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The Lenovo IdeaPad S210T is a touch laptop powered by 3rd generation Intel dual core Celeron processor with 2GB RAM and 500 GB HDD storage. This laptop sports an 11.6 inch 10 point touch screen and comes with AccuType Keyboard. It is priced at under Rs. 28,000.

There are two S210T versions available in the market one with 3rd gen Celeron 1.6GHz dual core and other with 3rd gen Pentium dual core clocked at 1.9GHz. The Pentium touch IdeaPad S210T laptop is priced at Rs. 29,990.

Box Pack

Inside the box you will find the Lenovo IdeaPad S210T laptop, 3 cell battery of 2200mAh capacity, power adapter, power cable and quick start guide / warranty booklet. Depending from where you buy this laptop you can get a free Lenovo Branded Backpack or some other accessories. I got a USB mouse, headphone with speaker and desktop speakers for free.

It would be better if you ask and insist for the Backpack as some shop keepers might avoid giving that and instead give you other option and sell off the Backpack later on as an individual item and make extra money.

Lenovo IdeaPad S210T design and specifications

The S210T weighs around 1.5Kg and is of dimension 299x207x22.3mm. I got the black color model, it has a texture on the top. The laptop is sleek with good built quality. There is one touch recovery button on the left side along with RJ 45 port, HDMI port and USB port. On the right side there is 3.5mm audio jack, 2 in 1 card reader, another USB port and power port. There is 1xUSB 2.0 and 1xUSB 3.0 ports. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are also included. In addition there is a 720p HD camera on the front.

This laptop runs on windows 8 OS (64 bit) and can be upgraded to 8.1 for free. It is powered by 3rd gen Celeron Dual core processor (1017U) clocked at 1.6GHz coupled with Intel HD graphics processor.

There is 2GB RAM and 500 GB storage. Touch screen is 11.6 inches with resolution 1366×768 pixels – 10 point multi touch supported. For input there is touchpad and AccuType Keyboard – this is different from traditional keyboards, it’s fast, accurate and comfortable to use. Almost all of the IdeaPad laptops come with AccuType keyboard. On the front side there is the standby and low battery indicator.

Performance

The laptop performance is pretty good; the touch experience is good and gives the tablet feel. 2GB RAM is enough but in case you want you can add additional RAM of up to 8GB. This is not a very powerful laptop (Not recommended for gaming users), but decent enough for everyday general use like checking emails, surfing, social networking, office work, etc.

Sound output is really good thanks to the Stereo Speakers with Dolby Advanced Audio v2 technology.

Battery

The 3 cell battery gives a usage time of up to 4 hours. Full recharge in 2 hours 52 minutes from 12% to 60% with off sate and then in standby mode. Battery backup is 3 to 4 hours and even more depending on your usage. With continuous usage (minimal brightness) battery life is 3 to 3 hours 30 minutes.

Verdict

The under Rs. 20K Netbooks have almost disappeared from the markets. And when it comes to laptop with touch features there are in fact very few affordable option. The lowest touch laptop is the Lenovo Essential A10 that is powered by quad core and runs on Android 4.2 OS for around Rs. 20K. The other option is the IdeaPad S210T touch screen laptop for around Rs. 27,890.

Tegra 4 powered XOLO Play Tegra Note tablet with a 7 inch screen is now listed on Flipkart website. The price details are not yet mentioned but this is an indication that XOLO Note tablet will be available within few days.

The XOLO Play Tegra Note comes powered by NVIDIA Tegra quad core 4+1 (cortex A15) @ 1.8GHz coupled with 72 Core NVIDIA GeForce GPU. This tab runs on Android 4.1 that can be upgraded to 4.2 via OTA updates.

This 7 inch XOLO Note tab supports 1280×800 pixels resolution. There is 1GB RAM, 16GB storage and 32GB external card support. A 5 megapixel camera is placed on the rear and a secondary camera of 0.3MP resolution is placed on the front.

There is no built in SIM slot; for connectivity there is Wi-Fi (b/g/n), GPS with GLONASS, HDMI port, micro USB 2.0 port and Bluetooth 4.0. The touch screen can differentiate between (for example) finger tip, pen and eraser, thank to the NVIDIA Direct Stylus technology – users can use passive pen to write on the screen and also use the other end to erase. Not sure if the stylus is provided with the tablet

The Google Nexus 7 is available in India via Google play store. The Google nexus 5 is also available. The Nexus 7 with 16GB Wi-Fi model is available for Rs. 20,999 where as the 32GB Wi-Fi model will come for a price tag of Rs. 23,999.

