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There are many models of iBall Slide tab available, and now another model the iball Slide 3G 8072 has been added to the Slide family. The 8072 tablet supports Wi-Fi and comes with dual SIM slot with 3G and voice call support.

There are quite a few tablet with 3G support belonging to the Slide tablet series iBall Slide 3G 9728, 3G 7334i and 3G 7307. The Slide 3G 8072 comes with dual SIM slot with dual standby mode. It is powered by dual core processor Cortex A9 clocked at 1GHz. This tablet runs on Android 4.1 over an 8 inch touchscreen with 1024×768 pixels resolution.

RAM is 1GB, internal storage of 4GB and micro SD card support of up to 32GB. The iBall Slide 3G 8072 comes with 2MP front facing camera. Other features are Bluetooth, 3G, 2G, Wi-Fi and GPS with A-GPS support.

Nokia Mobiles have entered the Tablet bandwagon, they have launched the Nokia Lumia 2520 a quad core tablet with a 10.1 inch screen running on Microsoft Windows RT OS. Shipping will commence by end of 2013 and the expected price tag is $499 + $150 for the optional Nokia Power Keyboard. Nokia launched several devices like the Nokia Lumia 1520, Lumia 1320, Asha 502 and 503.

Let’s start with the display, the Nokia Lumia 2520 sports a 10.1 inch screen with full HD resolution (1920x1080p) i.e 218 ppi. The screen is with clear black display and with corning gorilla glass 2 protection. There is built in Micro SIM slot that supports 4G, 3G and 2G networks.

Windows RT OS comes pre-loaded that runs with 2GB RAM and 32GB internal storage. There is micro SD slot that can add external storage of up to 32GB. Lumia 2520 is powered by 2.2 GHz quad core processor (Qualcomm MSM8974) Snapdragon 800 Krait 400 coupled with Adreno 330 GPU.

The tab will be available in White, Cyan, Black and red colors and also includes a rear camera of 6.7MP with Carl Zeiss lens and front camera of 2MP resolution. Front camera can record videos in HD resolution and rear camera can in Full HD resolution.

Other features included are Wi-Fi (a/b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.0, USB 3.0, NFC and GPS with GLONASS / A-GPS support. There are accelerometer, proximity, gyro and magnetic sensors. Battery is of 8000 mAh capacity with talk-time of up to 10 hours and standby time of over 500 hours.

The Lumia 2520 is priced at $500 and $150 for optional Power Keyboard. In India it could be priced at under Rs. 40,000 and extra under 12K for the power keyboard.

Swipe Telecom has launched the Swipe Halo Value+ tablet that comes powered by dual core processor with built in SIM slot with 2G and voice call support. The Halo Value+ is priced at Rs. 6,999.

The 7 inch tablet supports 800×480 pixels resolution and runs on Android 4.1 with 512MB DDR3 RAM. There is 4GB on board storage plus micro SD card slot that can add another 32GB of external storage space.

Swipe Halo Value+ comes with built in SIM slot that does not support 3G, however does support the 2G networks. You can even use this tablet as a phone or use the 2G (EDGE) network for surfing. Other connectivity options are Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS.

Halo Value+ tab weighs about 380 grams, is 11.3mm thick and also comes with built in FM receiver. Dual cameras are included – VGA (0.3MP) front and 2MP on the rear (without flash support). The dual core processor (chipset unknown) is clocked at 1.2GHz.

The XOLO Play Tab 7.0 with a 7 inch screen supporting 1280×800 pixels resolution and powered by NVIDIA Tegra 3 1.2GHz quad core processor is available for Rs. 12,999. This tab runs on Android 4.1 and comes with 1GB RAM and 8GB storage.

XOLO Play Box Pack

The box contains the 7 inch tablet, user guide, warranty certificate, travel charger, earphone and data cable. The specifications are clearly mentioned on the box pack.

Design, display and OS

The XOLO Play Tablet got a curvy design with elegant silver and black color combination. The rear side is silver color with matte finish. The black part on the rear side has got some textures for added grip.

Tab 7.0 weighs 334 grams with battery and thickness is 10.82mm. The 7 inch IPS screen with 5 point multi touch supports 1280×800 pixels resolution. There are no physical dedicated buttons on the front side for navigation and hence a part of the screen will be taken up by on screen navigation buttons – usable screen resolution is 1216×800 pixels.

There are dual speaker on the rear side. Play Tab 7.0 comes with factory fitted screen guard. 3.5mm audio jack is placed on the right side along the curve (check video), with micro USB port and micro SD card slot. The power / lock button is placed on the top with volume rockers. This tab runs on Jelly Bean 4.1.1.

