Toshiba’s big screen 13 inch AT330 tablet reviewed

While the AT330 features a 1600×900 screen, it’s actually not as impressive a resolution as you think. Over on a laptop, we’d be reasonably impressed, but on a tablet, we’re beginning to see 1920×1080 and higher on tablets.

That said, Toshiba is offering an immense amount of screen real estate in this tablet, with a 13 inch screen never really been implemented before in an Android device.

In theory, that sounds like an awesome concept, as you should have even more room for widgets, shortcuts, and the apps you run, kind of like a computer.

But then reality hits and you start playing with the tablet, only to discover that over in the world of Android, few apps or games really take advantage of the massive resolution.

You’ll see it pretty quickly when you enter the Google Play Store, with either a centred screen flanked by black bars when viewed in landscape, or the longest app store ever in portrait mode.

Other apps look as if they’ve been blown up to support this massive resolution, resulting in visuals that can look pixelated or even distorted.

Applications that rely on real text – such as email, Gmail, and web browsers – will support the huge 900p display without any problems, especially in landscape, though we’d recommend staying away from the vertical portrait mode, which makes everything so long that it can be very awkward to use.

It’s surprising that Toshiba didn’t truly customise Android so that you could load apps side by side, as a resolution this large and wide could have made it much easier to view two apps at the same time – say Twitter and a website – similar to how LG is making things work with its upcoming Optimus G.

There’s also a side to reviewing this tablet we had to think long and hard about including, and that’s the sort of looks you get in public, or rather, how it feels that people are constantly staring at you.

Normally, we whip out our smartphones and tablets on public transport without any problems. They’re consumption, work, and play devices, so we don’t have any problems with watching videos, writing for work, and playing games or reading e-books and digital magazines on the way to and from work. No issues there.

But with a 13 inch tablet, you constantly feel like everyone is watching you, because the thing in your hands is just so monstrous.

It’s a 13 inch tablet, or a 13 inch screen ripped from a computer and converted into a tablet. We’re not sure if people are aware of this, or if they even care, but you can definitely feel the eyes are on you when you’re using this in public.

Conclusion

Closer to a table than a tablet, Toshiba’s attempt at an oversized touchscreen is an interesting device. It’s hard to say just who would buy this machine, with a certain heft, strange way of holding it, and an altogether general feeling that what you’re carrying is way too big.

You can definitely have a better and more portable tablet experience from plenty of other devices, even from Toshiba.