By pbbiet - April, 9th 2012

Indian tablet market is flooded with tablets as more and entrants are emerging and after the launch of 2 Android 4.0 ICS tablet (HCL ME tablet U1 and Micromax tablet) we decided to put a contrast on good and bad of both tablets providing a comparison between both. Both the tablet are different from very low cost entry level tablet like aakash tablet and BSNL tablet and aimed to provide more features at low cost which are absent at that tiny price tag. Also both HCL tab and Micromax tab funbook are both designed keeping in mind the large student base of India thereby focusing more on educational needs of the students as well apart from the media rich content. HCL has introduced 2 different ME tab models priced slightly higher than ME U1 for preloaded educational content whereas Micromax tablet has partnered with many International publishers to sell the content according to the need thereby providing more flexibility.

Micromax Funbook Vs HCL ME Tablet U1

 

Design and Hardware of HCL ME tablet and Micromax tablet

Design : HCL ME u1 tab is made up of polycarbonate frame to prevent accidental damage during fall and comes in white color. Micromax funbook provides a little more variation in colors and is available in Slate Grey and Midnight Black. Both tablet are completely touch based but micromax tab has 3 physical buttons on front panel for navigation also Micromax tablet claims to be a little thinner (2.53 mm) but both weighs around 350 grams. Few additional buttons are provided at the right side of HCL tablet for volume control, On-OFF and Reset. An intelligent Display ON and OFF switch is present in HCL ME tab to save battery while listening to songs. Both tab has a Branding logo of respective company at the back.

Processor: Both the tablets are based on CORTEX A8 architecture but Micromax tablet is clocked at 1.2 GHz and HCL ME tablet is clocked at 1GHz which gives an edge to Micromax tab and makes it a bit speedy however this trick can be done overclocking the CPU so not much of difference is going to be there in speed.

RAM: Both tablet uses 512 MB DDR3 RAM

Video Processor: Micromax tablet Funbook is powered with Dual Mali 400 2D/3D video processor to provide fluent and flawless HD display, HCL ME tablet also supports HD display but no specifications are provided for video processor.

Sensors: Accelerometer Sensor is provided with both the tablet which changes screen layout from portrait to landscape and vice versa as user changes its orientation.

Display, Sound and camera

HCL ME tablet is winner when it comes to touch experience. ME tab touch screen accuracy precession is much better than any other tablet at such low cost. HCL ME tab and Micromax funbook tab both features 7” inch capacitive touch screen with 16:9 aspect ratio and 800 x 480 screen resolutions. Pixel density of both the tablets is quite good and provides a tuned performance at games and HD movies. A 2 finger pinch Zoom is also supported by Micromax tablet which can be seen only in High end computing devices.

Both tablets has VGA camera (0.3MP) at front end for video chatting by integrating it with Skype or other Apps and none of them has exceptional features but lack of rear camera in both HCL ME tab and Micromax Funbook is something the users will miss.

Both tabs have a 3.5 mm jack for external speaker connectivity and ships with earphones also built in speakers are also provided in both but they are too low to be taken into account.

Battery life and Connectivity of HCL tablet ME U1 and Micromax Funbook

Battery of HCL ME tab 3600 mAh Li-ion which gives you longest backup in this range. Micromax tablet funbook suffers from battery life and provides 2800 mAh battery which definitely to worry about due to electricity shortage in most part of India.

Wi-Fi support is present in HCL ME tab and so in Micromax tab to connect it with Internet also both supports external 3G USB modem for internet connectivity. No SIM card slot is present in any of the tablet so no Phone support is provided with any and neither of these supports Bluetooth and GPS.

Software

Since both the tablets runs on Android 4.0.3 there not much to differentiate between both. Android 4.0.3 has a large collection of Apps thus both tablets support almost every file extension. But HCL ME tablet does not support Google Play Store (Android Market Place) and you can download the especially optimized apps from the HCL store but this is something where the beauty of Android faints.

Features where Micromax tablet (Micromax funbook) wins

• Speedy processor.
• 2 Finger Pinch Zoom.
• Thinner than HCL ME U1.
• Google Android Market Place access.
• Flexible Plans for Educational content (Educational content is paid and not free).

 

Features where HCL ME tablet U1 wins

• Touch Experience and Accuracy.
• Presence of both USB and mini USB ports.
• Polycarbonate frame for accidental fall damage prevention
• Very Good Battery Life.

HCL ME U1 tablet vs Micromax Funbook: Specifications

Feature	HCL ME U1 tablet	Micromax Funbook	Verdict?
Operating system (OS)	Android 4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich)	Android 4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich)	Draw
Display size	7 inch	7 inch	Draw
Display technology	Capacitive, Multi touch	Capacitive, Multi touch + 2 finger zoom supported	Micromax Fun book
Display resolution	800×480 pixels	800×480 pixels	HCL ME U1 tab
Front camera	VGA (0.3 MP)	VGA (0.3 MP)	Draw
Rear camera	-	-	-
Internal memory	4 GB expandable to 32GB	4 GB expandable to 32GB	Draw
Thickness	12.53 mm	10 mm	Micromax Funbook
Weight	350 gram	350 gram	Draw
Application store	HCL app store (optimized apps)	Google Android Market	Micromax Funbook
Processor	Cortex A8 1 GHz	Cortex A8 1.2 GHz	Micromax Fun book
RAM	512MB DDR3	512MB DDR3	Draw
3G	External 3G modem Support	External 3G modem Support	Draw
Wi-Fi	Yes	Yes	Draw
USB port	Yes	Only Micro USB	HCL ME U1 tab
Battery	3600 mAh Li-Ion	3600 mAh Li-Ion	HCL ME U1 tab
HDMI Port	No	Yes	Micromax Fun book
Price	Rs 7999 /-	Rs 6500 /- + Free Tata photon+	Micromax Fun book

There are few drawbacks in both of the tablet and its difficult to predict a overall winner and both of them are quite good to return the value of your money, HCL is a established brand in computing devices and micromax is a bit new but has gained a lot in last few years. Micromax tablet gains a slight edge over the HCL ME tablet due to greater functionality and flexibility it provides.

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