A 32GB Wi-Fi and LTE (4G) unlocked variant is also available for Rs. 27,999. The 4G option is only available with 32GB storage. The nexus 7 runs on Android 4.3 with 2GB RAM and 16/32 GB storage options.

The 7.02 inch screen supports 1920×1200 pixels resolution with scratch resistant corning glass. Tab weight is 290 grams with an 8.65mm thickness. Other features are 4G (with 32GB), Wi-Fi (dual band) (a/b/g/n), NFC, dual speakers and Bluetooth 4.0.

The Google Nexus 7 is powered by 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor clocked at 1.5GHz. There is 5MP auto focus camera on the rear and 1.2MP on the front. Battery is of 3,950 mAh capacity with up to 9 hours of continuous usage time. Wireless charging (Qi) is supported.

Interested in the Nexus 7, just head on to Google play store.

DOMO Slate X3G comes powered by 1GHz Allwinner A31 quad core chipset with PowerVR SGX 544 MP GPU. This 7 inch tablet comes with built in SIM slot that supports 3G. The tab runs on Android 4.2.2 and is priced at Rs. 11,490.

Box Pack

The box contains the 7 inch tablet, data cable, charger, OTG cable, warranty card, user manual and free 16GB class 6 micro SD card.

Design and Display

The Slate X3G 4th weighs about 307 grams with battery. The thickness is 10.48mm and breadth is 107.83mm. The rear side is silver colored with matte finish. The build quality looks good. Built in battery is 3200 mAh capacity. There is SIM slot that supports 3G and you can also use the tab as a phone.

On the front there is in-call speaker, 3MP front camera and sensors (Accelerometer, proximity and light sensors). The power button and volume rockers are placed on the right side. The SIM slot and micro SD card slot on the left side. On the top there is 3.5mm audio jack, micro USB port and mini HDMI port.

The 7 inch TFT LCD screen is with 976×600 pixels resolution. There is no dedicated navigation buttons on the front panel and hence on-screen navigational buttons are enabled. Touch is smooth and responsive. The screen also comes with some coating or a factory fitted screen guard that is finger print resistant. Viewing angles are okay not that good. There is LED indicator that lights up when you connect the tab for charging.

Memory, Storage and OS

There is 1GB onboard RAM. After the first boot you get around 512MB free RAM. Of the 8GB storage 1GB is assigned for apps (825MB free) and 4.5GB as internal storage. There is the 16GB free micro SD card too that gives around 14GB of external storage space. Unfortunately this tab cannot install apps or games on external storage. OTG is supported and the X3G 4th tablet runs on Android 4.2.2. Performance

Slate X3G 4th comes powered by AllWinner A31 quad core chipset clocked at 1GHz and coupled with PowerVR SGX 544MP GPU. Overall performance is good. Quadrant benchmark score seems too low.

Benchmark scores

Quadrant Standard – 2215 – 2nd run – 2315 .

AnTuTu – 11248.

Vellamo – HTML5 1168, Metal 322.

Nenamark 2 – 56.5 fps

Multi touch : 5 points.

Gaming

Dead Trigger 2 and Asphalt 8 played really well. Game play was smooth. The games got installed on the internal storage.

5MP camera

The rear 5MP camera as well as the front 3MP camera output is okay, not really that good. These are fixed focus cameras. The rear 5MP camera can record videos in 960×720 pixels at 6.66 fps which is no good.

Others

The speaker sound is quite low. You can use the tab as a phone but the earphone’s call / cancel button does not work with the phone feature. The tab heats up a bit which is normal. There is no Bluetooth and built in GPS receiver. You can use the Wi-Fi / Mobile networks to get the location on Google Maps but that is not very accurate.

Battery

The built in battery is of 3200 mAh capacity. I used the tablet for 20 minutes running benchmark apps – the battery level dropped by 13%. Game play of 11 minutes resulted in the battery level dropping by 8%. The estimated battery life with continues usage will be around 3 hours.

Verdict

The DOMO Slate X34G 4th a 7 inch tab with Allwinner quad core chipset runs on Android 4.2 with 1GB RAM and 8GB storage. This tablet comes with a free 16GB SD card. There is SIM slot (normal SIM) with 3G support (does not support HSPA). The build quality and overall performance is good, ignore the camera. The tab is so far the cheapest quad core with 3G, however without Bluetooth and GPS.

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.

