back to article Toshiba reveals iPad 2 rival

Toshiba has unveiled details of its forthcoming Android slate, previously known as the Toshiba Tablet. Officially dubbed the Thrive, the Tosh fondleslab is set to undercut the fruity market leader according to the US pricing it has announced. We had hoped Tosh delayed launch in order to wait for Nvidia's next gen quad-core …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    hmmm, good pricing

    Pricing looks good - look forward to a in depth review... it will need to do well to compete - as pricing alone doesn't do it

  2. nichomach
    WTF?

    Interesting currency conversion...

    "16GB will cost $480 (£355), while 32GB sells for $580 (£355)"

    Ultimate case of YMMV (Your Money May Vary)?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Tagline suggestion

    "It doesn't cost a kidney"

    But then, is an arm and a leg worth more than a kidney?

  4. Ol'Peculier

    Pricing

    This might be the time for one of my State-side friends to go shopping for me...

  5. Dirk Vandenheuvel
    Holmes

    Everybody wants an iPad 2

    ... but I guess some will settle for this.

    1. adnim

      Not everybody.

      Some of us want nothing to do with Apple at all.

      1. Alex McKenna

        As the old saying goes....

        Pearls before swine.

        1. handle

          And as the other old saying goes...

          There's one born every minute.

    2. handle

      Correction

      NOT everybody wants an iPad 2.

    3. Mr Brush
      Trollface

      Let me fix that for you

      Everybody wants a tablet...

      ...but I guess some will settle for for an iProduct.

  6. Lutin

    USB Host is not unique to Thrive

    USB host functionality comes with Honeycomb 3.1.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Random Handle

      @ Lutin

      Host support [aka Android Open Accessory support] was backported by Google and is available in Android 2.3.4 and above......

    3. Thomas 4

      Oh really?

      Could open up some really interesting possibilities, hardware wise.

  7. tmTM

    Little Difference

    The world + dog has released a Tegra2 tablet this year, there's plenty on the market with pretty similar specs.

    No mention of 3G support?

    Not really a rival for the iPad in terms of specs, but then it's not iPad2 money.

  8. Gary F
    FAIL

    Twice the thickness of ipad2?

    Surely as part of the design brief for this ToshTab was to make it at least as appealing as the market leader? So why did they make it twice as thick? Presumably it's heavier too?

    Apart from that the price for the 8GB model is excellent. Presumably that's the internal storage and there's still space to add your own 64GB SDHC card?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      duhh.....

      cause that's where they hide the keyboard silly !!!!!

  9. DrXym

    Pricing for these tablets is all wrong

    It's funny how a 32GB class 6 SDHC card can be had for $50, yet tablet manufacturers see fit to slap $50 on the price for 8GB difference and $100 on for 16GB diffence. Apple started this stupid money grabbing trend and it seems some Android tablet makers are copying it.

    I hope this Toshiba device at least sees fit to support SD storage. At least that would allow people to expand their devices without paying silly money to use extra storage.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    Too much choice...

    I like all the bits thrown in, the USB ports, the HDMI, the replaceable battery and obviously a very adaptable O/S, but I don't like the size. I want a tablet but I don't want the full 10.1" size, I want something slightly smaller.

    The phones 3"/4" size are just a little bit too small for the tired old eyes and 10" is too big for a crowded train. The old style Galaxy Tab 7" is still calling me, especially as the price may drop with the new ones coming in the next month or two.

    Decisions, decisions, decisions....

    1. gribbler

      The price may drop on the old 7" Tab...

      ...but even if it's cheap it will still be crap. I "borrowed" one of them from work for a while and I would really not recommend it.

  11. Peter Storm

    Looks good but,,,

    I hope this is better quality than the Toshiba business laptops of late, that have been rather fragile.

  12. Giles Jones Gold badge

    Had a Toshiba before

    I hope Toshiba support is better than it used to be. I had their E800 Windows PocketPC and it shipped with a VGA screen but the OS only supported QVGA.

    When the new version of the OS came out it supported VGA but Toshiba didn't implement hardware acceleration of the built in ATI graphics chip (one of the major selling points of the device), so performance sucked.

  13. David Wood

    Undercut?

    They've undercut the iPad 16GB by $19? When you're paying $500 for a gadget I don't think saving $19 is going to sway the consumer much. Having said that, it looks like a better product so I really hope it catches on.

  14. David Lawrence
    Meh

    Yet more jam tomorrow?

