Best Buy to start selling the Toshiba Thrive tablet this Sunday, already available at Newegg from $430

The Toshiba Thrive 10" Honeycomb tablet, while looking chubby in comparison with Slim Jims like the Apple iPad 2 or the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, compensates with functionality.

Besides all the features of a high-end Android tablet, it offers full USB 2.0 and miniUSB ports, swappable back covers in a variety of colors and, hold on, a replaceable battery, something that no tablet can brag with so far. You can hook up to 1TB external hard drive via the USB port, or use your flash drives for external storage. The Thrive also comes with a regular SD card slot, so storage shouldn't be an issue.

Toshiba's first foray in the Android tablet crowd was up for preorder at various retailers in June, for July delivery. Now Best Buy's preorder page lists this Sunday, July 10th for the first preorders delivery, which leads us to the thought that the tablet has graces the store's warehouses, moreover it already appeared at some Best Buy locations. A spare back cover in different color is $19.99, and a capacitive stylus pen for the Toshiba Thrive is $14.99, not bad.

Even better, Newegg has the 8GB Toshiba Thrive for $429 right now, and with free two day shipping, plus if you buy the 16GB version for $479, you get a free back cover for a limited time. The 32 gigger is unfortunately sold out there right now.

via PCMag & Newegg