Office in a tab

A new 3G-enabled tablet with a decent user interface and interesting apps.

From college student to a business executive,the HCL ME Y2 tablet from HCL Infosystems suits the requirements of all. It is a mid-segment tablet packed with applications and special offers to suit the requirements of the Indian consumer. It is powered by Android 4.0 operating system and comes with 3G,Wi-Fi,two cameras,matte finish and a lively multi-touch display. It is priced at R15,000.

Based on my experience,the speed of the tablet,powered by 1GB RAM and 1 GHz processor,is good and with 3G and full HD playback,its robust 4000mAH battery gives a full day back-up.

The 7-inch multi-touch display is easy to use. The broad user interface has six home screens with prominent and visually appealing icons of various mobile apps that can be downloaded via HCL Me app store.

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3G works via SIM card,which means the tablet can be used for calling purpose as well. The call quality was clear and loud. The SIM slot,mini HDMI,mini USB,micro SD slot and the 3.5mm jack are some of the useful ports featured in the tablet. The two cameras are quite ordinary,so do not have high expectations from any of them. Still with the front facing 0.3 megapixel,you can do video calls.

Talking about the applications,the Hungama app comes with a special offer for HCL ME Y2 customersfree three months subscription to download and play unlimited music,videos and ring tones. Bigflix again offers unlimited streaming of movies for a month for just R1. The ME Y2 has a ThinkFree office mobile feature that enables the user to create,view,edit or share Microsoft Office documents.

Some other useful apps include LinkedIn,Twitter,3D Digital Weather Clock,Games,Sweet N Spicy (a huge collection of Indian foods and recipes),iBrowser for easy and smooth downloading and browsing,and Saavn to listen to Bollywood and Indian music. Thats not all,the Y2 has an exclusive access to the ME App store which has over 15,000 apps capturing the latest and the best Android apps in the world for the tablet users. The popular Google Play app is not there and when we downloaded and installed it,it simply didnt run.

Overall,the touch response of the display and the vibrant visuals are the tablets key attractions,alongside the cool multi-tasking. Just touch the bottom icon and you can go back to any of your running app. A major drawback of this tablet is that it has an ordinary camera and you cannot enjoy Google Play on this.

SPECS

Display: 7-inch capacitive display 1024 x 600p

Operating system: Android 4.0

Processor: 1 GHz processor

Camera: 0.3 megapixel (front); 2 megapixel (back)

Memory: 8 GB (internal); expandable upto 32 GB

Video: full HD 1080p playback

Ports: micro SD,mini USB

Battery: 4000mAH battery

Estimated street price: Rs 14,999