14 DAY TRIAL // Officially released on the market just 10 days ago, Toshiba's Folio 100 Android tablet is already recording high return rates from dissatisfied customers in the UK. Several chain stores have issued internal memos in which they're confirming the freeze of Folio 100's sales.
Up until now there are three UK retailers that have halted the sales of the said device: Dixon, Currys and PC World. Some of these retailers have their own way of halting the sales of the product by boosting its price from about $550 to an “indecent” £999 (about $1,600), just to discourage potential customers.
Toshiba Folio 100 is powered by an Nvidia Tegra 2 processor and runs on the Android 2.2 Froyo platform out-of-the-box.
Folio 100 includes a 10.1 inch capacitive display with 1,024 x 600 pixel resolution, 1.3-megapixel webcam, WLAN 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR support and DLNA compatibility.
Some of the major flaws mentioned by users include: lack of Android Market applications, as well as support for Flash.
Toshiba launched its own application store called Toshiba Market Place and expects around 1,000 apps to be available by end of November 2010, but apparently this is not enough for Android users.
It looks like the 10.1-inch display of the Android-tablet is plagued by an inferior pixel density plus narrow viewing angles.
Users of the tablet were also disappointed by the high number of software bugs in Toshiba's Market Place application, as well as from the lack of the pinch-to-zoom feature in the browser.
Sudden wake-ups from standby and poor responsiveness are another two downsides of the Android tablet, which have been reported by many customers that have returned the Folio 100.
Another drawback of the device seems to be the cheap plastic used for manufacture and the device's poor overall build.
The Japanese company has yet to comment on the halted sales of its Android tablet.
