Toshiba reveal 13.3 and 7.7-inch Android tablet prototypes; Windows 8 a possibility
All eyes may be on Apple tonight when it comes to tablet news, but having recently launched the AT200, Toshiba also have a few-slate based items up their sleeves. Tucked away at yesterday’s 2012 Summit spring showcase for the company were two prototype tablets.
Most eye-catching of all was a 13.3 inch beast, provisionally designed with primarily media consumption in mind. MicroUSB and Micro HDMI ports were situated on the side, for easy side-loading of media content and playback through big flatscreen TVs.
“It’s perfect for home viewing of multimedia content on a larger screen format,” said Paul Hicks, Toshiba’s tablet product manager.
“It’s also great for vertical markets and B2B markets. If you’re an on the road salesperson looking for a portable device, it’s perfectly possible to show presentations to a wider audience than you would on a ten inch screen with this.”
Toshiba also had a pocket-sized 7.7 inch tablet on show. Running Android Honeycomb, it had a slim profile with microSD and microUSB slots in its edge, and sported an AMOLED display.
“It’s being designed with those looking for mobility in a tablet in mind, to use on the go, whilst retaining connectivity,” said Hicks.
“Were gauging consumer and customer feedback, but it’s the shape of things you may see in 2012 from Toshiba”.
Though Android was the operating system on show on the 7.7 inch device (the larger tablet appeared to be a mock-up and wasn’t switched on) Toshiba also hinted at the possibility of the launch of a Windows 8 tablet, with Hicks mentioning the potential of “various operating systems” in future Toshiba tablet lines.
