Toshiba Announces Excite 10 LE, Shipping March 6th
by Vivek Gowri on March 1, 2012 3:56 AM EST
At CES this year, we got a chance to go hands on with the Excite, Toshiba's latest and greatest Android slate. To recap, it's an OMAP4 device that features a 10.1" 1280 x 800 IPS display and measures in at a downright anorexic 7.7mm thick. At the time, we were given the price points Toshiba planned to hit, but no firm details as to availability or what OS it would ship with.
Today, Toshiba announced that the Excite, formally titled the Excite 10 LE for the US market, will be available for purchase from retailers starting on March 6th, next Tuesday. Pricing is $529.99 and $599.99 for the 16GB and 32GB models respectively, as was known previously.
Since CES, the clock speed of the OMAP 4430 SoC has been raised to 1.2GHz. Unfortunately, Toshiba has decided to launch the Excite with Honeycomb, promising an upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich later in the spring. We demoed the Excite at CES running ICS, and it seemed relatively stable then, so it's a bit disappointing to see the shipping device on Honeycomb.
We're on the list for an evaluation unit of the Excite, and we'll work to get the review out as soon as possible.
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EnzoFX - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
7.7" thickVivekGowri - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
Riiiiiiiight, that's supposed to be 7.7mm, sorry.ImSpartacus - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
Sometimes I wish these products were a *little* closer to 7.7" thick...Just enough so that battery life is a non-issue.
Oh God, that reminds me. I hope Apple doesn't make the MBPs thinner...
frozentundra123456 - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
Just can't see paying this much for a tablet now. I have an Acer 7inch that I got open box for 200.00, and I am happy with that. But at 500.00 plus I would still get a laptop. Not having a keyboard or windows is too limiting at that price. Maybe a win 8 tablet would be worth it, but after several months of use the virtual keyboard still drives me crazy.piroroadkill - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
Well, no shit, it's why only iPads have been successful (apple fans will buy anything), and why other tablets of this price haven't been successful (you could buy a proper laptop for the same price).mwarner1 - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
Tablets are not meant to be hugely productive - their appeal lies in their (usually) excellent quality IPS touchscreen displays, silent operation and superb battery life.In other words, they are useful as secondary devices for media consumption, but you would be out of your mind to buy them as a primary machine (even on a Transformer).
Personally I have a Desktop,11.6" laptop, a Motorola Xoom and HP Touchpad running CM9. I would say I use them in roughly this proportion:
11.6" Laptop - 70%
Touchpad - 20%
Desktop - 5%
Xoom - 5%
The desktop only really gets used for media transcoding (as it is faster) or perhaps long document writing. The Xoom I really need to get rid of now that the Touchpad is stable on ICS - the Xoom's screen is so much worse than the Touchpad.
frozentundra123456 - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
the other thing that annoys me that I forgot to mention is that the price never seems to come down. Every other new line of electronics I can remember came down in price with each generation. (Computers and TVs come to mind). But Tablets just seem to be stuck or even going up slightly with each new model.I work in a lab with several students from foreign countries and they seem to really like tablets for using skype to talk to people back home. I could see this an an ideal use.
Ammaross - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
My $300 refurb laptop has a great screen, front facing camera for Skype, and has lots of other functionality. Why buy a tablet for Skyping home with in that case? The only time(s) I've seen the use in tablets is their "just take it and go" functionality. Take it to a meeting to take quick notes (calendar, but that's on the phone too...), pull something up without pulling out the (sometimes) brick of a laptop (ideal use), or glance through photos or turn into a picture frame/clock when not in use... Oh, and Angry Birds. :PAs for the price, when they run out of "new" old boundaries to break (core count, CPU speed, screen resolution, RAM amount, storage, etc) they'll have to start competing on price. Until then, they'll keep selling the "4 cores!" or "retina display!" or "2GB RAM!" to keep the pricing on par with the previous gen stuff. Do you upgrade from Sandy Bridge to Ivy Bridge just for the extra bit of unused on-die GPU and a touch of a performance bump you won't actually notice? No. You get it for the host of other features (if you need them) and you pay for it.
Flyguy2929 - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
Toshiba is shipping this to get the "world's thickest Android Tabket" monkey off its back. They miscalcukated on try ok ng to turn a tabket into a netbook, minus the keyboard but with full size ports and poor batgery life. The comeback is to rectify the mistake with a tablet that is only better than their own product but with no idea of how to be heads and shoulders above what the comoetition is doing. Sounds a lot like RIM. Toshiba sbould take a cue from Asus or Amazon and stop using Samsung as the model to knock off.LordConrad - Thursday, March 1, 2012 - link
I disagree, I think Toshiba's Thrive is the tablet that came closest to getting it right. The full size SD card slot is great for for showing photos without having to pass around my camera. The user replaceable battery is just awesome. Thanks to the thickness of the Thrive and it's rubber backing, I can maintain a good grip without worrying about dropping or breaking it. I don't understand this obsession with super thin electronics. I would rather have my gadgets feel sturdy and substantial instead of flimsy and delicate.