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 Yoga Tablets that were in the news for quite some time has finally been launched. Lenovo Yoga Tablets are available in 8 inch and 10 inch variants for Rs. 22,999 and Rs. 28,999. These tablets are listed on the official Lenovo website and can be pre-ordered, shipping will commence from 25th Nov.

It is called the Yoga tablet because it can be used in three different modes (ways), stand mode / Hold Mode / Tilt Mode. There is a kick stand that along with the battery weight helps the device stand of its own.

Yoga Tablet 8

This Lenovo tab sports an 8 inch screen with 1280×800 pixels resolution. It comes with 5MP rear camera and 1.6MP front HD camera. Yoga Tab 8 is powered by 1.2GHz MediaTek MT8389 quad core processor with 1GB RAM and 16GB storage. It runs on Android 4.2. Micro SD card of up to 64GB is supported.

For connectivity there is built-in 3G/2G (Micro SIM card slot), Wi-Fi (b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS. Voice calling is supported. The 6000 mAh Li-ion battery gives usage time of up to 18 hours.

Lenovo Yoga Tablet 10

This tab also comes powered by 1.2GHz MT8389 quad core chipset running Android 4.2 with 1GB RAM and 16GB storage. 64GB micro SD card is supported. 3G, 2G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS are supported. There is a 5MP rear and 1.6MP front camera.

The screen is 10.1 inches supporting 1280×800 pixels resolution. Battery is of a 9000 mAh capacity that gives up to 18hours of usage time on a full charge.

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.

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.

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.

Simmtronics has launched dual SIM Xpad Freedom a 7.8 inch tablet that comes powered by 1.2GHz quad core processor, supports 3G and runs on Android 4.2 OS. This tablet is listed on Flipkart without a price tag. The Xpad Freedom is expected to be priced under Rs. 14,000.

The Simmtronics Xpad Freedom sports a 7.8 inch capacitive IPS touch screen playing around with a resolution of 1024×768 pixels. This tab houses dual SIM slot and supports 3G / 2G with voice calling. Xpad freedom runs on Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2 with 1GB DDR3 RAM and 8Gigs of internals storage. There is micro SD card slot that can add additional storage of up to 32GB.

This tab is powered by quad core processor clocked at 1.2GHz with PowerVR SGX 544MP GPU. The tab also comes with dual camera – 2MP on the font (secondary camera) and 5MP on the rear (Primary camera).

The specifications mentioned on the Flipkart site are not clear, we are not sure if the tab supports Bluetooth and GPS. Other included features are Wi-Fi and 3G/2G. Battery looks good with a 5000 mAh capacity and as per the company it will give 5 hours of browsing and up to 6 hours of video playback on a full charge.

The Simmtronics Xpad Freedom could be priced at under Rs. 14,000.

Lava mobiles has launched their first dual SIM tablet Lava E-Tab IVORY, that runs on Android 4.1 OS and supports 3G with voice calling. The E-Tab IVORY is priced at Rs. 10,199 and will hit the stores with few days.

The Lava E-Tab IVORY comes powered by MediaTek dual core processor with PowerVR SGX 531 Ultra GPU. The SGX 531 Ultra GPU is clocked at 500 MHz that should be good enough for gaming and overall performance.

The IVORY E-Tab sports a 7 inch screen with 1024×600 pixels resolution. You can use two SIM cards. 3G including voice call facility is supported. This tab comes with dual cameras of 2MP resolution that is placed on the rear and a 0.3 MP (VGA) resolution placed on the front.

Lava E-Tab IVORY is 10.8mm thick. Tabet also includes Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth. Android 4.1 jelly Bean comes loaded with 4GB internal storage and 1GB RAM + MicroSD card support. The battery of 3000 mAh seems too less for this specification, however Lava has mentioned that the battery backup is about 5 hours on a full charge

The IVORY Tab with dual SIM and 3G support coming soon for Rs. 10,199.

The Micromax Canvas Tab P650 is here to compete with the Samsung Galaxy Tab. The P650 is loaded with 1.2GHz quad core processor running 4.2 Jelly Bean OS with 1GB RAM and 16GB storage. This tablet is priced at under Rs. 16,500 is it worth it, find out.

Box Pack

The box looks attractive and is quite heavy. The Sar value is mentioned on the box – 1.00 W/[email protected] head and 1.49 W/[email protected] body. Inside you will find the tablet attached with a good quality snap cover. Other accessories included are power adapter, data cable, earphone and warranty statement / user manual.

