You know, with all this talk of a rumored Apple iPad Mini, it looks like the folks in the Android crowd are doing what they can to compete on price ahead of time. Case in point is the slashing of price on the Toshiba Thrive.

This Android 3.2 tablet regularly retails for $379.99, but it has been slashed by 35% down to just $248.86. For that price, you get a 7-inch 1280×800 HD multi-touch display, 16GB of internal storage, a full gig of DRAM, built-in 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, and a 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra2 dual-core processor. Unlike some of its more slippery Android cousins, the Toshiba Thrive features an “Easy Grip” finish that helps it be more durable and easier to hold. Other specs and features include the GPS, gyroscope, built-in stereo speakers with SRS Premium Voice Suite and Toshiba Sound Enhancements, Adobe Flash support, micro-HDMI output with full HD 1080p support, mini-USB port, dock connector port, and a microSD card slot.

It’s hard to say how long this sale is going to last, so I suggest you head over to Amazon now to get in on the deal. This is a pretty great Android tablet for less than $250.

The post Toshiba Thrive 16GB Android Tablet on Sale for $250 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

What’s not to love about the gigantic Samsung Galaxy Note?  An oversized phone and mini-tablet in one compact device makes it a dream come true. If you can’t wait untill the Samsung Galaxy Note is available, or perhaps you don’t like its price, here’s good news for you: Expansys-USA has the BLU Studio 5.3 phone. It sports similarly large 5.3″ screen,  runs Gingerbread Android, and will cost you just $259 unlocked. You’ll find a large 2500 mAh battery inside the BLU Studio. The downside, is the gigantic BLU screen has “just” 800×480 resolution. For its part, the Samsung Galaxy Note has 1280×800 Super AMOLED with an additional sensor layer for pen input. BLU Studio is driven by single core 800 MHz SoC with 512 MB of RAM as opposed to Note that having a mighty dual-core Exynos 1.2 GHz processor and 1 GB of RAM.  The Samsung Galaxy Note has the same large 2500 mAh battery as BLU Studio 5.3.  An 8 MPix camera comes on the Note, while just a 5 MPix on BLU Studio.

But not all is blue for BLU’s India Android phone, it has dual SIM and saves you about half a grand.

The post India-Made 5.3″ Dual-Sim Android Phone: BLU Studio 5.3 Available In US appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

This new Android tablet was first spotted at the beginning of December. Now, LG has officially announced their Optimus Pad LTE, the company’s first LTE capable tablet.

When compared to the original Optimus Pad, the Optimus Pad LTE is thinner and lighter measuring in at 245 x 151.4 x 9.34 mm and weighing 497 grams. The tablet boasts a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm CPU and an 8.9-inch IPS True HD display with a resolution of 1280 x 768.

You will get an 8 megapixel camera on the rear and a 2 megapixel front facing shooter for satisfying all your video chatting needs. And it is the first tablet to support SD cards of up to 32GB.

Other features include HDMI connectivity, DLNA, Smart Movie Editor, Wi-Fi, and it will be powered by a 6,800mAh battery. But the only disappointment is that it’s coming with Android 3.2 and no hints regarding the arrival of Ice Cream Sandwich. That might turn off quite a number of people, but that display and LTE support might be enough to lure many others.

The tablet will be available initially in LG’s home territory of South Korea before making its way to markets around the world. No word so far on pricing, but we will let you know as soon as there is an announcement.

The post LG Optimus Pad LTE Now Official: Shipping With Android 3.2 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Latest news has it that these nVidia Tegra 3 quad-core 32GB 10-inch tablets running customized Android 3.2 Honeycomb were sold out quickly. However, slates are about to reappear soon, or can be shipped to stores (at least in Silicon Valley where I checked) in 3-5 days from now. So anyone feeling holiday blues and 5 Franklins in his/her pocket thats left unspent, may try this toy instead. Droid-Life’s Kellex has put up an interesting video review of the slate, so much of the boring tech specs could be just omitted:

On top of what was being said in this review, it’s worth to mention that the responsiveness is not so stellar throughout the tablet’s UI. ASUS customizations of a clean Android 3.2 are suspected to be responsible for this, then the nVidia Tegra 3 code for drivers and such might be just quite immature for the first Tegra 3 based device.

The post ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime Available at BestBuy for $499 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

We already know that you can get something like the Kobo Vox or Kindle Fire for $200, but they’re not really in the same kind of Android tablet league as their more expensive counterparts. Archos is breaking the Honeycomb price barrier today, though, with the unveiling of the Archos 70b Internet Tablet. This is the first Honeycomb Android tablet to sell for under $200.

Set to ship with Android 3.2 Honeycomb, the Archos 70b is powered by a 1.2GHz processor and 512MB of RAM to go along with its 1024×600 capacitive touchscreen display. And yes, it has full access to Android Market, not restricting you to a smaller app store. Rounding out the key specs are WiFi, a 3D graphics acceleroator, microSD expansion, and HDMI output.

That’s the good news. That bad news is that it won’t be arriving in time for you to stuff it under the Christmas tree. The Archos 70b Internet tablet with Android 3.2 Honeycomb hits retailers in January with an MSRP of $199.

