There has been a lot of chatter about the newly unveiled Aakash 2 tablet, but unfortunately a lot of that buzz has had very little to do with the tablet itself. With all the controversy over whether the tablet is really an off-the-shelf product from China, there has been very little notice paid to its functionality. How does it perform? Can it hold its own against other cheap tablets? And will it really succeed in introducing the Internet to India’s rural students?
Datawind has trumpeted the tablet as being a huge improvement over its buggy predecessor.
In an interview with Firstpost Datwind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli said the improved features included, “the capacitative screen (which makes for smoother touch interface), a longer battery life (four hours), faster processing speeds – with a 1 GHz processor and 512 MB RAM and flash memory doubled from 2MB to 4 MB – an additional front-facing VGA camera for video conferences and calls, a G-sensor and Android’s latest Ice Cream Sandwich OS.”
AFP
But what do the critics say?
The Think Digit website has performed a fairly detailed review of the tablet, and says that while it passed all of its standard tests, the tablet is (not wholly unexpectedly) quite slow.
Highlights of the review:
Speed/Performance:
The reviewer, Sascha Segan, says that given Aakash 2 tablet’s 1Ghz AllWinner Cortex-A8 processor, it unsurprisingly functions like an entry-level Android smartphone. “Scrolling can be laggy and sometimes screen transitions are slow. The browser was also really slow, even over Wi-Fi”, he says.
The device:
Segan is fairly impressed with the look and feel of the tablet, saying it “The Ubislate is actually quite slim and easy to hold”. However he does note that the device “doesn’t have a viewing angle as much as a viewing point, and the touch screen takes some noticeable pressure to activate.”
Utility
Although slow, Seagan says that the tablet is functional, and is a good enough device to introduce Indian students to the Internet. “if it’s this or no Internet, this will get you on the Internet”, he says.