Design, Display and OS

The Micromax Canvas Tab P650 tablet weight is 448 grams without snap cover, the weight with snap cover is over 500 grams (585 grams). Tab is 9.55mm thick. The P650 has got curved edges and available in blue and white (sliver) colors. The one that I used for the review is shiny silver color with matte finish and the snap cover is white color.

The snap cover is something that you might have seen with the Apple iPad. You can fold it and use it as a stand, check the review video. The cover comes with a plastic case – the tablet is clipped in. Volume rockers are placed on the right side along with micro USB port and a single SIM slot that houses a normal SIM. This tablet supports 3G with phone functionality. The power button, 3.5mm audio jack and micro USB port is placed on the top.

There is no dedicated buttons on the front panel, when you power on the tablet you will get the onscreen buttons. There is in call speaker and front camera of 2MP resolution. The Build quality and finishing is very good, though the tab feels a bit heavy.

The Micromax Canvas Tab P650 runs on Android 4.2.1 and sports an 8 inch screen with 1024×658 pixels with 16M colors, but because of the absence of dedicated navigation buttons the usable screen resolution is 976×768 pixels.

There are accelerometer, orientation and magnetic sensors. The magnetic sensor is indeed present and may sound weird as most of the Micromax handsets never come with this particular sensor.

Memory, Storage and OS

RAM is 1GB of which 650 MB is available and of the 16GB storage 1.73 GB is allocated for apps (1.59GB free) and 10.95GB as USB storage (it’s a tab and hence they used the word USB storage instead of phone storage). There is micro SD card slot that supports 32GB card. You can install / move apps on external storage. I tried connecting a pen drive using OTG cable, and it doesn’t work. OTG not supported.

Performance and Benchmark

The Canvas Tab P650 is powered by quad core cortex A7 MT8389 chipset clocked at 1.2GHz with PowerVR SGX 544 MP GPU. The performance is smooth without any lags.

Benchmark scores

Quadrant Benchmark: 4052.

Antutu Benchmark : 13274.

Vellamo Benchmark : HTML5 – 1497, Metal – 503.

Nenamark2 : 51.2fps.

Epic Citadel Benchmark: 59.1 in high performance and 27.0 in ultra high quality mode.

Multi Touch : 5 point.

OTG is not supported.

The scores are a little better than as seen on Samsung Galaxy Tab 3.

Camera and Entertainment

The rear auto focus camera is 5MP resolution without LED flash. Still image long shots are okay and close ups are good. The camera can record videos in 1080p resolution at 30fps the video quality is also good. There is a 2MP front camera, its fixed focus. Check out the samples and video at the end.

Gaming

I tried Dead Trigger in high graphics mode and Asphalt 7, both these games worked smoothly without any issues. The games got installed on the external SD card. I then tried the MC4 (Modern combat 4) that unfortunately did not work.

Others

There is built in 3G, you can use the handset as a phone, either via Bluetooth, earphone or simply place the in-call speaker near the ear and talk (this might look odd cause of the size). 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth worked well. I did not get the time to check the GPS, but I think you should get a lock within 30 seconds easily. Speaker volume is much louder and clear.

Battery

The 4800 mAh Li-ion battery gives a talk-time of up to 10 hours and usage time of up to 5 hours. I played some games for about 16 minutes and battery level dropped to 6% and temp rose by 2 degrees, the max temp was 35 degrees.

Micromax Canvas Tab P650 review (verdict)

The MMX Canvas Tab competes with Samsung Galaxy tab. If you compare it with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 (T211) (with 8GB and 3G), there is much more that the P650 is offering, the price is near about the same. It will be interesting to see what Xolo Tegra Note will be priced at.

Of course Canvas Tab P650 is a better option specs wise but brand wise Samsung still rules. Nevertheless Canvas Tab is a good option with snap cover.

Kindle Fire HDX tablets will be more powerful and lighter than its predecessor. Amazon announced the Kindle Fire HDX 7 and Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 tablets with a price tag of $229 and $379 respectively. The 8.9 inch tablets also come in 4G LTE variant for $479.

The Kindle Fire HD tablet prices had already dropped a few days back, that was an indication of new arrival’s. These tablets run on Fire OS 3.0 Mojito with new features, platform updates from time to time and access to Amazon exclusive services.

The Kindle Fire HDX 7 sports a 7 inch screen with 1920×1200 pixels resolution i.e. 323 ppi. It is powered by 2.2GHz quad core processor. The 7 inch version may also come with optional 4G which will cost more.

