Toshiba Encore Review - Battery Life and Verdict Review
Battery Life and Verdict
Toshiba's first 8-inch Windows 8.1 tablet based on an Intel Bay Trail is a real let down.
Sections
- Page 1 Toshiba Encore Review
- Page 2 Software and Performance Review
- Page 3 Camera and Speaker Quality Review
- Page 4 Battery Life and Verdict Review
Toshiba Encore: Battery Life
Where the Encore doesn’t disappoint is battery life. Packing a 2-cell Lithium-ion you can expect up to seven hours on a full charge and we actually got closer to eight hours running a TV series continuously on Netflix. In more intensive daily use, you will need to charge it up, but it will definitely make it through the day. If you’ve forgotten to charge it overnight and it’s on critical battery life it doesn’t have tremendous recovery ability. In our numerous tests from a 5% battery level it jumped up by around 4% over half an hour connected to the USB charger supplied with the Encore.
Should I buy the Toshiba Encore?
In theory, the Encore at £250 has much to offer. It’s an affordable 8-inch tablet with all-day battery life and has access to a full version of Windows 8 including Microsoft Office. In reality, certain aspects of Microsoft’s operating system just don’t work on such a small device. Trying to use it in a traditional Windows way is far too frustrating and buying a Bluetooth keyboard is the only way you will get great use of having Office access. The buggy, unresponsive performance we endured did not disappear even with our second review model, so it makes it difficult to recommend.
For less than £250 you can buy a Nexus 7 2, albeit without Microsoft Office, yet it’s still the best 7-inch Android tablet out there. You can download the Office Mobile for Office 365 app, but you will need to have an Office 365 subscription to use it on the tablet. The iPad mini 2 Retina costs £319 so there’s a £70 difference. For the extra spend you will get an easy to use tablet with access to Office in the same way you can with the Nexus 7.
The real and obvious alternative, however, is the Asus Transformer Book T100. It’s larger and more like a laptop-tablet hybrid, but that also makes it great deal more practical and useful. The Toshiba Encore feels like a product looking for a problem to solve, and whatever that is it doesn’t achieve its goal.
Verdict
The Toshiba Encore is a Windows 8.1 tablet with more bad points than good so the search for a great small, standalone Windows tablet goes on.
How we test tablets
We test every tablet we review thoroughly. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly and we use the tablet as our main device over the review period. We’ll always tell you what we find and we never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Trusted Score
Score in detail
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Performance 5
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Value 5
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Design 5
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Software & Apps 7
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Sound Quality 6
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Screen Quality 6
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Features 8
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Battery Life 8
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Build Quality 6
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
