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.
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.
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.
