Toshiba outs 7in Android 3.2 tablet
Quick, before Amazon grabs all the headlines!
Toshiba has taken the wraps off a 7in version of its Thrive tablet.
Due out in the US in December - Toshiba UK has yet to respond to our request for local availability and pricing details - the Thrive 7 sports a 1280 x 800 resolution touchscreen, SRS Labs-powered sound system and an Nvidia Tegra 2 processor running Android 3.2.
Toshiba said it will offer the tablet in two configurations: 16GB and 32GB.
Alas, like the 10in Thrive, which went on sale in the US in July - and is now available over here as the more dully named AT100 - the 7in version is on the chunky side. It's 12mm thick, rather more than the likes of the Apple iPad 2 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7, 8.9 and 10.1.
Earlier this month at the IFA consumer electronics show, Toshiba unveiled the AT200 - aka the Excite - a 10in tablet that's just 7.7mm thick. Out in Q4, it looks set to be the thinnest tablet on the market. ®
COMMENTS
Toshiba announce new android tablet...
Have they stopped supporting it yet?
...
How about now?
I don't own a tablet, but I do wonder; does the thickness of these devices really make a difference?
I can see how it would make a difference on a phone because it has to slide nicely into your pocket (although my "thick" G1 managed fine), but I don't know anyone with pockets big enough to fit a tablet in. Surely weight would be a bigger concern?
It doesn't look ugly to me, and if it's even half as reliable as their laptops it'll be a solid piece of kit.
"No benefit apart from watching movies"
So you don't think that watching movies (and also TV these days) would be one of the most obvious and common uses for a portable device with a decent sized screen and media browser?
The second common use for tablets is to read digital magazines. While magazines do usually use paper sizes with the standard sqrt(2):1 ratio, digital editions don't need to use the outside margins because the purpose is served by the tablet frame and they also dont need to use the gutter except on two-page splashes. Excluding the margins moves the ratio closer to 1.78:1 than to 1.33:1, making widescreen the better choice for display.
The third main use of tablets is for web browsing, which involves looking at content designed for PC monitors. As nearly all new monitors are widescreen these days, a sensible site designer will at the very least make his page compatible with both 4:3 and 16:9 formats, and he may even design it primarily for 16:9 display.
In summary: 16:9 format is at least as good as 4:3 for every main use of a tablet, and in most cases will be better.
Since watching movies is a major use case for this sort of device, one would think that 16:9 would be the better choice.
