Toshiba Excite 13 Review

The tablet market is evolving rapidly, it started from the original iPad with 9.7” display and it’s followed by numerous smaller devices, until we came to a boundary between smartphones and tablets with the Samsung Galaxy Note with 5.3” display.  Today, Toshiba breaks the invisible 10.1” barrier with the Excite 13, which sports a huge 13.3” display at 1300 x 900 pixels resolution. The tablet comes with Ice Cream Sandiwch (Android 4.0) and certain apps seem to be at home on the Excite 13. For example, the Maps app looks really impressive on the oversized display and it somehow feels easier to use. The advantages of a large screen are particularly obvious when you run certain apps, like board games.

Despite the ridiculously large size, the Excite 13 isn’t much substantial compared to other tablets at just 0.4” thick. Also at 2.2 lbs, the tablet isn’t heavy by any means, but it could be heavier than what you’re used to. The Excite 13 is powered by the Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM. It also includes four speakers, micro HDMI port, micro USB port as well as a full-sized SD card port, while the 5Mp rear-facing camera and a 2Mp front-facing camera round out the features.  Toshiba claimed that the tablet can stay awake for 13 hours on a single charge, which is impressive. It arrives in two internal storage options; if you have some extra cash to spare, the 64GB model will net you $750, but if you’re not a multimedia junkie and can live with a smaller 32GB internal storage, it will retail for $650. The Nvidia Tegra 3 doesn’t support 4G (LTE) and Toshiba currently has no plan to release a 3G version either. But if you have an LTE-capable Android smartphone in your pocket, you can still enjoy high-speed Internet connection via the basic tethering feature. Your initial gut reaction to the Excite 13 might be “too big” or “too expensive”, but Toshiba offers the tablet for those who appreciate the extra screen real estate, not those who prefer cheap, cramped models, like the Amazon Kindle Fire with its 7” display.