Apparently taking its cue from Samsung, Toshiba is focusing on thinner, sleeker offerings in the tablet market, but the Japanese company is not skimping on screen size. Today Toshiba said it’s upgrading its Excite line of Android tablets with three new products named for their display sizes: the Excite 13, Excite 10 and Excite 7.7.
The Excite 13 actually has a 13.3-inch diagonal AutoBrite™ LED Backlit display, the biggest display of any tablet currently on the market. It comes with a stand to facilitate video viewing and/or video chatting. Although it weighs more than 2 pounds, the Excite 13 is still less than half an inch thick.
The Excite 10 is the closest in size to Toshiba’s current Excite tablet. With a 10.1 inch display, this tablet is just 0.35 inches thick and weighs 1.32 pounds, while the Excite 7.7 is a fraction of an inch thinner and weighs in at just 13.4 ounces. All of these tablets are significantly thinner than the Toshiba Thrive, which weighs 1.66 pounds and is 0.63 inches thick.
All three new tablets are powered by Nvidia Tegra™ 3 quad-core processors and Android 4.0, and include a 5-megapixel camera on the back and a 2-megapixel camera on the front. They all come pre-loaded with Google Play, YouTube, and Toshiba Book Place, which offers more than 3 million books.
“The multiple SKUs will definitely strengthen Toshiba’s in-store presence,” says Neil Shah, wireless device analyst for Strategy Analytics. “But the Japanese vendor won’t be able to make significant impact due to lower brand awareness, fewer carrier partnerships and limited mindshare among US consumers.”
In the past, Toshiba has offered its tablets through online and big box retailers like Best Buy. The company told PCMag that the Excite 13 will be Wi-Fi only, so it seems unlikely that any of these new tablets will be offered through carriers.
The Excite 10 tablet goes on sale at the beginning of next month at suggested retail prices of $500 – $650 depending on memory. The 13 and the 7.7 will not be available until June. The Excite 13 starts at $650 (suggested retail price) and the Excite 7.7 will start at $500.
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