Review: Aakash, the world's cheapest tablet, disappoints

Jaimon Joseph, CNN-IBN

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It might be the world's cheapest tablet. But does Aakash, the government's much touted cheap computer, give you enough bang for your buck?

If the Apple iPad be the Goliath of tablets, meet David - Aakash, the world's cheapest tablet computer. With hardly any flab beyond that 7-inch screen, it might also be among the smallest. Unlike the original iPad, it accepts pen drives. Something Indian university students, who get these tablets before everyone else, will find useful.

You could buy one of these for about Rs 3,000 starting this November. Shell out a bit more and you could get a nice leather cover with a keyboard which you can plug in, so you could use this as a mini laptop. You might also get the option of making phone calls, both over the Internet and over cellular networks.

The student version we got came loaded with applications. Everything from Facebook, to stuff that lets you create and edit documents. There are games, a calendar cum organiser, even advanced lessons in Physics � though they used up just a quarter of the screen and were hard to read. And we do have a few other gripes.

1. The screen is rather unresponsive. Sometimes I had to push the screen really hard to get a response.

2. It also heats up really fast. Which means in the heat and dust of India, it could face problems.

3. It connects to the internet only using Wi-Fi. Which means if a student is travelling or in a room that doesn't have Wi-Fi, he's stumped.

Among the apps we liked is this electronic book reader. But it opens only length wise (in portrait orientation), while almost everything else on the tablet works only sideways (in landscape). Opening any website triggers repeated security warnings. Playing YouTube videos is easy but stopping them - irritatingly difficult. Strangely, the tablet wouldn't open any of the movie files on our USB drive � even common formats such as .avi and .flv.

Also, despite its Android operating system, the tablet won't install anything from the Android App Market. That puts thousands of applications out of a student's reach. Plus, the battery hardly lasts three hours � not enough for an average day in college. Unless you bunk most of your classes.

Finally, we got a pro to open up the Aakash, to see what the world's cheapest tablet computer looks like under the hood. One thing we found is, IIT Rajasthan worked no miracles here. The stuff that runs this machine, can simply be bought off the shelf.

"It was a standard system on chip, which includes a microprocessor, controller, even controls for the audio and video. It is a standard Connexant chip which includes an ARM processor." says Prashanto K Roy, editor, Dataquest.

The workmanship inside isn't top notch. Common electric tape holds the circuit boards down. Cheap wires connect the circuits instead of more efficient data cables. But the real let down was the tablet's ruggedness. Screwing back the boards we opened up was a nightmare.

"Putting the screws back was tough because the screw threads on the plastic side slipped. So serviceability might be an issue," observes Roy.

For the price it is being offered at, the AAakash is probably great value for money. But the question is, is it the best our students deserve. I think not.

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