Tablets to muscle up at CES

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LAS VEGAS, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Thinner, lighter and more powerful is the watchword for tablet computers ahead of the Consumers Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, analysts say.

An example from Toshiba is the Excite X10, with the company claiming it's the world's thinnest 10-inch-screen tablet at 0.3 inches thick and hefting in at a mere 1.2 pounds, TechCrunch reported Sunday.

Whether that holds up after the coming week's slew of Android tablet introductions at CES -- not to mention a rumored iPad 3 in the near future -- remains to be seen, experts said.

Toshiba's Excite is running a 1.2GHz dual-core processor along with 1GB of RAM. As far as the operating system goes, Toshiba has not announced whether the tablet will ship immediately running Android 3.2 Honeycomb or if they'll wait for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, TechCrunch said.

The tablet's 1280 by 800 resolution screen is installed with special direct bonding technology that Toshiba credits with making possible its thin profile.

Two cameras are featured: a 2-megapixel front-facing one for video chat, and a 5-megapixel version on the back side of the tablet.

Android tablets haven't made much of a run at the ubiquitous iPad this year -- with the possible exception of Amazon's Kindle Fire -- but analysts say 2012 will see many competitors to Apple's king of the tablet hill.