Storage on the Thrive

[Phljjs]

I'm thinking of getting the Thrive and have a dumb question that I think I know the answer to, but want to make sure before I buy.
When comparing the various models of the Thrive, the only difference is how many GB of storage space it has, e.g. 8, 16, 32.
My question is, is the the storage a built in hard drive/ flash drive or a removeable micro SD card?
I have plenty of spare memory cards at home, including a 32GB card. I'm thinking I could just buy the 8GB thrive instead of the 16GB, save $20 and just swap out the 8GB card for 32GB card I have at home.

If the storage on the Thrive is built in, I'd buy the 16GB since it's always nice to have more storage space. the reason I'm asking this is because on Newegg, the specs say HDD, not removeable memory like SD cards, etc.
Thanks in advance for your help with my question.

 

[hummingbirdhill]

I'm thinking of getting the Thrive and have a dumb question that I think I know the answer to, but want to make sure before I buy.
When comparing the various models of the Thrive, the only difference is how many GB of storage space it has, e.g. 8, 16, 32.
My question is, is the the storage a built in hard drive/ flash drive or a removeable micro SD card?
I have plenty of spare memory cards at home, including a 32GB card. I'm thinking I could just buy the 8GB thrive instead of the 16GB, save $20 and just swap out the 8GB card for 32GB card I have at home.

If the storage on the Thrive is built in, I'd buy the 16GB since it's always nice to have more storage space. the reason I'm asking this is because on Newegg, the specs say HDD, not removeable memory like SD cards, etc.
Thanks in advance for your help with my question.

You are correct; the 8/16/32GB that distinguishes the three Thrive models is "built in."

The Thrive hardware includes a full-size Secure Digital card slot in addition to the "built-in" memory.

 

[Phljjs]

You are correct; the 8/16/32GB that distinguishes the three Thrive models is "built in."

The Thrive hardware includes a full-size Secure Digital card slot in addition to the "built-in" memory.

Thanks for the reply. The Thrive is looking better and better by the minute! I'm gonna hit up Best Buy in the next couple of days to play with it before I make a final decision.

 

[hummingbirdhill]

Thanks for the reply. The Thrive is looking better and better by the minute! I'm gonna hit up Best Buy in the next couple of days to play with it before I make a final decision.

Good deal. Let us know if you decide to purchase a Thrive!

 

[chuckh0308]

Don't know if it's still the case, but when I bought my two Thrives (32 GB and a 16 GB model), the 8 GB was only $10 less than the 16 GB, which didn't make it a very good value. Sure, you may not "need" that extra 8 GB, but you may as well get it if the price difference is essentially nothing. Stepping up to the 32 does add quite a bit though.

And I have a 32 GB micro SD card (with an adapter) in mine. I'm going to get a 64 GB card soon that will be just for music.

 

[Phljjs]

Don't know if it's still the case, but when I bought my two Thrives (32 GB and a 16 GB model), the 8 GB was only $10 less than the 16 GB, which didn't make it a very good value. Sure, you may not "need" that extra 8 GB, but you may as well get it if the price difference is essentially nothing. Stepping up to the 32 does add quite a bit though.

And I have a 32 GB micro SD card (with an adapter) in mine. I'm going to get a 64 GB card soon that will be just for music.

Right now, the 16GB is $20 more than the 8GB, but the 32GB is $100 more.

I went to BestBuy this morning and played with every Tablet that was on display. I spent about half an hour comparing the Acer A500, the Asus Transformer and the Thrive. At first, I was a little turned off by the size of the Thrive. Its a little larger than the other two. However, I quickly put those feeling aside when I saw fast it was. The Acer seemed to lag a bit, especially the browser. The Asus was plugged into a docking station and I didn't feel like going through the trouble of getting it out and having the salespeople bugging me and trying to score a sale, so I didn't play too much with that.

I ended up ordering a Thrive from Newegg when I got home. They are offering a $70 gift card if you order a Thrive by 9/30 and free shipping. Net cost for 16GB- $330. Sounds like a good deal to me. Can't wait to get it.

 

[chuckh0308]

That's a nice deal through Newegg! Hope you like it as much as I do when you get it!

 

[stephenju]

Can you install apps to the SD card? I read a lot of reviews on NewEgg that the tablet doesn't allow that?

 

[ronald600]

Can you install apps to the SD card? I read a lot of reviews on NewEgg that the tablet doesn't allow that?

As it stands right now you can not install apps to the SD card. That is not a fault of the Thrive however. That is a limitation of Honeycomb 3.1
You can install music, video's, pictures and data files however

 

[kevinholleman]

i purchased a 32 gig thrive but when i look at the free space it tells me it only has 14 gigs. that is crap. if it is being sold for 32 gigs that communicates that i will have 32 gigs to use not 14. WTF!!!!!

 

[CeluGeek]

The way capacity is advertised on the Thrive is somewhat misleading, because of the way the space is partitioned.

I have the 16 GB version and only 10.1 GB can be used for my storage. Those 10.1 GB are what a phone would recognize as an external storage card. Basically, that is a 10.1 GB virtual SD card and when we select to move an app to the SD card, it gets placed into that partition -- you cannot install applications to the REAL SD card. It seems on the 32 GB model this virtual SD card is 14 GB in size.

Where's the remaining space? It's what a phone would treat as its internal storage, where the system files are placed and where most apps get installed by default.

If you go into Settings -> Storage space, you should see under Internal Storage the total space of both the system and the virtual SD card (aka, the media) partitions combined. Mine is 14.95 GB and you should find a number much closer to the 32 GB in yours.