Aakash 2 specs – New low cost tablet launched at Rs 1,130

The much talked about Aakash tablet was released to less than stellar reviews and a staggering amount of complaints. Aakash tablet was considered a failure. It was written off as just another good idea gone to waste, but it’s back! Today we saw the successor to the Aakash tablet, the Aakash 2 launch. One of the main complaints with the low cost Aakash tablet was, other than the delivery problems of course, it’s sluggish performance. Granted it was a low cost tablet, but a 366 MHz processor and 256 MB RAM just couldn’t cut it. It didn’t help that the build quality wasn’t up to the mark and deliveries took months or in some cases, didn’t arrive at all. The solution was to bump up the Aakash 2 specs.

The HRD Ministry in association with Datawind has launched the Aakash 2 tablet which hopes to erase all the bad memories from the past launch and hopefully be what the original was supposed to be. According to the press release, the Aakash 2 will be sold to Indian students for just Rs. 1130 and Datawind is supplying it to the Indian Government for Rs. 2265. The commercial version of the same tablet is available on the Datawind website for Rs. 4499. So here are the Aakash 2 specs:

Processor: 1 GHz single core ARM Cortex A8RAM: 512 MB RAMScreen: 7 inch capacitive touchscreenStorage: 4 GB internal, expandable upto 32 GB via MicroSD cardConnectivity: WiFi, GPRS (optional) and Mini USB portCamera: VGA front facingOS: Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich

You can get your Aakash 2 tablet from your educational institution for the subsidized price, or you can visit the Datawind Official Website and buy the commercial version of  Aakash 2 which is more expensive, but also has the option of a SIM slot. So what do you think, with the Aakash 2 launched, is it going to make an impact? Will Datawind finally deliver on the lofty promises they made with the original Aakash tablet and can they deliver on time? Only time will tell. Meanwhile, let us know what you think of the Aakash 2 specs and drop us a comment!

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Proposed Aakash 3 specs and features detailed

The Aakash 2 tablet was just launched last month in India and it was met with better reviews than the first Aakash/Ubislate tablet. Most consumers and students haven’t even received their Aakash tablets yet and there’s news of a successor. It’s not concrete as of now, but some of the proposed Aakash 3 specs and features have been detailed by some researchers and development heads at IIT Mumbai. With their targets set at much higher than Aakash 2, the makers of Aakash 3 are planning on not only better specs, but better apps and much higher production numbers. Here’s what we know.

First and foremost, the Aakash 3 specs and features will be be improved by upgrading the hardware. A more powerful, and possibly multi core procesor, more RAM and more inbuilt storage is what’s on the list. Also, the makers of Aakash 3 aim to make the tablet powerful enough to run both Android as well as Linux, which is good news for those interested in software development. Of course, it is said to pack in Android Jelly Bean as well.

One of the biggest changes is that Aakash 3 might include a SIM slot as well. The current Aakash models don’t come with SIM slots, but the commercial versions called Ubislate include them. The Aakash 3 is aiming to be both an educational device as well as a communication device. Finally, the Aakash 3 is aiming to come with a lot of exclusive educational and health content/apps out of the box.

Another change we might see is that there could be two versions of the Aakash 3 tablet, one for schools and one for colleges and higher education institutions. Price is another concern here, but apparently even with all these features, Aakash 3 is set to be priced similarly. It remains to be seen if DataWind can deliver on their promises for the current version, Aakash 2, so thinking about Aakash 3 could just be overkill. As of now these are just very basic outlines for the next version of the Aakash tablet, but even then we’d rather that DataWind concentrates on clearing backlogs and delivering Aakash 2 to their customers. Drop us a line telling us what you think about Aakash 3, is it way too early to think about it now?

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