Toshiba unveils 13.3-inch Android tablet

This is big: Toshiba Excite 13.3-inch

Toshiba has introduced its new line of quad-core Android tablets, including a giant 13-inch model with a high-resolution display and quad-core processor. The company is also phasing out its 7- and 10-inch Thrive tablets, which will be replaced with the new Excite line of tablets running Android 4.0.

The 13.3-inch Toshiba Excite sports a high-res display, which at 1,600 by 900 pixels is sharper than typical Android tablets, but still below the third-generation iPad’s display of 2,048 by 1,536 pixels. The only comparable resolution in Android land would be the Asus Transformer TF700T, which sports a resolution of 1,900 by 1,200 pixels.

Make no mistake though, the 13-inch model is big: it weighs 2.2 pounds, it’s 0.4 inches thick and is practically the size of a serving tray. But with the size, you get a range of ports, including a full-size SD card slot, a microUSB port and a microHDMI port. Toshiba also claims the battery can last up to 13 hours, and there’s an included (separate) tablet stand for when the tablet gets too heavy for users.

The giant Toshiba tablet also packs some powerful specs inside: it runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on a Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM, and sports dual cameras, 1.3-megapixel on the front and a 5-megapixel on the back. There’s no 3G/4G connectivity on board though, and the Excite 13 is set to arrive on June 10 for $650 for the 32GB model and $750 for the 64GB model -- around $50 more than the equivalent iPad models.

With a 13.3-inch tablet, almost double the size of the popular Amazon Kindle Fire, Toshiba hopes to appeal to those who use their tablet mostly at home. With the large screen and loud SRS Surround speakers, it’s easier on the eye to watch videos (as long as you use the aforementioned stand), and it could be better for video calls as well.

But if you’re looking for some more regular-sized tablets from Toshiba, the company also introduced 7.7- and 10-inch Excite tablets, also running on quad-core processors and Android 4.0. The Excite 10 is set to go on sale in May for $450 for 16GB, $530 for 32GB or $650 for the 64GB model. The Excite 7.7 will arrive in June with the Excite 13, at $500 for 16GB and $580 for 32GB.

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