Datawind in association with the HRD Ministry has launched Aakash 2 - the new version of India's low-cost tablet Aakash, which was trashed by both users and reviewers for its poor performance. The new Aakash 2 tablet is available at a subsidised price of Rs 1,130 for Indian students, while Datawind is delivering the tablet to the HRD Ministry at Rs 2,263.
Compared to the previous version of the Aakash tablet, which proved to be a dud, the company has now upgraded some of the key features to enhance the user experience.
- Besides, the upgraded Aakash runs Android 4.0 operating system, whereas its predecessor had Android 2.2 OS. The Aakash 2 sports a front-facing VGA camera, and has built in Wi-Fi connectivity. The new tablet has 512 MB RAM and internal memory of 4GB, which is expandable up to 32GB using a micro SD card. The tablet is said to offer around four hours of battery time.
The commercial version of the Aakash 2 unit is branded as UbiSlate 7Ci, and is available for purchase on DataWind's website at Rs 3,500.
The tablet 'Aakash 2' was launched in October last year by the government to make available computing devices to students at subsidised rates. However, the project ran into controversy following IIT Rajasthan rejecting the devices manufactured by Datawind. Datawind had won the tender for making and supplying one lakh Aakash tablets for price of around $49 per unit.
Key specifications: Aakash 2
- 7-inch multi-touch capacitive screen
- 512 MB RAM
- 4GB (internal) flash memory, which is expandable up to 32GB using a micro SD card
- USB port
- 1 GHz Cortex A8 processor
- Front facing camera
- WiFi
