Makers of the nation’s low-cost computing dream, Datawind, have rolled out a new line of low-cost tablets in the Ubislate range -- Ubislate 7Ri, Ubislate 7R+, Ubislate 7C and Ubislate 7C+. “The new range of Ubislate Tablets is packed with anytime anywhere low-cost Internet connectivity, UbiSurfer browser based on 18 international patents that can deliver internet access on traditional GPRS networks and a powerful combination of content and applications raising the bar in terms of meeting customers’ mobility needs. These tablets are of the gold standard when it comes to low - cost tablet cum Smart phone space being offered at an exciting price to our customers,” said Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO, Datawind Pvt. Ltd. Low-cost offerings The brand new Ubislate range, according to a company statement, comes with a sleek look and enhanced hardware specifications. The lightweight tablets support smartphone communication, Internet access, tablet computing and multimedia entertainment. The tablets sport a 7-inch screen and run the latest Android v4.0.3 operating system. The tablets are powered by a Cortex A8, 1GHz processor and 512MB RAM. The company adds further that these devices will deliver high speed surfing experience to its users. The embedded HD video co-processor delivers high quality video content making it a perfect multimedia device. “With the upwardly mobile workforce, hands-free communication has become extremely important. Our tablets are the most durable offerings under the Ubislate umbrella. Features like HD video, great sound quality, touch screen, high speed processor, USB port, camera, G-Sensor with a long battery life are a complete value for money option for our customers,” stated Tuli. Datawind launches 4 tablets under Ubislate range Here’s a quick look at the specifications of the Ubislate 7Ri: 7-inch resistive touchscreen with a 800 x 480 pixel resolution Wi-Fi Front-facing VGA camera 4GB memory, expandable up to 32GB via microSD Specifications of the Ubislate 7R+: 7-inch resistive touchscreen with a 800x480 pixel resolution GPRS, Wi-Fi front-facing VGA camera 4GB memory, expandable up to 32GB via microSD While those of the Ubislate 7Ci are: 7-inch display with 800 x 480 pixel resolution Wi-Fi Bluetooth with A2DP VGA front facing camera 4GB memory expandable up to 32 GB via microSD Tech specs of the Ubislate 7C+: 7-inch display with 800 x 480 pixel resolution GPRS, Wi-Fi Bluetooth with A2DP VGA front facing camera 4GB memory expandable up to 32 GB via microSD The Ubislate 7Ri, Ubislate 7R+, Ubislate 7Ci, UbiSlate 7C+ models will be all available at an MRP ranging from Rs 2,999 to Rs 4,499. As per the other official statement, the tablets have the web browser: Ubisurfer with Compression/ acceleration and IE8 rendering. Some applications available on Ubislate range of tablets, include: The users of Ubislate can access content available on the Sakshat portal and other educational websites. Yahoo! India for its portal, Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Cricket to deliver all the information regarding India’s national passion. The Indian Express Group to bring its users the latest news and analysis on the go. Reverie Language Technologies Pvt. Ltd. to provide over a dozen Indian languages including Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Punjabi/ Gurmukhi and many others. Mango learning solutions for game based educational modules, interactive smart books and the full CBSE curriculum. TestBag, the most comprehensive solution for testing and e-assessment. Intelligaia finger tracing apps to teach alphabet letter writing for toddlers.

Numerous budget 7-inch tablets have been flooding the Indian market recently. Most of these tablets feature the same internal hardware that are made in China with just a few differences such as GPU type, internal storage capacity and SIM card support. Manufacturers are just implementing the OEM manufactured devices with a different chassis for the looks and branding, and a few of them throwing in additional freebies such as memory cards, protective cases and apps. The operating system installed is never designed to function properly on this hardware as they are not standardised and tend to fail in some area or the other. Manufacturers should concentrate on the entire packaging right from the internal hardware to the external chassis and the operating system. What a user wants is a smooth and fluid user interface with standard options such as Wi-Fi, Storage, HDMI and a good pair of headphones. 7-inch display, 800 x 480 pixels resolution We have seen manufacturers heavily competing each other with their similar Chinese-based 7-inch tablets with freebies and advertisement twists. What they fail to notice is that the price they offer does not justify the product they pack. Similar is the case with the ICE Xtreme 7-inch Android tablet that came into our labs recently. This tablet, when compared to others of the similar standard we reviewed in the past, turned out to be disappointing. Read on and find out what we discovered. Large fonts for port names, no rear camera Design and build The ICE Xtreme, from a new comer ICE X Electronics, is no different from any other 7-inch tablet we saw earlier. The build quality is very much below average, especially when referring to the control buttons. The entire chassis has a firm build, but the exterior is completely glossy and it won’t take much time to get this tablet scratched. The looks are decent as it sports a completely black front panel, but the rear panel is bright white with black text all over the edges. The front features a 2 megapixel camera for video calls and there are absolutely no control buttons for Back, Home or Menu. The rear panel just has a speaker grille and does not feature any camera. The Power and Back button are seen on the top, but the way they are placed, it seems they should have been the Volume and Back buttons respectively. The buttons are very flimsy and do not sport proper tactility, which tends to hinder the ergonomics to an extent. The right side features a USB 2.0 port for 3G dongles and input devices, an HDMI port for large screen displays or TVs, a mini USB PC interface, audio and power jacks and a microSD slot. The display is equipped with a scratch guard, so you won’t have to pay for one. Additionally, the product bundles a leather carry case for safely carrying it around. Bundled along are the charger, USB cable and headphones. Ports: HDMI, mini USB, microSD slot, audio, power Features and performance The ICE Xtreme is built using a 1.5GHz Cortex A8 processor and supported by a MALI-400 GPU. It features 1GB of RAM and sports a total of 8GB of internal memory. This storage capacity is split between the ROM, app storage and user data. An additional 8GB microSD card is bundled along with the product. The display is a 7-inch five point multi-touch capacitive screen with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. A free protective case is bundled We did notice a lot of flaws with the product. Though the hardware specs seem superior (1.5GHz CPU + 1GB RAM) to other similar tablets in the category, the entire tablet is very sluggish. We still haven’t managed to find out the reason behind the hindrance—it could be the app overloaded OS or the faulty drivers. At times, it takes more than four seconds for the tablet to display the screen after pressing the power button, apps take longer to start, the user interface seems sluggish and searching for apps on the play store or browsing the internet is painfully slow. The wireless network drops from time to time too.