Toshiba is announcing a range of new products at IFA 2014 in Berlin this year, including a Chromebook 2 and the Encore Mini 7 Windows 8.1 tablet.
The new Toshiba Encore Mini 7 does not offer the most amazing specs on the market, but the price point is extremely low, which could potentially ignite a tablet price war.
"With Encore Mini, we worked hand-in-hand with Microsoft to deliver a high-quality, small-screen Windows 8.1 tablet at an entry-class price point," said Philip Osako, director of product marketing at Toshiba. "Our product portfolio of Windows tablets continues to grow, enabling us to deliver more screen size choice to consumers at a lower price point, while still maintaining a consistently high level of quality and features for a greater value."
The new tablet will be powered by Intel's Atom Z3735G and will offer 1 GB of RAM. It has a 7-inch display with a resolution of 1024x600, along with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. The rear-facing camera is 2-megapixels and the rear is VGA.
While the specs of the tablet certainly do not seem that impressive, it's important to consider the price that it's being sold at, which is a measly $119.99. This could cause tablet buyers to think twice about buying a different Windows tablet.
The Encore Mini 7 will be sold in the U.S. and parts of Europe. It will also come with a one-year subscription to Microsoft Office 365 Personal and 1 TB of OneDrive storage.
Toshiba also unveiled a number of new Chromebooks, also at a pretty good price point.
Toshiba has long had one of the better Chromebooks on the market, and that laptop is now being upgraded in the Chromebook 2. In fact, Toshiba will be releasing two new Chromebooks, one a flagship model and the other one boasting a low price point.
The Chromebook 2 will offer a 13.3-inch display and will be powered by Intel Celeron processors. It also offers 16 GB of internal storage plus 100 GB of cloud storage via Google Drive. The full-HD model will offer 4 GB of RAM and a 1920x1080 display, with the other model offering 2 GB of RAM and a smaller display of 1366x768.
Both of Toshiba's new Chromebook offerings will also give users one USB 2.0 port and one USB 3.0 port. They will also offer HDMI ports and SD card slots.
For the audio on the Chromebooks, Toshiba enlisted the help of Skullcandy. One of the first changes was to move the speakers from under the devices to right under the keyboards, which should greatly improve the quality of audio.
The larger full-HD Chromebook will cost $330, with the smaller version only setting the buyer back $250.
