The wait is finally over; India has launched the most economically priced computing device ever to be made. The Aakash Tablet as this device is known may have an astonishingly low price tag, but it is loaded with some incredible features that can match any other computing device.
Price Factor
The tablet is priced at a $50, which when converted in to Indian money amounts to just Rs. 2,276. However, for students the tablet is priced much cheaper at just Rs 1,500 which comes to just over $30. The tablet is the result of an initiative by the Government of India to make computers affordable and available to all its citizens, especially to the young student community.
Features of Aakash Tablet
The tablet is small and compact and its external dimensions are 190.5×118.5×15.7mm. At 350gms it is light weight and portable and can easily fit in to a school bag or handbag.
The fully loaded tablet has all the essentials required in a computing device. It is built using the latest technology and has a 7” resistive touch screen, with a picture resolution of 800×400 pixel. The tablet has 2 USB ports for connectivity. Since the model that has been launched is basic, it is only Wi-Fi enabled. The advanced models which will be launched at a later date are proposed to be Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) and General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) enabled. They would be priced slightly higher because of these extra features, but would still be highly affordable.
Tablet Hardware
The tablet is backed by a 366MHz processor and a graphic accelerator. It also has a HD video processor that enables viewing better quality videos. The 256 MB RAM provides ample memory and for its size the storage capacity of the tablet is impressive. It has 2GB Flash memory in addition to a 2GB Micro SD card which can be expanded to 32 GB. This storage capacity is enough to store a lot of data
The battery of this device is powerful and is supposed to run for long when fully charged. The 2100Ah battery is capable of lasting 3 hours during normal use and up to a maximum of 2 hours when High Definition videos are played.
The AC adaptor for charging the battery is the standard 200-240 volts. Speakers and headphones can be used on the tablet with the 3.5mm audio out jack and a similar audio in jack that have been provided.
Software Installed in the Tablet
The operating system used in the tablet is Android 2.2. The tablet supports various Document formats such as; DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PPT, PPTX, ODT and OPD. It has a preinstalled PDF viewer and also has a Text editor. It is also pre-installed with Image Display and Multimedia. The image viewer supports the following picture formats – JPG, GIF, PNG and BMP.
The tablet also supports various audio formats such as the – WMA, MP3, AC3, AAC and WAV. It also supports MPEG4, MPEG2, FLV and AVI video formats.
Finally..
Computers and internet have taken over the world. The low priced Aakash Tablet will help close the great divide between those who can afford a computer and those who cannot. With its low price the affordability factor is taken care of and the functionality of the device is at par with the other computers.