Toshiba Encore mini WT7 Release September 17

Toshiba's first 7-inch Windows 8.1 tablet, the Toshiba Encore mini, was officially launched today for a tiny price of just $119. It is available for order and the release date is September 17-19 in the US:
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Toshiba-Encore-Mini-WT7
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Encore-WT7/

These are big news, or at least big moves in the tablet industry. Last year the cheapest Windows 8 tablets would cost $299 new, so this does change a lot of things.

The Toshiba Encore mini WT7 was first announced by Microsoft in early June when it talked about their partners products, but back then the price was estimated to still be $149 upon launch. $30 cheaper than that is very radical then, but what do you get?

I assume that the two, three most common complaints will be the screen resolution, at 1024 x 600, the 1GB of DDR3L RAM, and a claimed battery life of 7.3 hours.

Other than that, this can actually be a quite likable tablet. It has Windows 8.1 with Bing and Office 365.
A quad-core Intel Atom Z3735G processor at 1.33GHz with 1.83GHz turbo speed, 16GB storage with microSD card support to 128GB, a 0.3MP front camera with microphone, a 2.0MP rear camera, 16:9 aspect ratio, micro-USB 2.0, USB to micro USB cable included, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0.

Does that make it worth $119? It all depends on your use. Either way Toshiba have opened up a new category with this tablet, and that's something to appreciate, as it will lead to new developments and some new use of tablets.

It is available for pre-order through Toshiba via Amazon.

– Tom Bowen