Byond Launches Cheap Mi-book Mi5 and Mi-book Mi9 Android Tablets in India

Indian company Byond has just announced the immediate availability of two new affordable Android tablets, the Mi-book Mi5 and Mi-book Mi9.

Both tablets are now available for purchase from major retailers across the country. The Mi-book Mi5 is sold for only Rs 7,299/$130/ €105, whereas the Mi-book Mi9 is a bit more expensive at Rs 7,499/$135/ €105.

However, it looks like the slates can only be delivered in 8-10 business days, so you might want to take this into consideration before ordering one.

When it comes to hardware and software, Byond’s tablets are almost similar, with only a handful of differences.

The first thing setting them apart is the size of the display. As the name suggests, Mi-book Mi9 tablet comes with a 9-inch capacitive touchscreen display that supports 800 x 480 pixels resolution, while the Mi-book Mi5 features a slightly smaller 7-inch capacitive display with the same resolution.

On the other hand, the latter comes with SIM card slot for voice calling, whereas the former does not offer users the possibility to make calls. However, both slates support 3G via dongle.

Byond’s affordable tablets are equipped with 1.2 GHz single-core Cortex-A8 processors, which are complemented by 512MB of RAM and 8GB of internal memory that can be further expanded up to 32GB via microSD memory card.

They also pack VGA front-facing cameras, along with Wi-Fi, HDMI and microUSB ports. Mi-book Mi5 is powered by a 3000 mAh Li-Ion battery, while the Mi-book Mi9 features a much better 6000 mAh Li-Ion battery.

Software-wise, the slates ship with Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system out of the box, and come pre-loaded with several productivity tools, including PDF Reader, Quick Office and MS Office Suite.

Access to Google Play store is included as well, along with multi-language support and Google’s full suite of apps and services.