 is as well a great operating system for ability tablet users, despite lacking a solid collection of touch oriented apps.

At $279 for the 32 GB model, or $350 for the 64 GB, the Encore faces many competitors that appear to accept washed a better job differentiating themselves or paid more than attending to build quality. For a like cost, the Asus VivoTab Note eight offers full Wacom stylus support, or for a bit less coin the Dell Venue eight Pro packs similar hardware on a slimmer case. On the Android front, LG sells the G Pad 8.3 with a high-res display and competitive hardware for $325, plus of course in that location'due south cheaper options like Amazon's Kindle Burn Hd viii.nine for $230 or the viii-inch Samsung Milky way Tab three for $250.

If you value Windows 8.1 support more than anything, you may find these sub-$300 tablet to expect like a bargain. Note however that using desktop apps and typical productivity software similar Part is somewhat challenging in this form factor (unless yous program to add a keyboard). If that's your primary intention you may be better served by hybrid PC like the Asus Transformer Book nosotros recently tested.

Pros: Good performance from Intel's Bay Trail SoC. Surprisingly peachy camera for a tablet. Windows 8.ane has a strong characteristic set

Cons: Chubby, uninspiring pattern. Disappointing display resolution. The Windows desktop is catchy to employ on a small screen.