Indian brand iBall has made a name for itself in the domestic tablet market with its slide series.
While not exactly a Samsung Galaxy beater, the iBall Slide series has been perhaps the best local brand of tablets so far, compared to the likes of the HCL, Spice and Videocon.
The latest launch in the series, the iBall Slide 6309i, is however, not a specifications play, but a price play.
The 7-inch, single-core 1.2 GHz processor model is not aimed at the performance buffs, as should be obvious, but at those who do not wish to spend more than Rs 5,000 on a tablet.
In addition, it does not have either calling facility or a built in SIM slot for 3G access. It does, however, support 3G through an external dongle.
Now the good news — unlike others in its category, the iBall Slide 6309i has a 1024*600 pixel display, or about 50% more pixels than most cheap tablets in the market today.
Second, it’s got two cameras, one at the front and a 2 MP camera at the back.
Third, it’s got 1 GB of DDR3 RAM compared to 512 MB that most models come with.
The extra RAM should help it tide over the performance bottleneck that a 1.2 GHz single processor would impose. Together with Android Jelly Bean, the tablet should definitely offer a smoother than average performance in the price category.
In addition, it should have decent battery life with its 3 Ampere hour battery.
The tablet also has bluetooth and an HDMI port.
That said, those who want to use their tablet out of doors should definitely consider spending another Rs 5,000 or so to get one with built-in 3G. For others, the iBall Slide 6309i is a strong contender.