Toshiba Excite 10 LE

It's bright and accurate, viewing angles are excellent, with virtually no discoloration even far off-axis, and while you can definitely make out individual pixels and see some jaggies on small text, it's not enough to be a huge problem unless you're really looking for it.

The Excite doesn't feel cheap — the magnesium alloy body and Gorilla Glass screen are certainly made of high-end materials — but it doesn't feel well-assembled at all.

It's really, really noticeable, and makes the screen much harder to look at or interact with.

For some, having the thinnest, lightest 10-inch tablet money can buy is enough to justify the $530 investment.

I can't help but imagine the meeting at Toshiba where an executive demanded "the world's thinnest tablet," no matter what.

After a week handling the 1.44-pound new iPad, the 1.2-pound Excite feels like it's in a different weight class.

It's also a difference you can see, as the Excite measures just 0.3 inch thick.

I remember picking up an iPod touch two years ago and thinking, "I don't know if I'd want something any thinner than this, and this might even be too thin already.

The back of the Excite is covered in a thin sheet of brushed magnesium alloy.

Given the Excite's price and the context of other 10-inch Android tablets on the market or on the horizon, Toshiba's tablet isn't offering the best value.

It's tough to stand out in the world of Android tablets.

Toshiba, a company whose first foray into Android tablets was a relative behemoth, is showing the world that its designers can do "thin" better than anyone.

I'm more inclined to believe that promise than most, because of how little customization the company needs to do to the OS — though I can't help but wonder why Toshiba wouldn't just ship the tablet with ICS, since it's not changing much anyway.

Toshiba and SRS Labs added a few software and EQ tweaks that supposedly improve the experience a bit, though I can't say I noticed a huge difference as I changed settings — mediocre speakers are mediocre speakers.

10.1-inch, 1280 x 800 displays are relatively standard fare for Android tablets, and the Excite's IPS screen is mostly par for the course.