Toshiba unveils 'giant' 13-inch Android tablet

Are you Excited?

Toshiba yesterday unveiled its new Android tablet- the largest available on the market today. 

The 13.3-inch tablet is part of Toshiba's Excite family and was introduced alongside new 10.1-inch and 7.7-inch options.

Each of the three new tablets runs on a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 mobile processor and features Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Each has a 5-megapixel camera, HD video capabilities and scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass displays.

How Toshiba differentiated its new tablets, however, is by the size of those displays.

"One size does not fit all, so we are carefully considering how and where people are using tablets and designing form factors to best suit various needs," said Carl Pinto, vice president of product development at Toshiba America Information Systems, Digital Products Division, in a statement.

The largest of the three, the 13.3-inch Excite 13, is said by the company to be the best suited for gaming and media enthusiasts by "delivering more screen real estate than any other tablet on the market."

It measures 0.4-inch thick and weighs in at slightly more than 2 pounds. A 1,600 x 900 resolution and a four-speaker sound system make the Excite 13 ideal for home use, Toshiba said. It has 1 GB of RAM, 13 hours of battery life and seven days of stand-by.

The 10.1-inch Excite 10 has slightly lower specs but offers greater portability, the company said. It is thinner and lighter than its 13.3-inch counterpart, weighing in at 1.32 pounds and measuring 0.35 inch thick, but it offers a shorter battery life of 10 hours. The Excite 10 has a resolution of 1,280 x 800 and, like the larger Excite 13, delivers 1 GB of RAM.

The smaller Excite 7.7 is being positioned as the "on-the-go" option for consumers. Its form factor is the smallest of the three, with a thin 0.3-inch frame and a weight of 13.4 ounces, and has the same 1,280 x 800 resolution as the Excite 10.

Toshiba said all three tablets include the full suite of Google Mobile Service applications, including Google Play, YouTube, Gmail and Google Maps. Toshiba's homegrown software, including the e-book offering Toshiba Book Place, and Toshiba Media player, also come preloaded.

The Excite 13 tablet will be available in the US in June, starting at $US649.99 for the 32-GB model and $US749.99 for the 64-GB model. The Excite 10, which comes in 16-GB, 32-GB and 64-GB models, will be available in May, starting at $US449.99, and the Excite 7.7, which comes in only a 16-GB or 32-GB model, and will start at $US499.99.

Toshiba Australia will announce local pricing and availability in a few weeks. 

This article originally appeared at crn.com