Toshiba announces new Excite series of tablets
Toshiba just officially announced its new line of tablets, Toshiba Excite, which will replace the Toshiba Thrive series. The new series will consist of three tablets from the start, the Excite 7.7, 10, and…13. That’s right, a 13 inch Android tablet! All three tablets will ship with stock ICS and use the Tegra 3 chip. Starting with the smallest of the bunch the 7.7 is basically Toshiba’s version of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7. It has a 7.7 inch AMOLED screen, likely 800 x 1280 pixels, is about 8 mm thick, 380 grams, and has a microSD slot. That put it so close to the Galaxy Tab 7.7 in terms of specs and size/weight that it’s no mystery what it’s based on. ICS, Tegra 3 and a $500 price point however makes this tablet more impressive if you go by these specs alone. It will launch June 10th.
The Excite 10 is going to be the more traditional tablet. It’s a ~9mm, ~600 gram device with the traditional 1280 x 800 pixel 10.1-inch screen that so many Android tablets have. MicroHDMI and a full sized SD card slot are nice to have in a tablet like that, and with ICS and Tegra 3 it’s going to be a nice choice when it launches for $450 on May 6th.
Finally there’s the Excite 13, arguably the most unique of the bunch. A 13 inch Android tablet is definitely something new and interesting, and the specs back that up. Size-wise you’re looking at about 10 mm thick and roughly 1kg in weight, the latter of which is definitely higher than 10 inch tablets (as you’d expect). The screen is a 13.3-inch 1600 x 900 resolution beast, which is both higher resolution and physically bigger than most tablets. Toshiba is marketing this as a multimedia tablet, promoting its four speakers and included stand as ways to make the most out of the big screen. While it’s still portable of course, the Excite 13 is perhaps more the type of tablet you would use at home, be it in bed or in the kitchen. It will launch June 10th as well and set you back $650, so it’s definitely not your average Android tablet.
The 13 is definitely the most interesting tablet here (though I look forward to more info on the 7.7 too) and I’m not sure what I think of an Android tablet that big. I can certainly see uses for it, especially things like video and Splashtop. I think that if I were to buy the 13, I would also have bought the 7.7 and used those together. A 13 inch screen is better than a 10 inch screen for a lot of things, and at the same time, both those sizes seem huge compared to a ~7 inch tablet. Either way, I have to give Toshiba credit for the first tablet announcement in as long as I can remember that didn’t make me bang my head against the wall and scream “not another one” as I saw the announcement, as all three of these new tablets are products that look very good on paper.
[Engadget]
