A day after launching India’s cheapest 4-inch 3G Android phone, Videocon again blasted away the competition launching India’s only Rs 10,000-range 10-inch HD tablet.
Not only is the Videocon VT10 the only 10-inch HD tablet, it also the only large-screen tablet available in India for under Rs 11,000 that can boast of an IPS display. The Zync Z1000, the other IPS display enabled tablet priced in the Rs 10,000 range, is largely out of stock at most locations.
In addition, unlike the Zync Z1000, the Videocon VT10 comes with the latest Cortex A9 type processor – Rockchip RK3066.
UPDATE – Spice has launched a similar, but slightly more advanced model, called the Mi-1010, priced at Rs 13,000.
The dual-core Rockchip RK3066 processor is the king of power in the affordable category, and is more powerful than Nvidia Tegra 2, and comparable in performance with Nvidia Tegra 3. In other words, unless you want to spend at least Rs 20,000, you will not get a tablet with a more powerful processor.
In fact, the VT10 is very likely India’s cheapest large-screen tablet with the Rockchip RK3066 processor. There are, of course, at least two other models with A9 processors priced in this range — the Onda Vi30 and the Swipe Velocity. Both are IPS-enabled. However, there are three drawbacks to the two models when compared with the V10 – screen size, processor and display resolution. Both have 8-inch displays and are likely to have the Amlogic 8726-MX processor (though we are not sure about the processor spec on Swipe Velocity), and have lower resolution screens.
The Amlogic 8726-MX is considered less powerful than the RK3066. In addition, the displays on the 8-inch models have about 75% the number of pixels on the Videocon VT-10.
In fact, the direct competitors to the VT10 are the iBall i9702 and the HCL ME G1 (based on the Window 90 platform). Both these models are comparable to the Videocon model, but suffer from two drawbacks — display resolution and price (though they have bigger batteries.)
The price difference (both the HCL and iBall models cost about Rs 14,000), however, can be explained by the fact that they come with batteries that have nearly 50% more capacity (6 hours) compared to the V10. However, the display resolution on both the models is lower by about 25% compared to the Videocon model.
Karbonn too has a 10-inch model in the Rs 10,500 range – the Cosmic Tab 10 – but it has a lower resolution display and does not have IPS technology that helps improve viewing angles.
Till another tablet comes around, Videocon seems to have a winner on its hands. The tab will be officially launched in two weeks, though it is available on a test basis on some e-commerce websites. The model is priced at Rs 11,200, but the price can be lowered by taking advantage of various promotions on the websites.
It must however be noted that new quad-core tablets have already been launched in India. See – Quad-core Android tablets launched in India at Rs 16,000 onwards
