Tegra-powered Toshiba AC100 smartbook runs Android 2.1, boasts 8 hours of battery life

Toshiba introduces a new smartbook today – the Toshiba AC100. The Tegra-powered device looks deceivingly like a 10.1” netbook but it’s actually a “smartbook” – it uses the ARM-based NVIDIA Tegra 250 platform and runs Android 2.1. Not using a power-hungry x86 CPU obviously has its advantages – like the 8 hours battery life and up to 7 days of stand-by time, for instance…

The Toshiba AC100 measures 262 x 190 x 14/21 mm and weighs 870 grams – lighter than most netbooks but otherwise comparable in size. The 10.1” screen with 1024×600 pixels resolution is also “netbook” category. Unfortunately, it’s not a touchscreen – which I assume will degrade the usability of the interface.

But a second generation NVIDIA Tegra 250 runs the show, rather than an Intel Atom solution, which helps with the battery life and HD video playback. The OS is Android 2.1 with Toshiba working on a 2.2 Froyo update, which should be released in a few months – that should put Flash 10.1 and Tegra together for hardware HD Flash video acceleration.

Toshiba AC100 official photos

Toshiba has tweaked the default Android setup a bit – Documents To Go, Fring and Opera Mobile come preinstalled as well as a dedicated launcher bar on the homescreen and custom Twitter, Facebook and YouTube widgets.

There’s also a custom media player. The Tegra chipset is said to be capable of decoding 1080p video though codec support is not clear at this point. DivX and H.264 support would sure make that HDMI port is put to good use.

Toshiba AC100 live shots

Other ports on the Toshiba AC100 include a USB host port (works with mice and keyboards, but not printers or digital cameras for example), a miniUSB port, audio in and out, plus there’s also an SD card slot to expand the 8GB built-in memory.

The Toshiba AC100 features a 1GHz ARM CPU with 512MB RAM, a 1.3MP webcam, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi b/g/n, GPS and optional 3G data connectivity. GPS can be used to automatically switch between layouts depending on your location (home, work, etc.).

SlashGear did a quick hands-on with the Toshiba AC100 and they even shot a short video demo. Here it is:

The Toshiba AC100 is expected in August this year, but there’s no pricing info yet.

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