Toshiba reveals iPad 2 rival
Thrive in business
Toshiba has unveiled details of its forthcoming Android slate, previously known as the Toshiba Tablet. Officially dubbed the Thrive, the Tosh fondleslab is set to undercut the fruity market leader according to the US pricing it has announced.
We had hoped Tosh delayed launch in order to wait for Nvidia's next gen quad-core chip, Kal El. Instead, it opted for this year's widely implemented Tegra 2 dual-core processor.
The 10.1in Toshiba Thrive runs on Android 3.1 with a display resolution of 1280 x 800. It features a removable battery system, full-sized HDMI and USB ports, and packs a 5Mp rear camera with a 2Mp one on the front. It comes with the choice of different coloured rubber case covers too.
The Thrive also has a feature called USB Host, which enables the use of external devices such as a mouse or external HDDs.
Despite Toshiba manufacturing ultra-thin touchscreens, the Thrive is almost twice the thickness of an Apple iPad 2. The company has managed to keep prices marginally lower, though.
When the Toshiba Thrive goes on sale in the US this July, an 8GB model will set you back $430 (£260), 16GB will cost $480 (£294), while 32GB sells for $580 (£355).
UK pricing and availability is yet to be announced. We'll keep you posted. ®
COMMENTS
Yet more jam tomorrow?
Ah another early announcement of a low-price "iPad beater". I'll bet that when it finally reaches UK shores we will find that one or more of the following are true:-
- it doesn't work with Android Market
- it doesn't support Flash
- It's suddenly over £400 for some inexplicable reason
- it has a resistive screen which can only be viewed directly from the front
- it's at least one version behind the latest version of Android
- its storage capacity can't be increased by shoving a large-capacity SD card into it
- despite the dual-core CPU it runs like a dead sloth
If, on the other hand, none of the above materialise, I will finally put my hand into my wallet and buy it!
Not everybody.
Some of us want nothing to do with Apple at all.
hmmm, good pricing
Pricing looks good - look forward to a in depth review... it will need to do well to compete - as pricing alone doesn't do it
Keeping costs lower?
"Despite being almost twice the thickness of an Apple iPad 2, the company has done well in keeping the costs lower."
So looking at US prices the costs are lower by an whole $19, which is less than a 4% difference.
Impressive effort for a tablet twice at thick.
