Engadget’s back to school guide 2012: tablets

Posted on 07/08/2012 by Daniel Cooper

Welcome to Engadget's back to school guide! The end of summer vacation isn't nearly as much fun as the weeks that come before, but a chance to update your tech tools likely helps to ease the pain. Today, we're leaning back with our tablets -- and you can head to the back to school hub to see the rest of the product guides as they're added throughout the month. Be sure to keep checking back -- at the end of August we'll be giving away a ton of the gear featured in our guides -- you can hit up the hub page right here!

Your back may be straining from the textbooks, laptop, gym gear and lunch in that dangling overstuffed messenger, but you're still gonna want to save room for one more item -- a tablet. After all, while you can surf, tweet, play games and watch video from your other devices, there's nothing like doing it from a simple glass window that sits in the palm of your hand. As the hardware gets more powerful, these devices are rapidly becoming versatile enough to let you justify leaving the laptop at home on less-intensive days, so why not check out our picks of the finest devices you should be using and abusing before, during and after class.

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Filed under: Tablet PCs

Engadget's back to school guide 2012: tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Aug 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba unites PC, tablet and TV design groups, aims for hub of digital harmony

Posted on 12/07/2012 by Jon Fingas

Toshiba is one of the few Japanese tech giants to be riding high from a cash standpoint, but the company is still looking for ways to trim the fat -- not to mention get some fresh design in the process. The firm is merging the design team for its Regza TVs into the same western Tokyo facility that houses its PC and tablet groups. While there's a certain amount of cost-cutting involved, the shift will help "fusion products," Toshiba says, where TV influences PCs and tablets (or vice versa) like so much chocolate getting into peanut butter. The only amount of discord left might be in Toshiba's TV production, where quality and production controls are being outsourced and more of the production itself is leaving Japan. As much as we'd argue that the Excite 13 is almost too much like a TV to begin with, we'll only find out whether or not there's merit to Toshiba's design nirvana after the groups get cozy with each other later this year.

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Filed under: Desktops, Home Entertainment, Laptops, Tablet PCs

Toshiba unites PC, tablet and TV design groups, aims for hub of digital harmony originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jul 2012 09:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba Excite 13 review: a big-screened tablet with a price to match

Posted on 25/06/2012 by Sarah Silbert

Well, this lede pretty much wrote itself. A 13-inch tablet, seriously? Toshiba is pushing the form factor limits with the Excite 13, and while its dimensions make it stand out in a sea of 7- and 10-inch devices, that isn't necessarily what tablet buyers are looking for.

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There's no shortage of skepticism about such a large slate -- "slab" seems appropriate here -- so the Toshiba Excite 13 needs to provide an exceptional experience, with a brilliant display and smooth graphics, to make 2.2 pounds seem more palatable. On paper, its specs are promising: there's a quad-core Tegra 3 CPU under the hood, a 1600 x 900 display at 138 ppi and a clean build of Android 4.0. The company already has the Excite 7.7 and Excite 10 in its arsenal, and their good performance and bright displays make for compelling tablets. But how does a 13-inch tablet that starts at $650 round out that trio? Read on for our full impressions.

Gallery: Toshiba Excite 13 review

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Toshiba Excite 13 review: a big-screened tablet with a price to match originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jun 2012 15:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba announces Excite 10, 7.7 and 13 tablets, Thrive slates on their way out

Posted on 10/04/2012 by Dana Wollman

You complained, Toshiba listened. After its Thrive tablets were widely panned for their short battery life and chunky, cheap-feeling design, the outfit decided to put those models out to pasture and start anew. So bid goodbye to the Thrives, then, and say hello to the Excite 7.7, 10 and 13 (yes, 13). If you've been paying attention, these are the same tablets we first saw in prototype form at CES (and again at Mobile World Congress), complete with their slim builds and textured aluminum backs. Now, though we know that all three will pack NVIDIA's Tegra 3 SoC, and ship with unskinned Ice Cream Sandwich. The 7.7, in particular, sports the same AMOLED display inside the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7, while the 13-incher steps up to 1600 x 900 resolution (as opposed to 1280 x 800). Oh, and for those of you who think you'll miss the 10-inch Thrive's full-sized SD slot, that feature carries over to the Excite 10 and 13. (As you can imagine, there was no room for the full-sized USB and HDMI ports on tablets this thin.)

Before we go any further, though, we're sure you want to hear more about that 13-incher in particular. First off, no, we're not joking. This is a 13-inch ARM-powered tablet. Not a 13-inch slate with Ultrabook specs; just a really big Android tablet. Why would you want such a thing, you ask? Well, Toshiba's banking on you using this indoors, particularly in the kitchen where you might want to glance at recipes or the weather forecast. In conversations about the product, company reps emphasized the tablet's tough Gorilla Glass display, though they seem oblivious to the fact that you could do all of the above with a $400 iPad 2, or any other mid-range tablet, for that matter. It's an important thing to consider, given that the Excite 13 will set you back a princely $650 for 32GB when it goes on sale June 10th.

In addition, the Excite 13 will be available with 64GB of storage for $750 (!). The Excite 7.7 is also coming June 10th, at which point it'll cost $500 for the 16GB flavor and $580 for the 32GB configuration. The 10-inch will beat them both to market, arriving May 6th starting at $500 for 16GB of built-in storage. There will also be a 32GB version for $530 and a 64GB number for $650. For now, we've got photos below, and you can check out our hands-on from CES if you prefer your gadget porn have some video.

Gallery: Toshiba Excite 7.7, 10 and 13