In recent months, Toshiba has been pouring a lot of time and effort into fleshing out its tablet portfolio on both sides of the pond. At MWC, rumours of an unknown tablet resulted in the discovery of the Toshiba AT270, a 7-inch Tegra 3 tablet which sat looking innocuous at the Nvidia booth. We didn’t have to wait long to get a better taste of the 270 when it came to London and in much the same fashion, the Toshiba AT300 is repeating the process.
Announced last week, Toshiba let us spend quality time with the AT300. Successor to one of the thinnest tablets of 2011, the AT200 (when it was announced), the 300 utilises the same 10.1-inch 1280×800 LCD panel and also features a 5-megapixel rear-facing and 2-megapixel front facing camera, much like the AT200.
The key difference lies in the processor, with the AT300 sporting Nvidia’s increasingly popular Tegra 3 chipset (compared to the 1.2GHz dual-core of the AT200). Add to that Android Ice Cream Sandwich when it launches next month and improved battery life of 10 hours (with mixed usage) and the AT300 looks to be a competent device, particularly if you want some big-screen tablet gaming.
Toshiba has kept the user experience light, with no notable alterations to the ICS experience, but as such the UI is smooth and responsive. Weight is noticeable, at 590g, but not doesn’t make the tablet unwieldy, the biggest decision consumers will have to make is over design.
The back of the device is nearly completely covered by brushed aluminium, but as such, it loses some of the visual impact that other manufacturers have bestowed on their tablets, so you’ll have to decide for yourself about its looks.
Toshiba will be offering two capacity options for the AT300 at launch, with a 16GB version costing £329 and the 32Gb option landing at £379.
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