It’s not the first time we write about the Toshiba Folio 100, but now it’s time to take things to an official level, as Toshiba officially announced the tablet at IFA Berlin a few days ago. As expected a lot of the initial specs were confirmed, but with one minor difference, one that makes all the difference in the world: Folio 100 lacks Android Marketplace support, which is a deal braked for most of us.

    I don’t understand why companies still want to launch products that don’t feature support for the Marketplace, as Google is offering this for free, albeit you must follow a certain procedure to get your device certified.

    Anyway, here are the official tech specs coming directly from Toshiba:

    • CPU: Nvidia Tegra 2
    • 25.7cm (10.1”) capacitive 4 finger multitouch display with 1,024 x 600 pixels
    • OS Based on Android 2.2 with a custom user interface
    • On-board storage capacity: 16 GB
    • Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR, WLAN (802.11 b/g/n), Mobile Broadband (soon available in certain models and countries)
    • DLNA® compatible
    • 1xminiHDMI®,1xUSB 2.0 (client and hub), SD/MMC Card Reader
    • Supports Adobe® Flash 10.1
    • Rotation of displayed content on the screen by accelerometer
    • Webcam with 1.3 MPixel
    • Battery life: 7 hours (65% web browsing, 10% video playback, 25% standby)
    • Weight: 760g
    • Size: 281mm x 181mm x 14mm
    • Software (excerpt): Opera Mobile, Toshiba Media Player, FBReader, Fring, Document to Go, Evernote
    Folio 100 running Toshiba places

    Folio 100 running Toshiba places

    As you can see from this spec sheet, the hardware found inside the Toshiba Folio 100 is in a very good shape for 2010. There isn’t anything we would want to see that’s missing. As mentioned before the problem lies in the software itself, and the custom user interface ‘borrowed’ from Toshiba’s AC100 smartbook isn’t particularly helping. Or the inclusion of Toshiba Places, a web service that will be soon available for all Toshiba devices, in an effort to bring an unified look to all their devices and a way to offer users various types of content and access to a few social media features. Probably won’t have much success, if you ask me.

    Same homescreen as the AC100 smartbook

    Same homescreen as the AC100 smartbook

    Before we head on to a few video demos let’s see two other major problems of the Toshiba Folio 100: it will retail for 399 EUR (approximately 510 $) and won’t be available in US, or at least there are no plans for that just yet. Too bad that the hardware looks really nice!