Toshiba Excite 7.7

“The Toshiba Excite 7.7 manages to pack in most of the features of the even-more-expensive Galaxy Tab 7.7 for $200 less, although you lose the Tab's LTE radio and substantial battery life. That said, any 7-inch tablet priced at more than $350 is looking expensive nowadays. Both the Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) and Amazon Kindle Fire ($199, 4 stars) will give you solid performance, polished interfaces, and access to largely the same selection of apps, although the Kindle Fire lacks access to the Google Play app market. There is nothing wrong with the Excite 7.7, its thin and light aluminum construction, superb AMOLED screen, latest quad-core processor, and Android 4.0 make for a compelling package. But at $500, it runs up against the price of the entry-level Apple iPad, and the Excite 7.7 still can't match the iPad's vast selection of tablet-centric apps and Retina display.”

“It's great to see manufacturers learn from the past, and Toshiba has certainly done just that with the Excite. It's a definite win over the first-gen Thrives in that it's thinner, lighter, more powerful and just plain better-looking, to boot. The slate will also be a good fit for mobile gaming junkies who don't want to lug around a 10-incher on the bus, train or any other form of travel. But with Tegra 3 comes a price: $500 for 16GB and $580 for 32GB may not appeal to most casual tableteurs. Overall, the Excite 7.7 may be worth the cost for a beautiful display in a portable form factor. The question is, does Toshiba have enough brand recognition in the US to best similarly priced tablets from Samsung, Acer and ASUS that offer comparable outputs in performance? Not yet, but at least it's on the right track with the Excite -- so long as it does something about that camera.”

“The Excite 7.7 makes a pretty compelling case, at least on paper: its screen is fantastic, its performance solid, its body attractive. The price is the limiting factor here, and it's probably a deal-breaker. At $499, it's twice the price of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 and more than double the price of the Kindle Fire, easily the most popular 7-inch tablet out there right now. The Excite 7.7 has some distinct advantages over those devices, but I'm not sure it's twice as good to justify twice the outlay. If you're in the market for a premium 7-inch tablet, though, and were initially put off by the Verizon contract you'd have to sign to get the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7, look no further: the Excite 7.7 will serve you every bit as well and with none of the paperwork.”

“The Excite 7.7 packs a lot of power and eye candy into a sleek design. The Tegra 3 chip helps this tablet outperform other 7-inch tablets, and the AMOLED screen offers great color saturation along with wide viewing angles. We also like having a microUSB port for syncing and microSD Card slot for expandability. However, the Excite 7.7's price -- $499 for the lower-end 16GB model -- makes it twice as expensive as other 7-inch tablets such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 ($249) and the Amazon Kindle Fire ($199), both of which offer longer battery life. The Excite 7.7 is one of the better small tablets we've tested, but it will need a price cut in order for us to get more excited.”