The new trend in consumer electronics seems to be the tablet—the tablet that’s cheaper than the iPad, of course. A little over a week ago, Archos announced the new G9 series, which has two tablet models starting at $299. Now, Toshiba is giving us the Thrive.

The new Toshiba Thrive (the company’s second) is a 7-inch Android tablet that boasts an LED backlit AutoBrite multi-touch display and a 1280 x 800 resolution. Designed for everything from books and photos to movies and games, the unit promises Adaptive Display and Resolution+ video enhancement technologies as well as stereo speakers with a little audio love from both Toshiba and SRS Labs.

Weighing in at 0.88 pounds, the Thrive is powered by Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) and the NVIDIA Tegra 2 platform. If you’re into the gaming aspect, it also promises console quality via NVIDIA GeForce graphics, as well as a built-in Gyroscope for motion control.

For photos and video conferencing, there’s a 5-megapixel camera with an LED flash on the back and a 2-megapixel camera on the front. Other features include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, Adobe Flash support, Mini USB and Micro HDMI ports, a Micro SD card slot, Toshiba’s File Manager utility and integrated GPS. Of course, there’s also plenty of ways to entertain yourself, via Google Mobile Service applications and everything offered in the Android Market.

Toshiba will offer the 7-inch Thrive in 8GB ($379.99), 16GB ($399.99) and 32GB ($479.99) configurations. Toshiba’s Thrive website is currently online. However, the 7-inch tablet won’t hit retailers until December, just in time for the holiday rush.

If you want to get a better peek at this new portable, check out the Toshiba Thrive from every angle in our slideshow.

Rachel Cericola - Contributing Writer

Over the past 15 years, Rachel Cericola has covered entertainment, web and technology trends. Check her out at www.rachelcericola.com.