Toshiba Excite 10 LE: The World's Thinnest 10" Tablet

Toshiba currently offers the Excite 10 LE with Android 3.2 Honeycomb or with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. We were glad to see that Toshiba didn't mess too heavily with Android’s stock Ice Cream Sandwich in our test model. The tablet offers five customizable home screens and you'll notice some of Toshiba's included applications directly from the main home screen. The home screens don't come with a lot of clutter from the start, and we appreciate this.

Click to enlarge

Speaking of included software, the Excite 10 LE comes with a handful of Toshiba apps as well as apps from a few other companies. Among the list of applications on the tablet, you'll find the TOSHIBA App Place (a Toshiba-branded app store), TOSHIBA Book Place, TOSHIBA Media Player, TOSHIBA News Place, TOSHIBA Service Station, TOSHIBA File Manager, Adobe Reader, Kaspersky Tablet Security, Hardwood Backgammon, Hardwood Euchre, Hardwood Solitaire IV, Hardwood Hearts, Hardwood Spades, LogMeIn, Netflix SD Player, Printer Share, Quickoffice, and Zinio.

To be honest, there's some definite overlap between some of the stock Android 4.0 applications and some of the Toshiba-branded applications on the tablet. Although you can't uninstall many of these applications, you can disable them using the Settings menu.

Click to enlarge

Toshiba's included File Manager makes it easy to view contents on the internal storage as well as on a microSD card. There's also a separate location for screen captures. The left column in the app provides access to the various storage locations. You'll notice navigation and other control options in the upper right corner of the app.  

Click to enlarge

The 5MP rear-facing camera on the Excite 10 LE produced shots that were on-par with other 5MP cameras we've seen from other tablets and smartphones. Although this camera definitely won't replace your DSLR or point-and-shoot, the Excite 10 LE's 5MP camera will get the job done in a pinch. The flash that sits beside the Excite 10 LE's camera will wash out objects from time to time, depending on how close you attempt to get to your subject.

Click to enlarge