Toshiba has released details of what it hopes will be the first tablet to truly compete with to Apple's popular iPad; a Honeycomb-based beast powered by Tegra 2 hardware.
The 10.1in device, described rather plainly as the Toshiba Tablet, includes a capacitive multi-touch display with a 1,280 x 800 resolution at a 16:10 aspect ratio - high enough to play back 720p high-definition content natively on the device.
The tablet is given enough grunt to cope with the high-resolution display thanks to the use of Nvidia's Tegra 2 system-on-chip, a design which features two ARM Cortex-A9 processing cores, as well as Nvidia's mobile graphics know-how.
In a further attempt to beat Apple at its own game, Toshiba has also confirmed a pair of cameras on the device: a 2 megapixel front-facing camera for video calling, and a 5 megapixel rear camera with autofocus for video and still capture.
Unlike the iPad, the Toshiba tablet's Android 3.0 'Honeycomb' operating system allows it to play back Flash content in the browser. This will effectively provide it with full and unexpurgated access to pretty much every website, although a lack of an integrated 3G adaptor means you'll struggle to take advantage of that unless you're near a hotspot.
Meanwhile, physical connections are well covered by Toshiba's latest device, with USB and mini-USB connectors, an HDMI output, an SD card slot for memory expansion and a headphone jack. There's also a user-replaceable battery, which is held in place with a screw.
The device certainly looks slick, but with Apple expected to launch an updated iPad that addresses many of the shortcomings of its predecessor at around the same time as Toshiba's Tablet, the company is going to have to get the pricing right if it wants to steal market share.
Does the Toshiba Tablet look like a device you'd like to own, or does it need more to compete with the next iPad? Share your thoughts over in the
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