There are very few apps that came pre-installed. Accelerometer, magnetic and orientation sensors are present.

Memory and Storage

There is on-board 1GB RAM and 8GB storage. Of the 1GB RAM 359MB is free and of the 8GB storage 5.6 GB is assigned as internal storage of which 5.5GB is free. 32GB microSD card is supported and you can install apps on the external storage. OTG is supported I could connect my pen-drive using an OTG cable.

Performance

XOLO Play Tab 7.0 houses NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad core processor (Model: TW800) plus a 5th battery saver core. This is coupled with 416MHz 12 core NVIDIA GeForce GPU. The benchmark scores looked good.

Benchmark Scores

Quadrant Standard – 4037.

AnTuTu – 13699.

Vellamo – HTML5 1686, Metal 406.

Nenamark 2 – 55.4 fps

Multi touch : 5 points.

Gaming and Entertainment

The Asphalt 7 gaming play was very smooth and I could control the car perfectly. Dead Trigger too seemed smooth but at times you could feel the frames dropping a bit. Modern Combat 4 game play was also pretty good but when using the scope you could feel the game slowing down. Over all a good gaming experience. This tab can play full HD videos. The games were stored on the external SD card.

Others

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth worked well, I did not get the time to check the GPS. The tablet did not heat up much. The loudspeaker sound is low. Front camera is 2MP resolution good enough for Skype video chats.

Battery

The battery looks good and should last for a longer time as compared with other tablets. This tab comes with 4000 mAh built in battery. I ran the benchmark apps for around 18 minutes the battery dropped by 7% and temp increased to 34 degree. Do note that benchmark apps and high end games use maximum CPU / GPU power and hence for normal usage the battery backup will be much better. I played few games for around 13 minutes – battery dropped by 7%, temp increased to 38 degree.

Verdict

XOLO Play Tab 7.0 got a good look and comes with renowned hardware chipset; it runs on Jelly bean OS with 1GB RAM and 8GB storage. Battery backup, overall design and performance are pretty good. The only issue with this tablet is its price tag. Play Tab 7.0 is priced at Rs. 12,999 when surprisingly the Nexus 7 tablet with almost same specifications, 16GB internal storage and also powered by NVIDIA Tegra 3 Quad Core Processor can be purchased for only Rs. 9,999.

The Gionee GPad G3 already got listed on the Snapdeal website for Rs. 9,699 a month back. I have now received the press release with the confirmed specifications. The handset is available in white and black colours for Rs. 9,999. On Snapdeal it is now available for Rs. 9,425.

The GPad G3 is loaded with MT6589 quad core processor clocked at 1.2GHz. Android 4.2 runs the show with 512MB RAM and 4GB storage. The capacitive touch screen is 5.5 inches with 854×480 pixels resolution.

Other features are 3G, 2G, Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth. There is a 5MP auto focus camera on the rear with flash and 0.3MP on the front. The rear camera can record HD (720p) videos. This means that the hardware is definitely with MediaTek’s MT6589W quad core chipset with SGX 544MP GPU.

Removable battery is of 2250 mAh capacity. For the price of under Rs. 10,000 this looks good, especially for those looking out for a 5+ inch 9.8mm thick handset. It is a dual SIM handset with magnetic, G-sensor and proximity sensors.

The handset is available on Snapdeal.com for Rs. 9,425.

Even though Gionee India has started advertising the Gionee GPad G3, the Gionee GPad 4 or G4 is already listed on the Gionee.com website and part of it showcased (teaser) on Facebook. The GPad G4 is upgrade G3 in fact it is with a bigger screen and powerful quad core processor.

Gionee GPad G4 is a dual SIM handset supporting 3G. It is 7.95mm thick and comes with screen of 5.7 inches. The handset is powered by MT6589T (MediaTek Turbo processor), however the screen resolution is limited to 1280×720 pixels. The MT6589T is 1.5GHz with PowerVR SGX 544MP GPU.

This handset runs on Android 4.2 with 1GB RAM and 16GB storage. Probably because of the thickness the micro SD card slot might be missing.

Battery is of a very good 3200 mAh capacity. The handset looks cool and comes with DTS sound technology. There is 13MP rear AF camera with flash and 5MP front camera. Other common features included are 3G, 2G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. There is light, accelerometer, proximity, gyro and magnetic sensors.

The Motorola Moto G has been announced, it is an exceptional phone with an exceptional price tag of $179 (for 8GB storage option) in the US (without contract). The handset will hit Middle east, Asia, India and the US in Jan 2014.

The Moto G is an affordable smartphone that also comes with water resistant coating. The hardware as well as the outer body is coated with some waterproof chemical that makes it water resistant up to a certain depth.

