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Toshiba launches a 7-inch Android Thrive tablet

The new 7-inch edition of Toshiba's Android-based Thrive tablet is out at $379 for the 16GB model and $429 for the 32GB model.

Lance Whitney Contributing Writer
Lance Whitney is a freelance technology writer and trainer and a former IT professional. He's written for Time, CNET, PCMag, and several other publications. He's the author of two tech books--one on Windows and another on LinkedIn.
Lance Whitney
2 min read
Toshiba

Tablet buyers looking for a compact 7-inch model now have yet another choice.

Toshiba is now selling the 7-inch version of its Thrive tablet at a price of $379 for the 16 GB model and $429 for the 32 GB model.

First announced in September, the 7-inch edition is the new baby brother to the 10-inch Thrive, which debuted this past July. The specs for the 16 GB and 32 GB models are virtually the same.

Arriving in the nick of time for the holidays, the Thrive 7 offers a 7-inch high-resolution 1280x800-pixel widescreen display. Powered by a 1 gigahertz Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor, the tablet comes with Android Honeycomb 3.2. A 2-megapixel webcam is on the front, while a 5-megapixel autofocus camera is on the back.

Equipped with stereo speakers, the Thrive 7 includes a healthy array of connections, including a micro-SD card slot, a mini-USB 2.0 port, and a micro-HDMI port. So the tablet can tap into external files and hook up to a widescreen TV. But the battery lasts only around six hours on a single charge.

A wide range of software is part of the package. Beyond Toshiba's own media player and file manager apps, users will find the usual Google apps, such as Android Market, Gmail, YouTube, and Maps. Other third-party apps include Kaspersky Tablet Security, Quickoffice, and a host of games.

Unlike the 10-inch Thrive, which has been dinged for being bulky and overweight, the Thrive 7 is svelte at only 0.8 pounds and less than half an inch deep.

But at $379, the 16 GB version will likely face an uphill battle trying to eke out any market share as the holiday season has rung in a slew of competing tablets selling for considerably less.

Amazon has seen hot demand for its $199 Kindle Fire, also a 7 inch tablet. Research in Motion recently bumped down the price of its 16 GB Playbook to $199. And HP is selling off the remaining stock of its TouchPad for just $99.