Hasta La Gadget!

What’s the best thing about Toshiba’s 7-inch tablet? Turn it over and you’ve got every other 7-inch tablet, ever

Are non-Apple tablets the new netbooks? Let’s look at the evidence:

Same OS across the board? Check. (Windows XP on netbooks with a few early Linux boxes; Android everywhere plus BlackBerry’s Playbook).

Commodity hardware, with the only variations being minor differences in CPU, camera sizes and ports? Check.

Race-to-the-bottom prices? Check check check!

In fact, the only real differences seem to be that people actually bought netbooks in decent numbers, and that Apple has some skin in the game. And this time, Apple is the cheap option, as well as the only option anyone actually wants. Meanwhile, netbooks totally died and Apple just made its cheapest MacBook thinner.

Which brings us to Toshiba’s Thrive, a 7-inch me-too tablet running Android 3.2. It has an NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor, 5MP and 2MP cameras (plus an LED flash), USB, HDMI and microSD slots, and will ship in 16GB and 32GB versions. The ports are all hidden under the same kind of annoying flap that I tear off my smartphones in rage.

Pretty much the only thing you can’t find elsewhere is the knobbly, rubberized back (like the one on the bigger Thrive, only non-removable). And the price? A cagey “less than $400.” Should you wish to ignore the Thrive and buy an iPad instead, you’ll have to wait until November to do so.

Thrive 7-inch tablet [Toshiba. Thanks, Yulimar!]

See Also:

• It's Too Soon to Count Out Netbooks
• Epson's Spotlight Turns to Netbooks
• Five (Useful) Things to Do With a Netbook