14 DAY TRIAL // Though one would expect every new slate nowadays to have Honeycomb and the best ARM chip available, not all new tablets are like this, and the iBall Slide is definitely an example of the other kind.
The main foils to the ARM-based slates (usually with Tegra 2) running the Honeycomb OS (Android 3.0, 3.1 or 3.2) are Wintel tablets, like the one NEC just announced.
The other tablets one might find are the ones that aren't quite as progressive, even though they are of the same ARM-Android sort.
The iBall Slide, developed by Indian company iBall, is an example of such a device, featuring an ARM Cortex-A8 processor and the Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system.
Other than that, the slate boasts 8 GB of built-in storage and a mciroSD card slot (for adding up to an extra 32 GB).
Furthermore, WiFi is, understandably enough, present and accounted for, as is Bluetooth with A2DP and even 3G, albeit only through a separately purchased USB dongle.
Other specifications include a 2 megapixel webcam, an HDMI output, USB Host and OTG ports and even multitouch support on the display (it measures 7 inches in diagonal and has a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels).
"The world-wide market is phenomenally rising for Tablet PCs and is expected to reach 175 million pcs. by 2014. But these potential customers have different requirements,” commented Mr. Sandeep Parasrampuria, director of iBall.
“Realizing this gap and keeping up with our reputation to understand the psychology of the Indian consumer, iBall has come up with the revolutionary device iBall Slide. This device truly represents iBall philosophy - 'Your eyeball view. Our Technology new' justifying to bring products as envisaged and desired by the Indian consumers. iBall Slide is power packed with technology and features and we are sure iBall Slide will make the Indian consumer enjoy the ride."
Sales of the iBall Slide will start in the next few days, in India, for the price of 13,995 Rupee (rough equivalent of $307).