This morning, Toshiba launched their new Android tablet range. With sizes ranging from a relatively diminutive 7.7″ tablet all the way up to a massive 13.3″ behemoth they seem to have the screen sizes covered. All the tablets in their range are protected by a tough aluminium shell and have Gorilla Glass Screens, they run Android 4.0(Ice Cream Sandwich) and pack Tegra 3 CPUs, in fact the main difference between all the models appears to be mainly the screen size.
Toshiba is aiming the 7.7″ tablet at people who would are mainly interested in games, movies and photos on their tablets, the 10.1″ is aimed at increasing productivity and is described as ideal for typing, the 13.3″ tablet is perfect for watching HD movies and videos, reading newspapers and magazines, or staying productive.
Specs :
| Model # : | AT270 | AT300 | AT330 |
| Price : | $539 | $539 | $699 |
| Screen : | 7.7″ AMOLED – 1280×800 @ 196ppi | 10.1″ Adaptive Display Technology – 1280×800 @ 149ppi | 13.3″ HD LED backlit display – 1600×900 @ 138ppi |
| OS : | Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich | Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich | Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich |
| CPU : | nVIDIA Tegra 3 Processor | nVIDIA Tegra 3 Processor | nVIDIA Tegra 3 Processor |
| RAM : | 1GB | 1GB | 1GB |
| Storage : | 16GB with MicroSD Card Slot | 16GB with MicroSD Card Slot | 16GB with MicroSD Card Slot |
| Cameras : | 5MP Rear Camera – 2.0MP Front Facing Camera | 5MP Rear Camera – 2.0MP Front Facing Camera | 5MP Rear Camera – 2.0MP Front Facing Camera |
| Wireless : | Wi-Fi, Bluetoothâ„¢ V3.0 | Wi-Fi, Bluetoothâ„¢ V3.0 | Wi-Fi, Bluetoothâ„¢ V3.0 |
| Ports : | Micro USB | Micro USB, Micro HDMI | Micro USB, Micro HDMIl |
| Dimensions : | 204.5 x 135.2 x 7.85mm @ 350g | 260.7 x 178.9 x 8.93mm @ 590g | 343.77 x 211.23 x 9.81mm @ 998g |
They certainly look good, I’m not 100% sold on the idea of a 13.3″ tablet idea but I wouldn’t rule it out until I actually had a chance to have a play with one, perhaps it would be a perfect size to leave on a coffee table for reading magazines but at $699 that’s a pretty big investment. The 7.7″ tablet looks ok spec wise but price wise it’s fairly expensive considering the rumour of a quad-core 7″ Nexus tablet launching at the end of this month for $150-$250, but if that turns out to be fantasy this could be a good smaller tablet.
Like Mr. Tyson said, this sort of pricing doesn’t make any sense when Asus/Google is releasing something similar (okay, 0.7inch smaller) in the $200 price range in a few weeks.
Why are a leading brand like Toshiba releasing new tablets with half the resolution of the most common tablet purchase today (the IPAD). I can only assume that pedestrian corporate inertia prevents them from responding effectively to the changing industry landscape.
I wonder if they are still using the same screen as they did on the Thrive? When you look at the screen reflection while it is off, you can make out the shapes that covers the screen which put me off. I hope they haven’t use the same screen on this range.
Well their previous effort was the laggiest least responsive crap I’ve tried. Hopefully this is a step up. Bit on the pricey end though since Toshiba aren’t exactly the market leader
I would have expected a higher resolution screen, but alas