Following Toshiba’s launch of the JournE Touch last Thursday I was delighted to get my hands on the tablet itself at the company’s IFA stand in Berlin. But I am using the word launch advisedly, because this product does seem some way from being ready for retail.

To be fair, my impressions weren’t helped by the fact that the IFA wireless connection was flakier than the plot of Snakes on a Plane. This meant I couldn’t test the JournE’s flagship offering, which is the ability – according to Toshiba’s Marco Perino – to browse the web like you would on a desktop PC.

Even if I could, though, there are some immediate problems. This is a tablet device and there’s no stylus, and because Toshiba has chosen Windows Embedded as the operating system of choice (with a version of Internet Explorer as the browser) there’s an over-reliance on tiny buttons.

As a piece of hardware, though, it makes a good first impression. Even though mine was an early sample, it still felt solid in the hand and it’s light too – you could hold the JournE Touch for quite some time without feeling the strain.

As can be seen from the photo above, there’s a conveniently located 3.5mm headphone jack, while the lesser used ports – USB, mini-USB and the SD card slot – will usually stay hidden away courtesy of the pull-out plastic cover.

In tough conditions – the IFA hall was brightly lit and very loud – neither the screen or speakers made much of an impression, but we’ll wait until the JournE Touch arrives in our Labs before passing proper judgement.