Toshiba Excite 10 Pro Reviews

Toshiba hasn't exactly positioned the Excite 10 as a high-end tablet, and its $450 starting price is par for the course for a mid-range product. We'd choose the Excite 10 over the $530 Excite 10 LE in a heartbeat, as it offers much better performance and Ice Cream Sandwich in a package that's only slightly bulkier. And compared to Toshiba's earlier Thrive tablets, not to mention most other competitors, the Excite 10 has an attractive, streamlined design.

Toshiba's come a long way in the tablet world. The Thrive line was filled with huge, clunky devices, and the Excite 10 LE sacrificed everything (and I mean everything) to be as thin as possible. The new Excite tablets find a much better middle ground, combining great internals and solid performance with up-to-date software, all in a body that looks and feels good. Is it enough, though? With the $449 Excite 10, I'm not sure. The competition in this screen size is steep, thanks to solid offerings from Asus, Samsung, Acer and others. The Excite 10 is a nice option, but it doesn't offer anything that sets it apart. Its screen isn't great, and though its performance is solid it's equalled by devices like the Transformer Pad and Transformer Prime, both of which also offer the excellent keyboard dock. Of course, there's also the iPad, which continues to rule the tablet world thanks to an incredible screen and an unparalleled selection of great tablet apps. The Excite 10 is a nice device, certainly Toshiba's most compelling 10-inch tablet so far, but I'm left wanting more.

Above all, we have to admit that we truly love the direction that Toshiba has gone with this tablet, as it seemingly obliterated all remnants of the Toshiba Thrive from last year that has floated around in our heads. Donning a vastly better looking design combined with some muscle flexing hardware specs, there’s enough to like about the $450 priced Toshiba Excite 10. Indeed, it’s an exciting offering from Toshiba’s camp, but we’d still settle for a $500 Asus Transformer Prime any day of the week – mainly because the difference in price is justified by its killer design, convertible aspect, and better overall performance. Then again, some people won’t mind saving the $50 by settling with the Toshiba Excite 10 – so it’ll all depend on the circumstance.

The Extcite 10 comes in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB versions, starting at $450. That's the same price as the 16GB Acer Iconia Tab A510 and $70 more than the Asus Transformer Pad TF300. The Excite 10 sports overall sound design, with a metal backside, and fast performance that matches the aforementioned tablets.