Toshiba Intros 7-Inch LT170 Android Tablet Powered by Freescale SoC

Back at the start of January, we found out that Toshiba was preparing a new low-cost 7-inch tablet. Little was known about the slate at that time, but recently the LT170 was made official by its Japanese maker.

Design wise, Toshiba’s new tablet doesn’t seem to differ all that much from the pictures that were leaked at the start of this year, as it includes the same black and blue colorway and overall shape.

However, we now have some more details about the specs of this tablet, which Notebook Italia revealed it was powered by a 1GHz Freescale i.MX53 system-on-a-chip (SoC) device, which includes a single Cortex A8 core.

In the LT170, the SoC is paired together with 512MB high speed DDR3, while for storage purposes Toshiba went with 8GB of Flash memory.

This can be expanded by installing a microSD card, and users can also access other external storage devices by connecting them to the included micro-USB port.

All of these are powered by a Li-ion battery that Toshiba claims can offer up to seven hours of autonomy in video playback mode.

Weight wise, the 11.5mm (0.45-inches) thin 7-inch Toshiba tablet tips the scale at just 362g (a little less than 0.8 pounds).

Other features include a front mounted 0.3MP webcam, a 2MP rear snapper, accelerometer and ambient light sensors, as well as Android Market and Toshiba Places support. The 7-inch screen has a resolution of 1024x600 pixels.

According to the source, the Toshiba LT170 tablet should become available in Europe at the end of this month.

Pricing is said to be set at 299 EUR (a little less than $400 US) and the tablet is already available for pre-order from various online retailers.