Digital hand-writing is a neat concept, but its often bundled into devices that are extremely expensive. Not so with the Toshiba Encore 2 Write 8, a Windows tablet that packs an awesome stylus for $349.
Plenty of tablets have hit store shelves with a stylus in tow, but the quality of the experience has varied considerably – along with prices. Most systems suffer from either a mediocre stylus or a sky-high MSRP, and sometimes both.
Toshiba is trying to change that with its new Encore 2 Write 8. This 8-inch Windows tablet is powered by an Intel Atom quad-core processor and comes complete with stylus for only $349. That’s a smoking great deal, but does it result in a compromised device? Not if digital writing is what you want.
There are a few key elements that tie this Toshiba together. First is the stylus itself, which is actually quite advanced, providing 2,000 levels of pressure sensitivity and active features for erasing and manipulating text. The tablet itself helps, too, as it weighs in at just eight-tenths of a pound.
What really cinches the deal, though, is the trio of software utilities. TruNote is essentially a virtual notepad that can port text input to other software, including Microsoft Office. TruCapture is a camera scan utility that can be used to capture text from physical media. And TruRecorder is an audio capture utility that can be helpful for transcribing or clarify audio.
The Encore 2’s digital writing experience punches above its price tag.
All of this may sound confusing, but in practice it works incredibly well. The stylus is intuitive, the software is easy to use and the tablet, being light, is easy to handle. Toshiba has effectively managed to take the writing experience I’d expect from a much more expensive device, like Microsoft’s Surface, and bring it down to an entry-level price point. That’s important. Using a Windows device for writing is useful, but also a bit of a niche, and throwing close to thousand dollars at a device with the capability doesn’t make sense for most people.
As a tablet, then, the Toshiba Encore 2 Write 8 works. But can it also serve as a laptop? Probably not. The company says a Bluetooth keyboard case will be available separately, but I didn’t have a chance to try it. Given that it’s a case, not a latching dock, I don’t have much hope the experience will be more than a stop-gap for moments when a keyboard is absolutely required.
Performance is questionable, as well. A quad-core Intel Atom with a base clock of 1.33GHz, flanked by just 2GB of RAM, provides the go, and a more powerful processor isn’t available. While I saw no problem in my time with the device, I know from experience that this combination can be overwhelmed when multiple applications or browser tabs are open.
There is a larger version of this tablet, the Encore 2 Write 10, which is essentially identical except for the screen which (of course) measures 10 inches diagonally. It doesn’t provide a boost in performance or a better keyboard solution, but it does cost $50 more, for a total of $399. That may mean the smaller device is the better deal, as its more accomplished at the task this device was designed to accomplish.
Toshiba caught me off guard with this device. While it’s a bit niche, it’s inexpensive enough to be affordable and offers a digital writing experience that punches above its weight. Students, small businesses and artists should give this Toshiba, which is available now, a shot.
Affinity’s new all-in-one creative app is finally coming to the iPad, nearly a year after Canva launched the redesigned desktop version for Mac and Windows. Creatives have been asking for the iPad release ever since, especially because files created in the new Affinity app cannot be opened in the older V2 iPad apps.
Affinity already has Photo, Designer, and Publisher apps on iPad, but the new release combines those tools into the same unified app that Canva launched on desktop last year.
Touchscreen laptops have been around for years. You can get them in all sizes and shapes. Just not from Apple. For years, the Cupertino giant has treated the idea of a touchscreen MacBook the way I treat a meeting that could have been an email: with open contempt. However, Wednesday looks like the day the company could finally change its mind.
The latest Apple invite puts the “Pro and Tell” showcase in Los Angeles at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) on October 28, 2026. Instead of a regular live-streamed keynote, it is an invitation-only, hands-on event for a handful of press and creators (similar to what the company did for the MacBook Neo earlier this year).
Apple has just launched its latest iPad mini with a notable set of upgrades, including an OLED screen, improved speakers, and a more resilient build. It also gets a new chip, and the whole package costs $200 more than its predecessor. But if you look closely at Apple’s online store, you’ll realize that $699 isn’t enough to get you the most powerful version of the A20 Pro chip inside this tablet. In fact, even if you pay $800 for the 256GB model, you still won’t get the beefiest variant. Only when you jump to the 512GB trim, which costs an absurd $999, do you get the most powerful flavor of the A20 Pro.
The $999 model gets more than extra storage