$99 HP TouchPad: Toshiba Also Planning a Cheap Tablet?

Electronics company, Toshiba has announced its plan yesterday to join the likes of HP in offering a low priced tablet computer.

The company will be releasing its 7-inch Thrive tablet in December which Toshiba promises will cost “under $400.”

Thrive's specs include a 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 processor, 1GB of RAM and 16GB or 32GB of flash storage.

Along with that, the tablet will run on Android 3.2 OS and sport a 5-megapixel rear-shooting camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing shooter as well.

Its display is set to be 1280 x 800.

The device is surprisingly light at .88 pounds with a 0.47-inch thick body.

It includes a 3.5mm headphone, Micro HDMI and Mini USB jacks as well as a microSD card slot.

The 7-inch Thrive is a follow up to the 10.1-inch version, and according to thisismynext.com, Toshiba has made quite a few improvements to the new one after it performed a hands-on review on the device.

According to the site, the 7-inch Thrive’s “build quality seems a step above the 10.1-inch version, and the high resolution display is a pixel density paradise.”

The site remarks on its text appearing crisp with wider viewing angles which should make the new Thrive a dependable e-reader.

The 7-inch Thrive should be available sometime in early December.

The device will join the tablet market which plays host to other super cheap 7-inch tablets.

Currently the best bargain in that area is HP’s 16GB TouchPad if a consumer could actually find one.

The device became quite rare after the company decided to discontinue it and dropped the price on all TouchPad models.

Once HP made this move, it seemed like other electronics companies wanted to jump on board and offer consumers something much cheaper than the market’s current leader, Apple’s iPad.