Toshiba shrinks the AT200 tablet, adds quad-core, ICS

Toshiba wowed us back in September with the vanishingly thin AT200 tablet, pictured above. Only just launched in the UK, the Japanese giant's about to unveil a follow-up at Mobile World Congress -- and the good news is it's smaller, faster and runs Ice Cream Sandwich, Pocketnow reports.

We're still awaiting an official announcement, so there's no word on name, price, or the exact specs, but we can discern a few things. It's tiny, first of all. It looks around 7.7 inches, putting it on a par with the smallest member of the Samsung Galaxy Tab family.

It runs Android Ice Cream Sandwich too, with the Tron-style motif and three capacitive buttons. That's an upgrade from the AT200, which runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread. ICS should take full advantage of the mooted Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core chip that's running the show.

Word is it'll keep the same 1,280x800-pixel resolution as the AT200, but on the smaller screen that should look pretty stunning. It's the same resolution as the Galaxy Tab 7.7's screen, and we reckoned that thrashed the iPad's, so images on the AT200's should look great.

The AT200 was touted as the world's slimmest tablet back in September, measuring just 7.7mm thick. There's no word yet on the dimensions, but I'd be surprised if this new effort is much fatter. There are front and rear cameras, but again, we'll have to wait to hear from Toshiba for the resolutions. A microSD card slot comes as standard too.

The AT200 had impressive dimensions, but didn't seem to do much else above other Android tablets. This shrunken sequel should rectify that, with its quad-core processor and ICS giving top of the range tabs a run for their money. We'll bring you official news as well as a hands-on as soon as we can.

What do you think of Tosh's secret tablet? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook page. And for all your Mobile World Congress needs, see mwc.cnet.co.uk .