Toshiba entered the Android tablet market last year with the Thrive and unfortunately they didn’t impress. For 2012 they plan to add a little excitement (pardon the pun) with the new Excite line. We had a chance to see the Excite X10 (AT200) at CES, which is the world’s thinnest 10.1-inch tablet. Fast forward a few months and it’s been morphed to the Excite 10 LE (still the AT200) for the USA. It’s still the same amazing design, but now with Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box. Toshiba still plans on adding three more tablets over the next couple of months, including the Excite 13.3, a 13.3-inch mammoth. I’ve only spent a short amount of time with the Excite 10 LE, but so far I’m very impressed. The magnesium alloy body feels great in the hands, not to mention the stock Ice Cream Sandwich experience. As I mentioned, it’s the world’s thinnest tablet at 7.7mm and is pretty light at 535 grams.
The Excite 10 LE features a 10.1-inch (1280 x 800) LED backlit display, a 1.2 GHz dual-core OMAP 4430 processor, 1 GB of RAM, 5MP rear camera, 2MP front camera, your choice of 16GB or 32GB of internal memory, microSD for up to an additional 32GB of storage, 8.5 hours of battery life, stereo speakers with SRS sound, micro HDMI, micro USB, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, and Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich. It features a 30 pin proprietary port for charging and docks, but the good news is that the micro USB will also charge the device, which lets you carry one less cable when traveling. The one negative is it’s not cheap. The 16GB version goes for $529 and the 32GB goes for $599. Is it worth the extra change?
Our own Stacy Bruce will do a full review, but for now check out our quick hands on.
