Android Based Tablet to Hit Markets This Year

It seems that Amazon’s launch of cheap tablets like $199 Kindle Fire has started a new race among tablet manufacturers. Now every company wants to launch a tablet which is low-cost yet attractive for consumers. In India, they have launched $35 tablet called Aakash for students and teachers.

If you remember, a company named Leader International Inc. launched its first Android-based tablet called Impression 10 in the start of current year. The 9.7 inch tablet costing $350 was one of the cheapest tablets available then. Now, the company is launching its 7-inch tablet model which is much cheaper than the 10-inch one.

On Tuesday, the California-based company announced their Impression 7 tablet in a press release. The tablet costs US $179 and will be available in the market for sale in November. The 7-inch tablet weighing 0.5 lbs has a resolution of 800 by 480 and features resistive touchscreen. Finger nails or a stylus gives a better touch experience on resistive touchscreens than the finger (skin). It has 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor with 512 RAM and 4 GB internal storage. It features Google’s previous operating system Android 2.2 FroYo OS. Like all other mobile devices, it has USB port microSD card slot which has the capacity of 16 GB. Impression 10 has a 3.0 megapixel camera but the latest Impression 7 has 0.3 megapixel front camera. It also features Accelerometer G-sensor and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g (for wireless connectivity). It has a 3.7V Lithium polymer battery which has a backup time of 6 hours.

If we compare the two tablets made by Leader International, we will find that the new Impression 7 has lower-end specifications. Some of the inadequacies are due to size limitations while others are due to fact that that company wants to reduce the cost by cutting the expensive hardware from the tablet.

Recently, ViewSonic launched a tablet called ViewSonic ViewPad 7e. Interestingly, both the tablets have many similar features. Like both have same screen resolution (800 by 480), both feature 1GHz ARM processors which run Android 2.x operating systems. And like all other tablets, both have the standard USB and microSD connectors.

ViewSonic’s ViewPad 7 e is being released this month in the markets for $199.99. Though, it costs $20.99 more than Impression 7 tablet but it has some features like the micro-HDMI output, 3 megapixel rear camera with Autofocus which makes it a better choice.