Say hello to Toshiba's 2013 Android tablet lineup. Though the company still hasn't made a dent in the tablet market, it's not for lack of trying, and the latest trio of ten-inchers proves that they're not ready to give up the ghost. All three have roughly the same body and dimensions: the Excite Pure is Toshiba's new low-end offering, the Excite Pro is for gamers and resolution junkies, and the Excite Write steps up to Samsung with both high-end specifications and a digitizer-stylus combo.
The Excite Pure is decidedly uninspiring, offering even less hardware prowess than the current Excite 10. It's a basic 10-inch, 1280x800 model powered by the Tegra 3 SoC, and just 1GB of memory, though it does get Android 4.2 at launch. The Pure will be offered only in a 16GB model with MicroSD card expansion, a 3MP rear camera, and a MicroHDMI port. The Excite Pure will retail for $299.99.
Stepping things up a bit, The Excite Pro bumps the screen to 2560x1600 (which Toshiba is calling "PixelPure" resolution), matching the Nexus 10 and ASUS' upcoming Transformer Pad Infinity refresh. It's also the latest in a growing lineup of NVIDIA Tegra 4 tablets, with 2GB of RAM, 32GB of standard storage plus MicroSD, an 8 megapixel rear camera, MicroHDMI, and stereo speakers provided by Harmon Kardon. It also runs Android 4.2, and will retail for $499.99.
The big daddy of the new lineup is the Excite Write. The Write is essentially the same tablet as the Excite Pro, with the crucial addition of an advanced digitizer and stylus, aping (not to mention outperforming) the Galaxy Note 10.1. Toshiba is calling the 1024-point pressure sensitive stylus a "TruPen," because electronics companies have some kind of strange aversion to accurate, simple terminology. Also: it doesn't dock into the tablet's housing. Naturally the Write will be loaded with a suite of notation-focused apps, going under the banner of "TruNote," plus ThinkFree Office. The screen also comes with Gorilla Glass 2 for protection. Beyond that, and the $599.99 retail price, it's identical to the Excite Pro. (Just for reference, that price exceeds the Note 10.1's introductory MSRP by a full $100.)
All three tablets will be available at US retailers and directly from Toshiba's website starting in July. Because of their uniform exterior, they'll all be compatible with Toshiba's first-party Bluetooth keyboard/cover, though the company isn't saying how much the accessory will cost.
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