The handset is powered by quad core processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 cortex A7 clocked at 1.2GHz with Adreno 305 GPU. The screen is 4.5 inches supporting 1280×720 pixels resolution with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection.

On board RAM is 1GB and internal storage space is 8GB or 16GB (optional). There is no external storage card support. A 1.3MP camera is placed on the front and 5MP AF on the rear with LED flash. This handset can record videos in 720p (HD) resolution at 30 fps.

Android 4.3 Jelly Bean OS comes pre-loaded and the good part is that the Moto G will get the Android 4.4 Kit Kat upgrade. Other common features are 3G, 2G (GPRS/EDGE), Wi-Fi (b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP and GPS with A-GPS and GLONASS. There is proximity, accelerometer and magnetic sensors.

Moto G weighs around 143 grams and is 11.6mm thick. The Li-ion battery of 2070 mAh capacity gives a usage time of up to 24 hours with moderate to heavy usage. The Motorola G handset with several customization option (shell color, flip shells etc) and dual SIM (in selected countries) / Single SIM variants is expected to hit the store in Jan 2014.

This 3 inch smartphone the LG Optimus L1 II was first unveiled in August this year. The handset is now available in India for Rs. 6,499. L1 II is low budget smartphone running Android 4.2 over a 3 inch with QVGA resolution.

This dual SIM Optimus L1 II may not excite many as there are better handsets with dual core power and around the same price. The L1 II however does come with SIM switching hot key. The IPS 3 inch screen is with 320×240 pixels resolution. Android 4.2 runs on this handset with 512MB RAM and 4Gigs of storage.

The handset comes loaded with qualcomm snapdragon single core processor (cortex A5) with Adreno 200 GPU. There is a single primary camera of 3MP resolution without LED flash placed on the rear. VGA video recording is supported.

The handset does support 3G (7.2Mbps), 2G (EDGE) and comes with Wi-Fi (b/g/n), Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP and GPS with A-GPS. There is an accelerometer and proximity sensor. The removable Li-ion battery of 1540 mAh capacity gives a talk-time of up to 4 hours on a full charge.

The LG Optimus L1 II (dual SIM) is available on HomeShop18 for Rs. 6,499.

Samsung upgraded it Galaxy Core handset and has named it the Samsung Galaxy Core Plus. This handset got listed on the Samsung’s Taiwan official website for 8K Taiwan Dollars. There is no word as to when the Core Plus will be available in India.

The Core Plus is an upgraded Samsung Galaxy Core I8262 that is currently available in India for under Rs. 13,000. When compared with its predecessor the Galaxy Core Plus specifications isn’t that exciting. In fact it’s almost the same with few minor changes. The older Core came with 8GB storage and sailed on the Android 4.1 OS.

Samsung Galaxy Core Plus is powered by 1.2GHz dual core processor running Android 4.2 with 1GB RAM (768MB available) and 4GB storage (1.93GB available). It supports micro SD cards of up to 64GB. The TFT capacitive touch screen is 4.3 inches supporting resolution of 800×480 pixels.

There is a front camera of VGA resolution and a rear AF camera of 5MP resolution with LED support. Other features are 3G(21Mbps), 2G, Wi-Fi (b/g/n), Bluetooth and GPS with A-GPS/GLONASS. In addition the Core Plus also includes the NFC module that was missing on the older (Core) version.

There are accelerometer and proximity sensors and 1800 mAh battery gives talk-time of up to 9 hours. No word about its launch in India or the price tag. You can expect it to be priced between Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 20,000.

Videocon has launched a dual core tablet the Videocon VT85C with a 7 inch screen and with built in SIM slot that supports 3G and voice calling. VT85C will come for a price of Rs. 8,999 and will be available within few days.

There are many 3G tablets with voice call support available in the Indian market. The Videocon VT85C will now compete with these tablets. VT85C comes loaded with dual core cortex A9 processor clocked at 1.2GHz running Android 4.2 Jelly Bean with 1GB RAM and 4GB storage. 32GB micro SD card is also supported.

The tablet is 10mm thick and sports a 7 inch capacitive multi-touch screen with 1024×600 pixels resolution. The tab houses a 5 megapixel camera on the rear and a front VGA camera. There is built in SIM slot (single SIM) that supports 3G and the tab can also be used as a phone.

Other connectivity features are 3G, 2G, Wi-Fi (b/g/n), GPS with A-GPS and Bluetooth 3.0. There is built in FM radio receiver with recording option. Full HD videos are supported and there is only one sensor – the G-Sensor.

The battery is of 3000 mAh capacity that I believe might not be enough for the 7 inch screen. The Videocon VT85C is priced at Rs. 8,999.