While styluses are not that uncommon for a lot of tablets coming out these days, they are really just some accessories to make a couple of tablet features slightly more comfortable to use, allow digital signatures and maybe prevent a couple of finger smudges on your screen. Anyone looking for a more advanced one could turn their gaze upon the Microsoft Surface Pro 3, which would in turn cost you somewhere around $1,000 for a mid-range model. That’s a lot.
So this year at the Consumer electronics Show in Las Vegas, Toshiba unveiled something that might make more than one class of consumer happy. It is the Toshiba Encore 2 Write tablet, available in two sizes – 8 inch and 10.1 inches respectively – that prides itself on what they call the “Feel technology”. The Feel technology in question has been developed by well-known drawing tablet producer Wacom – specializing in devices that artists use for digital drawing.
The technology has been adopted in its entirety, up to the stylus itself – the TruPen that the Toshiba Encore 2 Write comes with is capable of sensing 2,048 levels of pressure, giving writing using the stylus amazing levels of depth. Depending on the amount of pressure you apply when using the TruPen, the darker and thicker the lines drawn in digital form will be. Also part of Wacom’s Feel technology, the Encore 2 Write also adopted into its own surface a layer of coating that adds texture to the screen.
This tablet is not, however, destined to be used for drawing – it remains an affordable, versatile and pretty high quality tablet for all around general use, with a focus on rapid note taking and writing using a performant stylus as an alternative to the unnatural-feeling tablet keyboards.
Toshiba Encore 2 Write Design
As mentioned earlier, the Encore 2 Write comes in 2 sizes: either 8 inch or its bigger 10.1 inch brother. Both models are only 9 millimeter thick and have well defined edges, with all the jacks, microSD, micro-USB and every other socket neatly tucked in all around the sides of the tablets. Given how thin the tablet is, chances of us seeing a regular USB slot on it are slim.
But the micro-USB slot handles its duties well enough, being capable of both charging the device and taking care of data transfer via cable. A 3.5mm headphone jack is also hosted on the side of the tablet, along with the microSD slot, that can host cards of up to 128 GB of storage space.
The tablet also displays two cameras, both front and rear facing: the front one is a 1.2 megapixel one, allowing you to make use of video calling to your heart’s content, while the rear camera has an 8 megapixel zoom, accompanied by LED flash. Taking photos will result in a pretty impressive series of colors and enjoyable image accuracy and clarity.
Weighing no more than 557 grams for the 10.1 inch model, the tablet is pleasant to hold onehandedly while operating it. Considering it has been built with a slightly curved back surface, the Encore 2 Write has a decent grip when you pick it up as a notepad to make use of the writing feature. The frame is
Encore 2 Write’s TruPen Capabilities
And while we’re on the writing feature, let’s talk a bit about the stylus – the TruPen. Its design make it look a little beefier than what I’m going to call amateur styluses. Without meaning to sound insulting to any other brand of stylus, the TruPen is far superior to anything you would otherwise go for – the focus on it and the design lessons taken from Wacom makes it be easily considered a superior, next-level digital pen.
All that technology however is packed in the relatively large TruPen, that will not be able to be fit in the edges of the tablet as we would be familiar from many other models still adopting the stylus. Instead, the TruPen can be neatly fit onto the right side of the tablet using a hinge that attaches inside the frame of the Encore 2 Write.
While the TruPen doesn’t look as elegant and sleek as your regular stylus, the relatively larger radius and width of it simply makes it feel more similar to a real pen, giving writing and drawing a strong, realistic feeling.
Toshiba Encore 2 Write Specifications
Regardless of the model you are picking, the display of the Encore 2 Write will be sitting on a stable 1200 x 800 pixel resolution, with a capacity of up to 16 million colors. While the resolution may not be the most impressive you can get, the coating on the tablet’s display will allow it to show richer textures and a crisp image overall.
Hardware-wise, the Toshiba Encore 2 Write is set in motion by a quad-core Intel Atom Z3735 processor and a healthy 2 GB of RAM, making the tablet not only a very powerful note-taking tool but an impressive addition to your line of gadgets as well. Whether it’s sketching you’re looking forward to, or your regular watching movies and enjoying all forms of media, the Encore 2 Write can do it and make it wonderful while it’s at it.
Storage-wise, the Encore 2 Write is very impressive, all bias aside. Not only that its microSD slot can host cards of up to 128 GB of space, but its internal storage is of a hefty 64 GB already. In comparison to so many high end tablets that will make you struggle with 16 or 32 GB of space, this Toshiba model gives you all the freedom in the world when it comes to storing your data.
