Toshiba is now offering a 7 inch version of the Toshiba Thrive Android tablet. The tablet went up for pre-order at a few websites last week for $430 and up, but Toshiba is now offering the new tablet for as little as $379.99.
That makes the Thrive kind of pricey when compared with a $199 Amazon Kindle Fire, but the tablet also has a bit more power under the hood:
- 7 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel display
- 1 GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual core processor
- 16GB of storage (there’s also a 32GB model)
- 1GB RAM
- Google Android 3.2 Honeycomb
The tablet has a micro HDMI port, microSD card slot, and mini USB port. You can order the tablet starting today from Toshiba or from B&H.
Toshiba’s 10 inch Thrive tablet has a user replaceable battery and full-sized USB, SD card, and HDMI ports. Those features help the tablet stand out in the crowded field of Android tablets, but the new 7 inch model is smaller and lighter, measuring about half an inch thick and weighing about 0.8 pounds.
Imagine if this was priced against the Fire and Nook Colour!
Too bad Sammy doesn’t make content on which to recoup the hardware cost on.
If they offered this with 3G and call capability, 32GB storage and ICS, I’d gladly pay the equivalent of up to $400 for it.
Of all the current Android manufacturers, the Japanese companies are by far my favourite. Maybe I can hope for a 3G + ICS updated “Thrive +” in a few months.
In terms of media playback, the Thrive’s Tegra 2 is considerably worse than the Fire or the Nook Tablet’s OMAP 4430.
It’s academic, since the tone-deaf pricing will kill this tablet. I’d look for it in bargain bins early next year for $200.