Micromax Funbook: Fun with Funbook

Tablets, tablets everywhere but not more than 3 or 4 fit your bill. Yes, that is the situation in Indian tablet market where tablets are flooding the market exactly the same way that mobile handsets flooded it a couple of years back and still the trend is going on.

Once major players like Samsung and Apple's tablet became available here and consumers realized the utility of the uber cool mobile gadget, many Indian and global companies started coming in herds to showcase their stuff to the Indian consumers. Even mobile operators are not spared in the race of launching few tablets with a bundled offer.

Though there are 30 varieties of tablets from various manufacturers available here, not more than 2 or 3 products from the prominent players are able to give the kind of user experience that the tablet was created for. However user experiences vary with user expectations.

In the era of cars like Nano, which is built just to meet the basic objective of making the travel easy and overlooking sheer driving pleasure, not many Indian users expect a tablet to be always an iPad or Galaxy Tab. Tablets like Aakash, Ira, and Micromax Funbook too do exist in the Indian market and they too have their cut of customers.

Let's now look at the hugely successful Indian handset maker Micromax's latest offering in the tablet market-the Funbook.

Hardware

The Micromax Funbook priced below `7,000 has pretty decent specifications with a dual Mali 1.22 GHz Cortex A8 processor and runs on the latest version of Android for smartphones and tablets-Ice Cream Sandwich. For a mobile device which is built mostly for accessing the web and multitasking, the tablet desires to have a processor speed of more than 1 GHz and Funbook just has that.

Built with a 7-inch display board with multi-touch capabilities, the Funbook allows HD video playback at 1080p and also offers the HDMI output for you to play your desired media content on external display at home. The tablet comes with 4 GB internal storage and can be expanded up to 32 GB. It is also accompanied with a VGA front camera but lacks a rear camera. Connecting to the internet is available only through Wi-Fi or one can use the data cards being offered by Tata Teleservices.

Micromax and Tata photon have partnered to offer this service. However a SIM card slot could have been a better option. The tablet offers three physical buttons-home, menu, and back-that gives the tablet a cheap look with the plasticky structure. These buttons were not required as the tablet uses the latest version of android OS and is a full-touch screen device.

The bottom end (in portrait mode) of the device is home to a myriad of ports such as mini-SD, HDMI adaptor (sold separately), memory card, 3.5 mm jack and the charger.

Software

The upgradation to the Ice Cream Sandwich OS from its earlier version-Honeycomb-which gives the user a much better experience in using various apps with more smoothness. The full GPU acceleration on the latest OS does not only facilitate a more flamboyant UI but also a smoother one.

Multitasking has been taken care of by the company beyond expectations. Running multiple apps simultaneously does not give the lagging feel. At the same time, quitting apps has been made very simple. The best part which could be seen as a marketing trick on seeing the hype over Aakash tablet, Micromax has promoted this tablet as an instrument for education. The tablet comes preloaded with content from publishers like Pearson, Everonn, and Vriti. In addition to this, Zenga TV is also preloaded for watching live TV.

Overall, at a price tag of `6,499 and keeping our expectations according to the price, the Micromax Funbook is worth buying and steers clear of its competitors in that category.