Aakash tablet gets a hands-on preview

Remember the $35 tablet that we covered yesterday? Well, the folks over at Hungry N Foolish were one of the selected people chosen to test the tablet and they have written up their hands-on impression of the device. Judging by their report, they seem pretty impressed with the tablet.

The specs of the Aakash tablet are: a Conexant 366MHz processor with graphics accelerator and HD video processor, 256MB of RAM, 2GB of internal storage, a 7″ resistive (800 x 480) display, and Android 2.2. The tablet also features two USB ports, only one physical button on the side of the device (used to deactivate sleep/return to the homescreen and displaying options), a microSD card slot (supports up to 32GB), 3.5mm stereo earphone jack and a built-in microphone.

The resistive touchscreen is said to be dull - but it's also one of the main reasons why the tablet can be so cheap, so I guess it was a worthy trade off. Consumers used to capacitive touchscreens will need to get used to operating a resistive touchscreen though. The tablet supports WiFi and Bluetooth (though the latter was said to be not functioning on the review unit) and it doesn't sport a camera or an accelerator. Future versions of the tablet might include support for a 3G SIM card though.

Overall it seems to be a functional Android tablet for a very low price tag, so it isn't going to be setting any standards or be an “iPad killer” - but hey, you get what you pay for. Perhaps in the future as parts get cheaper, the tablet can increase in functionality while staying at the same price point. For now, it's going to serve its purpose as an entry-level device designed to encourage for students and consumers to get online