NEW DELHI: Although delayed, BSNL's entry into the budget tablet is not without reason. At Rs 4,999, its 7-inch tablet is the cheapest one in the market with a capacitive touchscreen.
Surprisingly for the price, the tablet does not skip out on any feature or compromise on the hardware specifications.
The build quality is at par with most other budget tablets. It feels solid to hold and the white finish looks elegant. The 7-inch touchscreen has the standard 800 x 480 pixel resolution and suffers from the same issue as most other budgets tabs - poor viewing. On the bright side, the screen has excellent touch response.
The tablet's onboard mini HDMI port can output at 720p resolution to a connected display - a slight letdown as most other budget tablets output at 1080p resolution.
There is mini USB port with on-the-go connectivity and also a full-size USB 2.0 port to connect flash drives - impressive and unexpected at this price. It also has a charging indicator light, skips on useless hardware buttons for home/back and menu, has large and well-placed volume keys - little additions that made us like the tablet more.
Hardware specifications are similar to the competition with a 1Ghz processor, 512MB RAM and 4GB onboard storage expandable via microSD cards. It runs Google's Android 4.0 operating system in its stock interface and provides full access to Google's Play Store as well.
A front VGA camera is available for video calls. Like other tablets, the output quality from the camera is full of noise and mostly useless. The audio output is shockingly loud and is good enough for a small room to play music.
For the price, the BSNL Penta tablet is really high value for money - it has no match in the sub Rs 5,000 bracket at the moment. The only downside is the 3,000-mAh battery that lasts under 3 hours with continuous video playback.
If you can spend a bit more, consider the Zync Z-990 Plus (Rs 6,490) tablet which has better battery life, a faster 1.5Ghz processor and 1GB of RAM - all combined, you get better performance.
