Toshiba's Tegra 250-Powered AC100 Smartbook Lasts A Week In Standby

It's a Toshiba kind of day, isn't it? In celebration of the company's 25th anniversary in the notebook business, the company is using the AC100 as their grand finale. And what a finale it is. This is the first smartbook we've seen come to light in quite a few months, and the promises held here are just astounding.


Described as a "smart companion" machine, the AC100 is one of the smallest, most powerful laptops to date. It uses a clamshell form factor and has an "always-on" capability that makes it perfect for stop-and-go Web browsing and e-mailing. The unit can reportedly remain in standby mode for up to a full week and the 10.1" display is no smaller than the average netbook.

The company will ship the device with Android at first, but the possibilities are nearly endless if you think about loading Windows 7, MeeGo, Ubuntu or Chrome OS on here. Even under duress, Toshiba claims that the AC100 will only need to see an AC port every eight hours. It'll ship in black/orange and will come with a nice suite of Office applications pre-installed; other specs include a 1GHz Tegra 250 CPU, Android 2.1, 512MB of DDR2 memory, a 1024x600 native resolution, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, a single USB 2.0 port, card reader, 1.3MP webcam and integrated 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi.


There's no set price just yet, but it's expected to become available first in Europe, Middle East and Africa in Q3 of this year.

Toshiba unveils its ultraslim smart companion AC100
Highly portable smart companion with always-on capability needs less than a second to wake up from standby mode

06.20.2010 – Neuss, Germany – Toshiba Europe GmbH today entered the mobile internet device market by introducing the Toshiba AC100, which is designed with a clamshell form factor. Its slimness and light weight coupled with its always-on capability makes it the ideal device to consume media, browse the Internet and view and edit documents, emails and other messages while out and about. The AC100 can remain in standby mode for up to seven days. The highly personalisable 25.7cm (10.1'') AC100 will be available during the third quarter of 2010 throughout Europe, Middle East and Africa.

The best of two worlds
"Our smart companion, the AC100, is a member of the mobile internet device segment that combines the best of two product categories: like a smartphone, it is always on, whilst offering the convenience of a clamshell netbook with a bigger screen and a full size keyboard," says Thomas Teckentrup, General Manager, Product, Strategy and Development Division, Computer Systems Group EMEA. It is targeted at users who utilise several devices but still desire an easy-to use, slim and light smart companion that can be taken almost everywhere and that offers superior usability to that of smartphones.

No need to recharge every day
The AndroidTM[1] based system takes less than a second to switch the AC100 from standby to full activity mode whilst supporting a smartphone-like 'always-on' capability. The Toshiba AC100 can go for up to seven days without having to be recharged. When being used intensively, it can provide at least eight hours of mixed browsing and video playback on one charge.

Simple-to-use and easy-to-personalise
The black and orange coloured AC100 is intuitively usable and offers the possibility to personalise the device by downloading applications and widgets. The AC100 ships with a number of applications pre-installed, amongst them Documents To Go®, for viewing and editing Microsoft Office files, an E-mail Client with POP3, IMAP and Exchange support, a messaging client, Opera Mobile for browsing the web as well as Toshiba Media Player for playing and viewing video, music and pictures.

Users can also deploy up to five home screens on their Toshiba AC100, which can be configured to change automatically depending on their location as indicated by the SSID[2]. For example, an owner could set short-cuts to work-related applications, widgets and 'live-files' to appear on the home screen when they are in their office, personal applications and widgets when they are at home and entertainment-orientated applications and widgets everywhere else.

Facts & Figures* The AC100
· NVIDIA® Tegra™ 250 Mobile Processor (1GH, ARM)
· AndroidTM2.1
· RAM: 512 MB DDR2 (333 MHz)
· up to 32GB SSD
· 25.7cm (10.1'') TruBrite® display with LED backlight, 1,024 x 600 pixels
· Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR*, WLAN (802.11 b/g/n), Mobile Broadband*
· 1 x USB 2.0, 1x Mini USB, Card Reader (SD, MMC), Audio out/Mic in combo socket, HDMI®
· 1.3 MPixel Webcam with integrated microphone
· Location based switchable desktop
· Toshiba Home Menu, a personalisable desktop with widgets and shortcuts
· Size: 262.1mm x 189.8mm x 14 / 21mm
· weight: starting at 870g

* depending on configuration and local availability