07:12
Jai
Toshiba’s approach to Android tablets have been nothing if not unique. While most of the manufacturers are looking at the tablet market from the phone up, Toshiba has been looking at it from the laptop down. The Thrive tablet, for example, was clearly designed to offer everything you’ve come to expect in a laptop, right down to the user-replaceable battery. It wasn’t perfect, especially with the obnoxiously large laptop-style power adapter, but the approach was refreshing. Now, Toshiba has come back to the table with three new tablets for the market, but by far the most interesting seems to be the Excite 13. The tablet world seems to stop at 10 inches, so what makes Toshiba think they can crank it up to 13?
What works better on a 13-inch screen? Almost everything
The most important feature that any tablet needs to compete with from now on is screen resolution. At the end of the day, however, competing with the screen resolution on the iPad 3 is just plain silly. Nothing has the pixel density of the new iPad, period. In no way does that make me feel badly about my television, my dual monitor workstation, my laptop, and certainly not the Excite 13 though.
For a user who is not planning to take their tablet out of the house, the screen size is a serious boon over any kind of benefit gained by screen resolution. Because the 1600×900 on the Excite is right on par with most laptops and desktops today, websites display in their full glory, especially when viewed through Chrome for Android. The web is still being make for an average screen size lower than the resolution on the Excite, so websites fill the screen with no need to zoom in or fit to the screen.
It’s not just the web that looks good on the Excite. Android 4.0 was built with every screen size in mind, and the Excite 13 tests the bold claims made by the APIs with its massive screen. As it turns out, most apps look really great on this screen — especially games and utility apps. Google Maps, for example, gives you a massive view of the world around you, and the 3D view of a city is really useful when looking for a location or checking for directions.
For the tablet gamer, Angry Birds Space and Temple Run! both looked incredible on the larger screen. Nearly your entire field of vision is occupied by the game when you play with the tablet in your lap. Movies and Youtube videos, especially in HD, look amazing on a true 16×9 display, and when curled up on the couch you might as well be holding an IMAX screen in your hands.
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, however. Google’s own Camera app that comes with the Excite 13 looks absolutely absurd. The useless space on the panel and the comically large buttons really speak to why some apps should be fine tuned, or replaced, with more appropriate applications. I suspect that many non-tablet apps will look comical on the Excite 13, though there wasn’t an opportunity to fully evaluate that.
Serving a niche market is a good thing.
The Toshiba Excite 13 is not for everyone. While Toshiba will happily sling market research about how most people use their tablets at home, I’m sure that this is not a tablet that will cause users to smash their iPads on the side of the road and rush into Best Buy stores because they have seen the light. The Excite 13 looks like a really great tablet that will work for a very specific market.
As a laptop manufacturer, Toshiba is no stranger to making devices for niche markets. The Excite 13 is plenty light, absolutely thin, and offers mini versions of the USB and HDMI ports offered on the original Thrive. The Excite 13 will still slide into most laptop bags for those who still want to be mobile with the device. Also, according to Toshiba, the battery life is good enough that the tablet will make a reasonable living room computer without the need to keep it tethered to the wall.
For a long time I have advocated for 7-inch tablets as the go-to size for a truly portable device. The tablet I can slide in my back pocket is the tablet I would take with me. The Excite 13 is the opposite end of the spectrum, but still grabbed my attention. There’s no way I will try to type with my thumbs on this device, or try to pull it out for that quick photo, but it’s the tablet would serve as the perfect browsing device in the home, and make Google Hangouts a really great experience. Toshiba took advantage of the extra screen size not only for battery life, but also to place four speakers in the box, making the tablet plenty loud.
All told, the Excite 13 is the first tablet I have seen actually justify the fact that it has a higher price point than the iPad, and that will likely be its biggest selling point.
Keep your eyes peeled for a full review of the Excite 13 when it’s released!
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