ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 review: meet the company’s new top-of-the-line tablet

Posted on 25/06/2012 by Dana Wollman

More Info

ASUS Eee Pad MeMO ME171, ME370T and high-end Transformer Prime TF700T revealed
ASUS rebrands its tablets 'Transformer Pads,' announces the high-end Infinity Series with either Tegra 3 or Snapdragon's S4 chip
ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity Series hits the FCC

When ASUS first teased the Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 back at CES, many customers looked on, simmering with rage. You see, only several weeks earlier the company started selling the Transformer Prime, a top-tier tablet priced at a not-so-cheap $500. It was a state-of-the-art product... until ASUS unveiled the TF700, a tablet that was similar, only better. It, too, has a Tegra 3 chip and 8-megapixel camera, but it adds a higher-res, 1920 x 1200 display and promises improved signal reception, a pain point for the Prime.

Little did those disgruntled Prime owners know it would actually be a long time before the TF700 ever became available. Now, we're finally hearing it will go on sale in the US in mid-July, at which point the Prime is expected to drop in price before it gets discontinued. But is the TF700 all that much of an improvement over the original? And how does it stack up against comparably priced tablets, such as the new iPad, Acer Iconia Tab A700 and Toshiba Excite 10? Check out our early review to find out.

Gallery: ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 review

Continue reading ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 review: meet the company's new top-of-the-line tablet

ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 review: meet the company's new top-of-the-line tablet originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jun 2012 03:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Toshiba Excite 10 review: a 10-inch ICS tablet that puts the Thrive to shame

Posted on 07/06/2012 by Sarah Silbert

Toshiba Excite 10 review a 10inch ICS tablet that puts the Thrive to shame

More Info

In the tablet market, big as it is, one notion generally holds true: thinner equals better. Toshiba, for example, surely tried to equate a svelte silhouette with a premium product in its super-slim Excite 10 LE. And indeed, its 1.18-pound body and solid Honeycomb experience add up to tablet that puts Toshiba's earlier Thrives to shame. That $530 model is definitely priced like a high-end tablet, but it's accompanied by a new, lower-priced Toshiba slate, the Excite 10.

For $450, you get a tablet with a tad more meat on its bones, but that increase in weight and thickness comes with some more powerful specs: a quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor with 1GB of RAM -- not to mention Ice Cream Sandwich. While you can probably guess which of these slates makes a stronger contender (hint: the one without the "LE"), figuring out the Toshiba Excite 10's place in the grand hierarchy of tablets takes a little more exploration. Luckily, that's what we're here for, so join us past the break as we do our best to get through the review without a single "excite" pun.

Gallery: Toshiba Excite 10

Continue reading Toshiba Excite 10 review: a 10-inch ICS tablet that puts the Thrive to shame

Toshiba Excite 10 review: a 10-inch ICS tablet that puts the Thrive to shame originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Jun 2012 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Toshiba Excite 10 ICS tablet goes on sale, prices start at $450 for 16GB model

Posted on 07/05/2012 by Edgar Alvarez

It's been a little less than a month since Toshiba unveiled its trio of Ice Cream Sandwich slates, the Excite 7.7, 10 and 13, and starting today you'll be able to grab one of these for yourself. Unlike we'd previously heard, though, Toshiba's pricing the 16GB, 10.1-inch Excite at $449.99 -- which is 50 bucks less than what we were told back when it was announced. Meanwhile, if you're looking for the more spacious 32GB and 64GB models, you'll have to drop about $530 and $650, respectively. In exchange for that cash, you'll be getting an NVIDIA Tegra 3 SoC CPU and a taste of vanilla-flavored Android 4.0, among other things. We know Toshiba's got you excited, so head over to one of the source links below to pop your order in. Otherwise you can wait until the other two slabs go on sale next month.

Continue reading Toshiba Excite 10 ICS tablet goes on sale, prices start at $450 for 16GB model

Toshiba Excite 10 ICS tablet goes on sale, prices start at $450 for 16GB model originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 May 2012 17:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | source

Toshiba, Amazon | Email this | Comments

Toshiba AT330 gets FCC approval, on track for June 10th launch date

Posted on 02/05/2012 by Sarah Silbert

Toshiba's 7.7-inch and 10.1-inch Excite tablets (known also by their respective model numbers, AT270 and AT300) have had their time in the FCC spotlight, and now it's the 13-incher's turn. The ARM-powered AT330 looks to be on track for its on-sale date of June 10th, so it has a good month to sit tight alongside its 7.7-inch sibling. As for that FCC report, no surprises there: Toshiba hasn't slipped in an LTE radio without warning us or anything scintillating like that -- just Bluetooth and WiFi tests here. So you can rest assured that the AT330 will be safe to use, but the jury is still out on how many people want a $650, 13-inch tablet.

Toshiba AT330 gets FCC approval, on track for June 10th launch date originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 May 2012 17:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | source

FCC | Email this | Comments

Toshiba sings NAND Flash’s praises, thinks you should too

Posted on 02/05/2012 by Sarah Silbert

Have you taken a moment today to stop and thank NAND Flash for existing? No? Well, Toshiba would like to say tsk, tsk. Today the company launched a full-scale campaign to promote this storage technology -- and by full-scale we mean a dedicated "25 Years of NAND Flash" website, a "NAND Flash Deprivation Experiment" video series, new Facebook and Twitter accounts and a Toshiba Excite 10 giveaway. We must have missed the memo that NAND was dangerously underappreciated, because we're still trying to figure out why it needs a marketing campaign of its own. Toshiba has a slew of laptop refreshes and the Excite 7.7 and 13 tablets just around the corner -- and that interim period between announcement and launch date can be killer -- but somehow talking up NAND Flash doesn't seem the right course of action. Take a look at the campaign's first video below the break and decide for yourself.

Continue reading Toshiba sings NAND Flash's praises, thinks you should too

Toshiba sings NAND Flash's praises, thinks you should too originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 May 2012 02:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Toshiba AT300 gets Excited at the FCC

Posted on 11/04/2012 by James Trew

Toshiba 10 AT300 lands in FCC, gets Excited

As we rub our eyes and squint at the sliver of a label on the FCC report, we can clearly see it reads Toshiba AT300. This, as you may recall, was the model number worn by the Japan-only 10.1 inch Regza tab. But wait! We can also read "Excite 10 AT300" and "Excite 10 305" on the same report, suggesting this is actually one of the new trio of Excites revealed just yesterday. Makes sense, seeing as the new 10-incher needs to have all its paperwork sorted by May 6th.

Toshiba AT300 gets Excited at the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | source

FCC | Email this | Comments

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