Toshiba Excite Write

“The Toshiba Excite Write Tablet is a nice bit of kit, but in this crowded space it needs to be more than nice to stand out. At £450 without the keyboard case, it’s putting itself directly against the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 with its stylus and similar specs, and it’s a battle the Excite Write can’t quite win. The benchmarks and deeper stylus integration are both clear wins for the Note. If you dislike the Samsung UI, it’s a good alternative to the Note 10.1, but it won’t be most people’s first choice.”

“The Toshiba Excite Write offers speedy performance, a smooth handwriting experience and a crisp 2560 x 1600 display for $599.99. We also like the crystal clear harman/kardon audio system. However, the Excite Write doesn't give you anywhere to put its pen, and its battery life is considerably shorter than the competition's.”

“The Toshiba Excite Write is close to being a great tablet. Pen nerds looking for a digital solution that feels right will find this device tempting. Toshiba got pen control perfect. The display gets high marks, too. And though the camera isn’t the best for taking pictures, it’s useful in other important ways, like document scanning. However, we can’t overlook how hot the Write gets, the lack of place to stash the TruPen so it doesn’t get lost, or the missed opportunities to make Android more useful for fans of handwriting. These drawbacks might be overlooked if the tablet cost less. A device that costs $600 shouldn’t have this many missteps.”

“On paper, the Excite Write comes off like a premium product loaded up with top-shelf specs that more than merits the $600 price tag. How it fares when it's actually in hand, however, is another matter. Turns out, Toshiba's asking price is more of a warning sign than a high-end designation. The Tegra 4 chip inside should provide a blisteringly fast experience, but the reality is the opposite, it's faltering, if anything. The Excite Write's TruPen features should help it to stand out and even best Samsung's own pioneering Note products, but again it fails to hit the mark. TruPen applications are sparse -- there's just the one -- and there's no place to actually stow the stylus on the device. Meaning, you'll lose it pretty easily.”