Aakash 2 versus BSNL Penta T-Pad IS7O1C

DataWind launched the Aakash 2 in India today, which will be sold at a subsidized price of Rs 1,132 to students. That said, the Aakash 2 is essentially a rebranded UbiSlate 7Ci, which costs Rs 4,499. In this price bracket the only tablet that comes close is the BSNL and Pantel Penta T-Pad IS7O1C.

Specs-wise both fare quite competitively as both have very similar feature sets. Both tablets have 7-inch capacitive displays with WVGA resolutions, and both run 1GHz processors based on the ARM Cortex A8 platform. The similarities don’t end here as both even have 4GB of internal storage and 512MB of RAM and both have microSD card slots and VGA front facing cameras. Even in terms of the operating system, both tablets run on Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich. Actually the more one digs deep into the specs, the harder it becomes to differentiate both the tablets in terms of specs.
Luckily for DataWind, its deal with the Indian government is a trump card as it can sell the UbiSlate 7Ci in the form of the Aakash 2 for Rs 1,132 to students, something that BSNL cannot achieve currently. However, the Aakash low-cost tablet project is yet to take off with users who had booked the first lot of Ubislate tablets are yet to get them. We are not certain at the moment about the fate of the Aakash 2 or its commercial version, the Ubislate 7Ci. Purely in terms of availability, the BSNL Peta T-Pad IS701C might just be a tad easier to get than the Aakash 2.