Tablets seem to be the flavour of the season. From the established names
to Indian brands everyone seems to be offering a tablet device of their
own. As per data from Indian research firm CyberMedia, 1.1 million
tablets were sold in the 3rd Quarter (July-September) 2012 and it
expects the tablet market to double to around six million units in the
year 2013.
Although tablets come in a variety of sizes and run various
operating systems including iOS, Windows 8/RT and even QNX (Playbook
OS), Android rules the roost when it comes to the Indian market. Tablets
that are being offered in the Indian market range from Rs. 1,500 to all
the way to Rs. 40,000.
We thought it would be a good idea to help
identify gems from the clutter and present to you five interesting
tablets to choose from especially for those who are on a limited budget.
Here's our list of the top five tablets priced under Rs.15,000 in no particular order.
Lava Etab Xtron
Lava
Etab Xtron comes with a 7-inch IPS display sporting a resolution of
1024 x 600 pixels. There is a 1.5GHz Cortex A9 dual-core processor
on-board, along with 1GB of RAM. The tablet runs on Android 4.1.1 (Jelly
Bean) and comes with 8GB of internal storage, which can be expanded by
up to 32 GB via microSD. Camera options include a 2-megapixel front
camera.
The tablet comes with 3,500mAh battery.
Connectivity options include 3G (via USB dongle), WiFi 802.11 b/g,
Micro-USB port. Priced at Rs. 6,499, Lava Etab Xtron is a decent value
for money option. It has good build quality and display. The only real
drawback is that the battery is not too potent.
(Also read: Full review of Lava Etab Xtron)
Spice Stellar Pad Mi-1010
Another
interesting proposition comes from Spice. Spice has recently launched
Stellar Pad Mi-1010 in the Indian market. This tablet comes with a
10.1-inch HD tablet with IPS display and is powered by 1.5GHz dual-Core
processor with 1GB of DDR3 RAM. This tablet runs on Android 4.1 (Jelly
Bean) and is available for Rs. 12,999. For memory, there is 16GB of
internal memory that can be expanded by up to 32GB through microSD card.
Spice
Stellar Pad Mi-1010 comes with a 7600 mAh Lithium ion polymer battery,
which the company claims will play video for 6 hours and has a standby
of 15 days. It comes with a 3-megapixel rear camera shooter and a VGA
front camera on-board. The Spice tablet too has a good display and
decent viewing angles. Another advantage is it is offering Android 4.1
(Jelly Bean) out of the box. However lack of Bluetooth connectivity may
make you give this tablet a miss.
(Also read: Full review of Spice Stellar Pad Mi-1010)
Asus MeMO Pad ME172V
Priced
at Rs. 9,999, the Asus MeMO Pad ME172V packs in a 7-inch screen that
has a display resolution of 1024x600 pixels and offers 10-point
multi-touch. This tablet runs on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) and offers
full support for Google Play. The tablet is powered by VIA WM8950
processor that clocks 1GHz and is coupled with a Mali-400 GPU. For
camera, there is a 1-megapixel front shooter with f/2.0 aperture that
can record 720p video at 30fps. Asus MeMO Pad ME172V offers Wi-Fi
connectivity but no SIM slot. There is a 4,270mAh battery on-board.
The
latest tablet from Asus comes with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal
storage, which can be expanded by up to 32GB via microSD. Asus is also
offering 5GB of cloud storage via ASUS WebStorage.
Asus MeMO Pad
ME172V looks durable but the single core 1GHz processor may turn out to
be underwhelming for some. Another disadvantage with this tablet is that
it is a Wi-Fi only tablet and does not have a SIM slot.
Samsung Galaxy Tab2 311
Samsung
Galaxy Tab 2 311 sports a 7-inch PLS TFT LCD display with a 1024x600
(WSVGA) resolution. The tablet comes pre-installed with Android 4.1
(Jelly Bean) and 4,000mAh battery. For camera, there is a 3-megapixel
rear and VGA front camera.
On the inside, the tablet is powered by
a 1GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM and has 16GB of internal
storage, which can be expanded to up to 32GB via microSD card.
Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0 and USB 2.0.
Currently, this tablet is available on pre-order on Samsung e-store for Rs. 13,900 and should be available in the market soon.
Acer Iconia B1-A71
Sporting
a price tag of Rs. 7,999 Acer Iconia B1-A71 is a tempting option. This
tablet comes with a 7-inch display with a 1024x600 resolution and is
powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core Mediatek processor (MTK 8317T) alongside
512MB RAM and 8GB internal storage. It features a microSD card to expand
the available storage by another 32GB. Connectivity options on the Acer
Iconia B1 include Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS, Bluetooth 4.0 and Micro-USB.
The tablet comes with 0.3-megapixel front camera.
The build
quality of the tablet is nothing to boast about and the 512MB of RAM can
be underwhelming for some but an attractive price tag and Android 4.1
are the highlights of the Acer Iconia B1-A71.
(Also read: Full review of Acer Iconia B1-A71)