Toshiba already has one tablet, the Thrive, but the biggest problem reviewers and buyers noted was that it was big and heavy. However, that's not a problem with Toshiba's latest tablet, the AT200, which debuted Thursday at IFA in Berlin.The AT200 is very light and very thin, measuring 0.3 inches thick and weighing 1.2 pounds. It's got a 10.1-inch, 1280-by-800 display and a 1.2-GHz TI OMAP 4430 processor, making it one of the first Honeycomb tablets to not pack Nividia's Tegra 2 processor.
The AT200 runs Android 3.2, and includes most of the necessary trappings for Android tablets: front and rear cameras, micro SD, micro HDMI and micro USB ports, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Flash support, and a rated eight hours of battery life.
Toshiba's goal here is clear, as is the lesson it learned from the Thrive. In a market saturated with similar Android tablets, thin is in. Consumers want the thinnest, lightest hardware, and understand that the underlying software is always more or less the same in an Android tablet. Samsung currently holds the crown with the Galaxy Tab 10.1, but Toshiba might be in a position to challenge its throne. Plus, as Engadget reported, the AT200 runs a cleaner version of Honeycomb than the Galaxy Tab, which now comes with Samsung's Touchwiz UI baked in.
The biggest question, however, is when the tablet will be available. According to a Toshiba spokesperson, "the AT200 is currently on the U.S. product roadmap," but no other details were available. The AT200 will exist alongside the Thrive, which seems to be headed for the business crowd while the AT200 takes the consumer market.
If the AT200 arrives soon, at the right price, it might have a real chance to be successful stateside. The Thrive currently starts at $399.99, and appears to be the more premium of the two models. If the AT200 comes in at an equal or lower price, it could make some noise, even in the already crowded Android tablet market.
For more from IFA, see the slideshow below.