Toshiba Encore

The Toshiba Encore is the second small tablet with Windows 8.1 on the market. It was presented to society yesterday at IFA 2013, and we were able to spend a few minutes testing it to bring you our first impressions.

This type of tablet is intended to be the companion of a laptop, for leisure and some quick task. The main idea is that they are very manageable and fast. Let's see if the Toshiba Encore meets these premises.

The truth is that the tablet is very comfortable to hold in your hand. It wouldn't look bad if it were thinner (1 centimeter thick is not exactly a record). As for the weight, it is quite light but it is not the most remarkable aspect either.

The 8-inch screen gives good quality, and is comfortable to use both horizontally and vertically. The only problem is the resolution. Being relatively tall, the Windows 8.1 interface is small: someone without perfect eyesight will have a hard time reading the smaller fonts. Also, the onscreen keyboard is very small and typing without fail is not exactly easy.

Performance is not bad, although there have been times when it has struggled to respond . It may be a problem of being a prototype (it has Windows 8.1, which has not yet been released to the public). It will be necessary to test it when you go out with more calm to see if the performance improves.

Where the Toshiba Encore falls short is in the design and materials section. Toshiba has never been known for great design, and this tablet is no exception. The back is plastic, and the edge of the front is very, very weird.

The last aspect that we are going to discuss is the sense that Windows 8 makes in a small tablet. Of course, it fulfills its functions of being a device for quick tasks. We have all the information on the home screen, it is fast and the synchronization of Internet Explorer open tabs can be very useful. Now, does it make sense to put a full Windows on this tablet?

From my point of view, no. Here RT fits better, where the fact of not having traditional applications is not a problem (with Office is enough) and we would gain a lot with the lower consumption of ARM. The only advantage I see is being able to connect it to a mouse, keyboard and monitor to work as if it were a normal PC, but being an Intel Atom we won't be able to do very intensive work either.

In short, the Toshiba Encore is a decent tablet, with enough features to be a device focused on mobility.However, it has details that could be improved, especially in design and, as I said, the nonsense that in my opinion is to put full Windows 8.1 on a small tablet.