The post Archos 70b First HoneyComb 3.2 Android Tablet Under $200 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

It seems like every time I turn around a less-than-popular electronics vendor is attempting to boost their sales through the creation of a tablet. In the United States, the company Sharp would qualify as one of these less than popular vendors, although its tablet line is aimed instead at the Japanese market.

Sharp isn’t new to the tablet game, though its last attempt with it Galapagos Android tablets wasn’t exactly what we would call successful and the line ended up being discontinued. Lack of success apparently doesn’t keep Sharp down and they are at it again with their new 7-inch Sharp Galapagos tablet.

So has Sharp learned from their mistakes and ready to deliver an excellent product? In order to be successful in the tablet market you either need something to set you apart from the other many models out there or you need to have a highly competitive price point. Sharp doesn’t seem to exactly hit either of these points on the head.

The new Sharp tablet features a 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 and runs Android 3.2. Additionally it has 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, 2MP front and 5MP rear cameras, microSD, microHDMI output, WIFI, and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR all wrapped up in a device with a 1024×768 resolution. This isn’t bad by any means but neither is it bleeding edge.

It clearly doesn’t offer anything new on its spec sheet, but what makes me doubt the future success of the tablet isn’t its hardware. At a price point of $780, the A71GJ-B seems awfully high-priced and many competing products can be found for hundreds less.

The new Sharp tablet arrives on December 9th to the Japanese market and at the moment has no plans for release in the US. I admit the tablet doesn’t look too bad, but it somewhat comes off as a “me too!” device that has nothing new or different to offer the growing tablet market.

The post Sharp At It Again With Overpriced Galapagos Tablet appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Although some Tab users are reporting that the installation went smoothly enough and WIFI isn’t a problem, others say that when they’ve contacted Samsung they are advised to send it in for repair. Hopefully Samsung will have an easier fix out in the next day or two. If this update is negatively affecting enough users and sending it in is the only way to fix it, you can guarantee this could hurt Samsung’s tablet reputation a great deal.

If you own a Tab and were going to update, just make sure you proceed with caution. For those of us that can’t live without our tablets even for a day or two it is probably best to skip this update until a patch for the installation has arrived on scene.

The post Galaxy Tab Update Causes Loss Of Wifi And More appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The NVIDIA Tegra3 processor is easily one of the biggest stars of this upcoming Honeycomb tablet, but Asus is throwing in a few extra goodies to make sure you want it too. For starters, they’ve reworked the design so that it has more of a metallic finish, not unlike the gorgeous Asus Zenbook UX21. They’ve also slimmed down the package to just 8.3mm and 586 grams; compare that to the the 12.9mm and 690 grams of the original.

The rest of the specs are right in line with our previous expectations, including the 10.1-inch IPS display, 12-core GeForce GPU, memory expansion, 8MP rear camera, 1.2MP front camera, GPS, WiFi, USB 2.0, microHDMI, and 12 hours of battery life. Curiously, they’re only putting a single gig of RAM in there. I hope that’s enough to give us the true Kal-El experience.

The 32GB and 64GB models should both become available next month for $499 and $599, respectively. It looks like they’ve killed off the 16GB option, but pricing has remained steady for the upper two capacities. The keyboard dock is $149.

The post Official: Kal-El Lives With Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Now I have another reason to make me want go back to school, and that is Supernote. Supernote is an app that helps you take…notes, but in a super way. It had previously been shown on the Eee Pad Transformer and Slider earlier this month, when ASUS brought out the OTA update to Android 3.2.1, but now there are more details on new features within Supernote and they sound really nice.

Students will be able to write or scribble (doesn’t anyone doodle in class anymore?) using the keyboard or their own fingers and the Supernote app will go ahead and convert each hand-drawn item into an image, thus, allowing users to modify or delete their own characters. You can also insert graphs and charts when you’re in math class, resize the image and drag it around and you can also insert those diagrams into your lecture notes.

Supernote will even let you take the lazy way out of class (yes!) and let you snap a picture of whatever your teacher is scribbling on the blackboard and then you can insert those pictures into your notes, thus, letting you worry about it later or perhaps never.

[engadget via Asus]

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As the name suggests, the Thrive 7” Tablet is a 7-inch version of the original which runs on Tegra 2 and possesses a 5 MP and a 2MP cameras, with the rear camera having an LED flash. It also provides a micro-HDMI and mini-USB sockets, docking connector, headphone jack and a micro-SD slot. It is also Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS capable.

The Thrive 7” runs on Android 3.2 and will be rolled out in 16GB and 32GB versions to delight the customers. A Toshiba representative said that the starting price of this new gadget is “less than $400”, and so better prepare this amount if you want to avail of the Thrive 7”.

Some experts were impressed by the Thrive 7” tablet’s 1280 x 800 display which appeared crisp and vivid. The screen also responded very fast on the taps and swipes done by the testers. They said that they are also looking forward to testing Swype on the new Thrive item in the future.

Thrive 7” Tablet will be out in the market on November 2011, so just sit back and relax.

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