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.
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.
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.
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.