Photos, videos, drawings, notes, apps, there’s room for it all – and more. If you’re the kind of person who likes holding onto entire playlists of your preferred music onto your mobile device – whether we’re talking smartphone or tablet – the Encore 2 Write will make you incredibly happy.
Regarding connectivity however, it is sadly a little limited. With no NFC, GPS and Wi-Fi Direct, your only options will be Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and happily, HDMI (however, only on the 10 inch version). Surprisingly however, the Encore 2 Write is not even 3G capable, so relying on your local Wi-Fi is something you won’t be able to avoid.
Considering the lack of GPS and near field communication, it is not a surprise to see that the tablet lacks on many sensors such as proximity, gyroscope and barometer. The ambient light sensor is not present either and because of that, your display won’t be adapting to the level of light you are sitting in when using the tablet, having you set it up manually whenever it needs change.
The case, as expected cannot be opened, thus the battery doesn’t fall into the removable category. The battery provided promises 11 hours of battery life for regular, general use, and up to 8 hours of life for video playback and intensive use.
Toshiba Encore 2 Write Features
The Toshiba Encore 2 Write comes packed with the latest Windows 8.1 with Bing installed and ready to go. Not only that but purchasing the tablet will earn you a one-year long subscription to Microsoft Office 365 Personal – featuring the full versions of the latest, up-to-date Office applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, One Note and Outlook. With a Wi-Fi connection available, you will also be able to make use of the OneDrive unlimited storage to sync your data and files across all Windows-based devices to keep in touch with your work no matter where you go.
To complement Wacom’s Feel technology, the Toshiba Encore 2 Write tablet features an exclusive package of Tru apps, made solely to make your work easier and bring out the best out of the device.
- TruNote is an application designed by Toshiba that will make use of your TruPen, allowing you to take notes, draw, doodle, make marks on photos or images saved on your drive, and it maintains its functionality in Microsoft Office applications, overlapping with the apps themselves and allowing you to make use of the writing features in full-fledged Work, Excel documents and much more.
On top of that, the TruNote also includes a lot of versatility of usage for your stylus – whether we’re talking changing colors, brush textures or importing images. For any individual who feels more comfortable taking notes in hand writing form, the Toshiba Encore 2 Write will allow you to do this in a number of in-built applications, and then automatically transform and transpose your notes into digital form, just to make sure deciphering your own scribbles won’t be a problem.
TruNote also gives you a lot of flexibility when it comes to easily locate handwritten text or characters in various images and pictures, allowing you to quickly export them in your Office apps. As a last note, the feature also includes a mode that switches the menus from one side of the screen to the other to fit both lefties and people that use their right hand to write.
- TruRecorder gives some attention to one particular aspect that tends to get very ignored on many mobile devices out there – actual audio recording. More often than necessary we feel forced to download non-branded developer apps on the app store to give audio recording a kick forwards and actually make use of audio files that you get from your meetings, the events you attend or even special moments you manage to capture in audio form. Revisiting all of your recorded moments, lectures, meetings or whatnot is made so much easier with the TruRecorder app. It is capable of pretty impressive things such as differentiating between voices, parsing the audio of recorded conversations and even separate all unique voices detected into separate tracks for your eventual playback, listening or analysis, each marked by a different icon.
- TruCapture is the application that compliments the provided 8 megapixel rear camera. Its functionality is not something to be taken lightly. By taking photos of text on various surfaces such as books, notes, blackboards, whiteboards, posters and whatever else that you might be considering and using the True Capture application that comes with the initial package, you are suddenly rendered capable of not only improving the displayed text by automatically sharpening, brightening or straightening the writing for easy reading but also importing them and transposing them into digital form, making it easier for you to find, extract and import written text from pictures taken.
Wrapping Up…
That pretty much wraps up all the focal points of the new Toshiba Encore 2 Write tablet. It has been made available for purchase at select retailers starting January 11th 2015 for both models. The 8 inch version starts off at $349 price for the lowest end options available, while the 10.1 inch model will start off from $399. Even so, the price is highly accessible given everything that the tablet offers.
Along the pressure-sensitive pen and the screen built to be ultra-responsive, the technical specs don’t fall off behind by much, giving a lot of versatility and power to the Toshiba Encore 2 Write, making it a viable option for both regular users, and even artists, even if it still can’t compare to your regular Wacom tablet. Still, it holds its head up high when it comes to Windows 8.1 non-hybrid tablets out there and worth a try out at your nearest retailer that has it on display if you are even remotely considering it for purchase.