14 DAY TRIAL // Karuma may not be playing the exact same tune as all the other companies that have tablets on sale, but the PlayBase is, in the end, still a tablet, even if it is cheaper and more specialized.
The Karuma PlayBase has a price of £170 ($270 / 197 Euro), or will have this price once it shows up.
The company's press release states that shipments will begin in December 2011, next month as it were.
That amount of money will get buyers a 7-inch device that, instead of trying to act as an all-purpose touch gadget, is oriented to one particular consumer segment.
Said market segment is that of children, or at least parents who feel their children can benefit from it.
Based on a 1.2 GHz single-core Rockchip RK2918 processor, it has 8 GB of built-in NAND Flash storage space and 1 GB of DDR3 RAM (random access memory).
Of course, like any other portable gadget nowadays, it has a card slot as well, a micro SD slot to be more precise, which can handle up to 32 GB.
Stereo speakers, a front-facing camera and an accelerometer are part of the hardware list as well, along with a shock-absorbent silicon cover that can double as a stand.
That said, PlayBase can play music, record and play videos, allow for playing games (the accelerometer helps) and, of course, permits web browsing over WiFi.
All these features are packed inside a 7-inch frame and complemented by an LCD (liquid crystal display) with a native resolution of 800 x 600 pixels.
“Low cost does not mean having to compromise on quality. The idea of kid-proofing PlayBase came from my personal experience (and many others!), with my 2-year-old nephew who broke my tablet's screen, after dropping it on the ground,” says Ashley Sayed, Karuma managing director.
“PlayCovers will offer extra grip for little hands and butter fingers and keep it safe from drops, knocks and bumps.”
The tablet can last, on a single battery charge, for up to five hours, or 60 hours of standby.
The operating system is Gingerbread, but Karuma plans to make the transition to Honeycomb (Android 3.x) or perhaps even Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0), eventually.