    Ah another early announcement of a low-price "iPad beater". I'll bet that when it finally reaches UK shores we will find that one or more of the following are true:-

    - it doesn't work with Android Market

    - it doesn't support Flash

    - It's suddenly over £400 for some inexplicable reason

    - it has a resistive screen which can only be viewed directly from the front

    - it's at least one version behind the latest version of Android

    - its storage capacity can't be increased by shoving a large-capacity SD card into it

    - despite the dual-core CPU it runs like a dead sloth

    If, on the other hand, none of the above materialise, I will finally put my hand into my wallet and buy it!

    1. Peter 48
      Stop

      which rock have you been hiding under?

      you clearly haven't been looking very much over the last few months. The Asus EEE Pad Transformer, Acer Icona A500, and to some degrees the Xoom to name a few all meet your criteria.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      WTF?

      I have jam today

      I have an Android tablet which falsifies all of these. Available from many UK outlets today.

    3. John Bailey
      Holmes

      Oh give it a rest.

      We get it, you like Apple..

      Now go back to bragging about market caps and user experiences, and leave the grown-ups to talk.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Angel

    Currency Conversions

    I'd imagine that $430 (£260) will become on launch $430 (£10,000,000 + VAT.)

  16. dotdavid
    Meh

    UK pricing

    It may be yet to be announced, but basically it will be "take the dollar sign off and substitute a pound sign", mark my words.

    Not *that* cheap, about the same as other similar tablets to be honest.

  17. twunt

    How does it look better?

    David Wood 'Having said that, it looks like a better product so I really hope it catches on.'

    How does it look better? I looks ugly, and we know that Android Tablet apps are still no where iPad apps either in quantity OR quality.

    So for only slightly less money you get an uglier, fatter machine, with hardly any apps to run on it.

    Considering you can get a 1st Gen ipad for £289 from apple, you'd be foolish to look at this, or any Android tablet to be honest

    http://store.apple.com/uk/product/FB292B/A (out of stock, but regularly back in)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Gimp

      Here

      is your icon.

    2. P Zero
      WTF?

      Le sigh

      Don't buy tablet > Don't make apps for it > Why buy tab if there's no apps for it > ad infinitum

      Can I have widgets on an ipad natively? Can I pick my browser? Are there restrictions on where I may purchase apps without compromising the system?

      Personally, I'm glad Toshiba aren't trying to clone the iFondleslab. Usually their machines are quite excellent and I'm not gay for minimalistic design, so this would be fine for me. I don't particularly care if it's heavier, it'll stop me waving it in people's faces incessantly like a giddy schoolgirl.

    3. Peter 48
      Paris Hilton

      you too can buy a useless pretty thing

      The original ipad for £289? Great so now you can buy a tablet with a pretty screen that has no sd card slot or usb support, can't view a significant number of websites that use flash and needs a dedicated computer to be able to use it, has highly limited support for differing file formats and still can't multitask properly and is slow. Wow, such a bargain! But at least it's thinner and has lots of accessories, just like Paris.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Keeping costs lower?

    "Despite being almost twice the thickness of an Apple iPad 2, the company has done well in keeping the costs lower."

    So looking at US prices the costs are lower by an whole $19, which is less than a 4% difference.

    Impressive effort for a tablet twice at thick.

  19. Peter Ford
    Meh

    Smaller memory sizes

    Will Toshiba actually allow anyone to sell the 8GB and 16GB versions?

    I looked for the Acer A500 in 16GB form: in theory it's quite a bit cheaper than the 32GB version.

    Only you can't buy one: in the UK, at least, no-one is listing it...

  20. Tom Samplonius
    Stop

    What about the Handibook?

    I'll wait for the Toshiba Handibook instead.

  21. Tony Paulazzo
    Big Brother

    Flash (saviour of the universe)

    Actually, since 4od and BBCi have both released apps for the ipad, I've found I no longer crave Flash as much (esp. as it seems I have to update the bugger twice a month these days). And since most of the recent tablets are pretty similiar specs wise, I only have two criteria:

    1. Battery life

    2. Screen quality and type

    I have the first gen 16GB ipad, and don't get me wrong, I still love it (after 7 months it still requires charging up at least every other night), but that 16GB limit is seriously pissing me off and fuck Steve Jobs for not putting in a tiny microsd option - how much would that of cost? but its non appearance does mean having to go to another tablet when I finally feel the need to upgrade, which in turn means not being too sucked into the Apple eco system too much.

    But so far, what other tablet has a better screen and battery life? Still waiting.

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