Toshiba shows off 13-inch and 7-inch tablet concepts

Toshiba has shown off two new tablet concepts -- a 7.7-inch slate and, more excitingly, a whopping 13.3-inch monster. Sadly, neither are due to see the light of day any time soon, but it didn't stop me getting a hands-on.

First up, the big guy. If your first thought was 13 inches seems a little large for a tablet, you'd be absolutely right. Have a medal. Make no mistake, this thing is huge. Sitting in my hand, I was more tempted to balance cocktails on it and serve the other journalists at the Toshiba event than I was to swipe around the screen.

So what is such a massive slate for? Toshiba reckons it's an ideal media device. Rather than carry it around in your bag all day, you'd leave this chap at home, next to your sofa, ready for you to pick up and chill with whatever movies you've stored on-board. It would work just as well with BBC iPlayer, YouTube or for playing games like Angry Birds, but is big enough to feel genuinely sorry for those poor pigs.

Sadly, the tablet was non-functioning and there was no mention of what specs we'd likely see inside, so basically, Toshiba was showing off a big piece of glass. Still, it's a fun idea.

There was a little more to see on its smaller brother though. At 7.7 inches, it's hardly a wild concept, as we've already got 7-inch slates from the likes of Samsung, among others, and might even be getting one from Apple at this week's iPad launch event. Being so much smaller, it's somewhat easier to fit into your hand, so you're much more likely to be carrying this guy around with you.

It uses an AMOLED screen which looked extremely bright and vivid in my brief hands-on, although Toshiba wasn't at all forthcoming on the resolution, or indeed any other specs. It's running Android 3.2 Honeycomb for now, but we may well be seeing all tablets running Key Lime Pie before it shows its face in the shops.

There's no word on whether either of these slates will ever be on offer -- although the 7-inch model isn't really much of a concept, so my money is on seeing that thing surface perhaps this year. I'm not holding my breath for its gargantuan brother.

What do you reckon to super-sized slates? Worth a poke, or would you rather stick to a more manageable 10 inches? Let me know in the comments below or over on our Facebook Page.