Sneak Peek at Future Toshiba Tablets
by Jason Inofuentes on January 12, 2012 12:07 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
- Toshiba
- CES
- Ice Cream Sandwich
- Thrive
- Tegra 3
- CES 2012
Ahead of CES, Toshiba revealed their Thrive successor, the Excite X10. This 7.7 mm thick slate would feature a 10.1" 1280x800 Gorilla Glass display and run Android 3.2 (and later 4.0) on a 1.2 GHz TI OMAP 4430 SoC with 1 GB of RAM. We didn't have a chance today to spend some time handling the device but we did see it and some of its kin locked behind glas on the show floor, and all four merit some mention.
Sporting a unique frame, the smallest of the bunch was a 5.1" tablet with a 21:9 aspect ratio. Meant as a purely media consumption device the product is a response to the prevalence of premium film and television content available in this ratio. The displayed sample is meant to gauge interest more than indicate a production direction, so if this really appeals to you, don't get your hopes up.
Slotting in between the 5.1" concept and the 10.1" Excite X10 is an unnamed tablet featuring a gorgeous 7.7" AMOLED display. Colors were bright and vibrant, while viewing angles were excellent. No comment was made regarding the display manufacturer, though with LG stepping out of the small AMOLED market the list of possible vendors is limited.
We will try and spend some time with the Excite X10 before the show ends, but in the meanwhile we spent some time ogling a tablet we never expected to see but could learn to love. At 13.3" the concept is meant to further fill the space between a tablet and a traditional PC, per Toshiba reps. If placed in production the device would feature a full line of accessories including a docking stand and a keyboard and mouse to provide input options that would help fill the role of the PC. Aiding in this desktop like experience would be a Tegra 3 SoC and a display that would most likely hit 1920x1080. Though quite large the slate was still impressively thin, measuring roughly 10 mm.
We'll be sure to follow up with Toshiba frequently to see whether any of these products make it to market.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
9 Comments
View All Comments
hlovatt - Thursday, January 12, 2012 - link
After all the trouble Samsung have had with their tablet looking so much like an iPad you would have thought other tablet manufacturers would try and do something at least a little different.Lonyo - Thursday, January 12, 2012 - link
It's a tablet... what "different" is there?Subzero0000 - Thursday, January 12, 2012 - link
Oh, you don't say ! Tablet before iPad was so much "different". Google it please.B3an - Thursday, January 12, 2012 - link
Oh look another uneducated Apple fanboy.. Thats just so rare!!/sarcasm
There was many tablets before iPad that looked like Apples design. Once again Apple copied.
Theres the HP Slate, and the JooJoo tablet for a start. Exact same looks, shape and form. Only difference is they're thicker as they didn't use ARM and instead used beefier x86 CPU's.
Even the old HP TC1100 looked a little like the iPad's form, but pre-dates it by many years.
B3an - Thursday, January 12, 2012 - link
Before anyone says it i know the Slate and JooJoo were released later on, but their designs were shown before the iPad. And the TC1100 was released many years before iPad.ananduser - Thursday, January 12, 2012 - link
Apple does not have a patent on something as basic as a square device with round corners. This is the upscaled basic shape of smartphones before the iphone.Cygni - Thursday, January 12, 2012 - link
Hey boss, maybe if we just flood the market with a bazillion different sized iPad clones, we can somehow steal some market share despite the mediocre OS and no market demand!Great idea, Lee!
bplewis24 - Thursday, January 12, 2012 - link
I don't understand how people like you are able to hunt/gather enough sustenance to make it through each day.jaganm - Thursday, January 12, 2012 - link
Toshiba's support for its existing tablets has been pathetic. The Folio was abandoned and though the Thrive shares similar specs with virtually every other Honeycomb tablet, there is no word from Toshiba on whether it will get the Ice Cream Sandwich update. Mind you, this is for an update that is absolutely necessary to fix a broken, unstable OS (Honeycomb)In such a scenario, why should anyone trust Toshiba with another overpriced product?