Up until now, tablets have for the most part been produced and made available commercially in two different sizes: either the smaller 7-inch or less like the Kindle Fire or Galaxy Tab 2 or the larger 10-inch tablet like the iPad.
However, there now seems to be a new extra large size available from Toshiba. The company recently unveiled its new 13-inch Android tablet as part of its new Excite range alongside the Excite 10.1-inch and Excite 7.7-inch tablets. The line-up of Android 4.0 powered tablets is part of Toshiba’s strategy to provide consumers with next-generation features that compete head-to-head with Apple devices but are more affordable.
The Excite 13 tablet, undoubtedly the highlight of the range, unsurprisingly packs more weight than the standard tablets currently available on the mass market, weighing in at just under 1 kilograms although it is only o.4 inches thick.
It also features a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 chip with GeForce graphics and 1GB of RAM and as with the Thrive tablet that the Excite is replacing, has micro USB and micro HDMI ports, plus a full-size SD card slot. Its LED-backlit LCD screen has a resolution of 1,600 x 900 pixels and a widescreen (16:9) aspect ratio, and 10-finger touch support.
The question then, is why would anyone want a tablet that big? Surely its sheer size makes it cumbersome and defeats the purpose of a lightweight and mobile device that tablets aims to provide? Well, Toshiba has offered up some of the following reasons:
Firstly, the size becomes advantageous when a group of people are gathering around one tablet to collectively view a video or look at photos. If you have kids that ordinarily fight over who is using the device or you’re considering buying more than one, the size of the tablet solves that problem by allowing users to share it.
The other reason may be if you’re looking for a tablet for a casual gaming platform. By laying the Excite tablet on a flat surface, it can be used as an electronic board game for people gathered around “” similar to Microsoft Surface. Also, if propped up on a kickstand users can see media clearly from a short distance away.
If the Exite is something you’d like to get your hands on, here is what you need to know – the tablet will retail in the U.S. starting at a price of $650 for 32GB of storage and $750 for the 64GB version.
As far as the other tablets go The Excite 10 is priced at $449 for 16 gigabytes, $529 for 32 gigabytes, and $649 for 64 gigabytes. The Excite 7.7 will cost $499 for 16 gigabytes and $579 for 32 gigabytes.
At CES 2012 in January, Toshiba unveiled the Excite X10 that was dubbed the world’s thinnest tablet measuring just 0.3-inches in thickness.
Sources: Mashable, Venture Beat
