The E-Tab is a competent tablet, especially with respect to performance and hardware
The tablet mania that everyone was talking about some months ago is finally here. It?s raining tablets these days. Budget tablets in particular, with some exceptional features, have flooded the price-conscious Indian market in recent times. Good news is that the Indian consumer is purchasing these sleek devices with increasing ferocity. Young and busy professionals as well as college students are all early adopters. According to CyberMedia Research, about 4,75,000 units of tablets were sold in India in 2011; more than 3,00,000 slates have already been sold as on date this year. Going forward, the competition is expected to intensify further with new vendors introducing their offerings with newer features.
If you are looking for a low-cost tablet to watch movies, play games, read books and browse the Web?all in the confines of your Wi-Fi-enabled home or office?this device from New Delhi-based mobile phone maker Lava Mobiles has got to be it. Called E-Tab Z7H, the device feels very good in the hand, it feels sturdy and well sorted. It is being offered at a special price for R5,899.
The E-Tab is bold, robust and has a bold bar design that is smart and compact and resonates convenience. The device measures 122 x 204 x 11.9 mm in dimension and weighs 350 g, making the tablet very easy to carry with you. The tablet is equipped with the G-Sensor that allows for easy toggling between applications and also gives you the best view on the screen.
The fit and finish is great and it has a comforting weight to it that feels substantial but not heavy. The front is dominated by the seven inch screen which is covered by a slab of a sturdy glass. However, the rounded sides are made of plastic. The back of the unit is made of a sturdy plastic with a light texture that makes it easy to grip.
Our review unit had a grey back but I believe that other colours are also available. Closer inspection revealed that the E-Tab features a front camera located above the screen and the series of buttons off to the side are comfortably placed and easy to use. Once the tablet is switched on, it gives a highly responsive and optimised touch experience. There is assured connectivity on the go with support from a majority of dongles. There is a bouquet of content ready to be customised exclusively for the user but we?ll about this later.
What impressed me was the tablet?s unique Flick technology that enables superior high definition multimedia experience and great value for leisure book reading or Web surfing. Flick technology allows for advanced functions such as pinch to zoom and makes navigation smooth and easy, giving you fairly good clarity and fluidity of motion.
The E-tab runs on the latest Google Android 4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich) operating system that delivers a host of fun features. As described earlier, it has a 7-inch TFT LCD display and is powered by 1.2 GHz Cortex-A8 processor providing a fast user experience. Apart from the exciting bouquet of apps for your social and multimedia connectivity needs, it also has Lava?s self developed Fusion App, promising unlimited music and video access on the go.
In recent months, we have reviewed several tablets and I am of the firm view that the success of a tablet will largely depend on product performance and availability of relevant content and applications. On this front, Lava Mobiles has enriched E-Tab with some good content from players like McGraw-Hill Education, Tata Photon+, Flip Kart, Merit Nation, Flyte, Hungama, among others. By this move, the company has packed its slate with amazing content for books, movies, videos, dongle and various apps.
Since e-reading is becoming popular day by day as it is easy to carry and a great measure to save the usage and wastage of paper, the E-Tab comes preloaded with 14 books, including former President APJ Abdul Kalam?s Envisioning an Empowered Nation, Word Power and Dhirubhai Ambani?s biography to name a few. Lava has partnered with Meritnation and offers free Vedic math?s content and a discount of R750 on any of meritnation.com package. The company has also tied up with Hungama.com, a leading digital entertainment storefront. While Hindi blockbuster 3 Idiots has been pre burnt, consumers will have choices worth R1,250 to stream up to six movies from Hungama.com website, for free. To top it, there is also an exciting Tata Photon +dongle offer and exciting preloaded games, absolutely free of cost.
The Android Lava E-Tab Z7H runs on a Lithium-Ion battery that offers reliable battery support and lets the tablet give you company for the long hours that you want it to. The tablet has an inbuilt memory of 4 GB and the memory can be expanded up to 32 GB using micro SD or micro SDHC cards.
The E-Tab is enabled with Wi-Fi allowing the tablet to hook up to the internet in a Wi-Fi zone. The tablet also allows you to use the internet using the 3G USB Dongle support. The Dongles supported by the E-Tab include Airtel 3G E1731, Idea 3G E1732, Reliance 3G MF190, Reliance Net connect+ EC150, MTS Mblaze AC2746, Tata Photon+EC156, TATA Photon +EC1261 and LAVA 730G.
You can easily connect the E-Tab to your laptop or PC via the micro USB port and you can connect your headphones to the tablet via the 3.5 mm audio jack. Navigation in your city or even an unknown one is a piece of cake because the E-Tab is enabled with Google Maps, making it a great travel companion.
My assessment: The Lava E-Tab is a pleasant device to use. It also has a good design with great build quality. It delivers powerful performance and offers connectivity and entertainment in a single touch. Recommended for those on a tight budget!
SPeCS
* Dimensions: 122 x 204 x 11.9 mm
* Display: 7-inch, TFT LCD
* Operating system: Google Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich
* Processor: 1.2 GHz Cortex-A8 processor
* Touch panel: Capacitive multi-touch
* Battery: 2800mAh, browsing time ? 4 hours
* Applications: Facebook,Twitter and many more
* Camera: Front camera
* Connectivity: Wi-Fi enabled, 3G Dongle support via USB
* Internal memory: 4 GB