The 7 inch Fire HDX supports Wi-Fi, comes with front facing HD camera, optional 16/32/64GB storage space, Dolby audio and dual stereo speakers. This tab is 9mm thick and weighs 303 grams for Wi-Fi version and 311 grams for 4G version. On a full charge the tab gives 11 hours of usage and up to 17 hours when reading. The price is $229.

Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 too is powered by quad core processor clocked at 2.2GHz. It houses a 8.9 inch screen with 2560×1600 pixels resolution (339 ppi). Other features are Wi-Fi, optional 4G, optional 16/32/64 GB storage, Dolby audio / Dual stereo speakers, front HD camera and 8MP rear camera. On a full charge this 8.9 inch tab gives 12 hours usage and 18 hours of reading.

The MTV Slate runs on the Jelly Bean 4.2.2 OS with on-board 1GB RAM and 8GB storage. There is a single SIM slot – 3G / 2G supported with voice call functionality. Additional storage can be added via the Micro SD slot (up to 32GB). This tab is loaded with quad core processor (MT6589 MTK8389) clocked at 1.2GHz (cortex A7) coupled with PowerVR SGX 544MP GPU.

The IPS touch screen is 7.85 inches with 1024×768 pixels resolution. This tab also comes with dual cameras. There is a VGA camera on the front and a 5 megapixel camera on the rear. The Swipe MTV Slate Tablet is 8.4mm thick and weight is 400 grams. There is built in FM receiver and full HD playback is supported.

Other features are 3G, 2G, Wi-Fi (b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.0, probably GPS (needs confirmation) and OTG support. Battery is of 3200 mAh (li-ion) capacity which seems too less for the size.

The Karbonn smart A34 HD tablet with dual SIM slot is now available for Rs. 7,290. This 7 inch tablet runs on the Android 4.0 OS and comes powered by 1GHz cortex A9 single core processor.

Tablets with built in SIM slot and phone functionality are not that popular. It does sound exciting until you purchase it. Many of the users who have bought tablet with phone functionality have at some point of time moved to smartphones as it is more convenient specially when making or receiving a call.

The Karbonn A34 HD sports a 7 inch screen with 1024×600 pixels resolution. The ICS OS runs on this tablet with 512MB RAM and 4GB storage. There is a rear camera of 2MP resolution and a front VGA camera. The key attraction is the dual SIM option; however do note that 3G is not supported. You can connect an external 3G dongle if you need 3G accesses, but via the SIM slot only the 2G network (EDGE) is available.

Other features are Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS (needs confirmation), micro USB port and 3.5mm audio jack. The battery is of a standard 3000 mAh capacity. The Karbonn A34 tablet with 800×480 pixels resolution is available for Rs. 6,999 on Flipkart and the Karbonn A34 with HD screen resolution comes for a price tag of Rs. 7,290 on Infibeam.

Huawei today launched a quad core tablet for Rs. 24,990 in India. The Huawei MediaPad 10 what they call sports a 10.1 inch IPS screen with HD display running the Jelly Bean 4.1 OS. This tablet can be pre-ordered from Flipkart and it does come with built in 3G SIM slot.

The Huawei MediaPad 10 is 9.9 mm thick and weight is 640 grams. This tab comes powered by 1.2 GHz Cortex-A9 Quad Core (Hisilicon K3V2) with 16 cores GPU. It runs on the Jelly Bean 4.1 with 1GB RAM and 16GB internal storage.

The 10.1 inch screen of capacitive nature supports 1280×800 pixels resolution with 10 point multi touch. There is a front 0.3MP camera and a rear 3MP. It’s a fixed focus camera. As mentioned there is built in SIM slot that supports 3G SIM. In addition there is Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, micro USB and 3.5mm audio jack.

The battery is 6000 mAh Li-po that gives standby time of about 600 hours and video playback time / internet browsing time of up to 8 hours.

Huawei MediaPad 10 key features and specifications

Built in SIM slot. (micro SIM I guess).

Quad core Cortex A9 1.2 GHz Hisilicon K3V2 + 16 core GPU.

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

1GB RAM, 16GB storage and micro SD card slot (32GB).

10.1 inch capacitive touchscreen with 1280×800 pixels resolution (16M colours ~ 149.45).

3MP FF primary camera + 0.3 MP FF secondary camera. Full HD playback and HD recording supported.

3G (42mbps), 2G, Wi-Fi (b/g/n), Bluetooth 3, 3.5 mm audio jack, micro USB and GPS.

Sensors: Light and Accelerometer.

Li-po 6000 mAh battery with up to 8 hours of usage time.

Price Rs. 24,990 (via Flipkart).