Ever heard of Binatone? I remember it vividly because I basically grew up watching my favorite shows on a Binatone TV. Now over 15 years later of being lost in wilderness, I read the news that they are coming up with an Android tablet! Seems like anyone with money to spare is investing into mobile devices these days. Anyway, the price looks interesting. Let’s see if it’s worth waiting.
Binatone Home Surf Touch Tablet Tech Specs (and analysis)
- 8″ Resistive Screen
Aww Snap! Such a big resistive screen. I have serious doubts regarding usability. I hope the resolution is good at least. - ARM 11 667 Mhz, 128 MB RAM
I won’t even call it a previous gen processor. But for the price I guess it’s ok. - Android 1.6
Seriously? Google should disallow anything below 2.0. It’s really slow and buggy compared to 2.* and you don’t even get basic features like MS Exchange support, Multi-touch and HTML5 in Browser. - 2 GB onboard storage
So definitely not a video playback device. Unless they have external storage options. - WiFi
Since nothing is mentioned I assume it doesn’t have EDGE or 3G. - Some Indianized features namely “Audio Boost”, “Power Saver” and “Binatone Zone”
Don’t ask me what does that even mean.
Based on the announced tech spec’s analysis, the table doesn’t look promising at all. But 9k! 9k is really affordable. And apart from Notion Ink I don’t expect any tablets going below the $400 barrier in India anytime soon.
The biggest question I have in my mind is that do we really have the market for a cheap, below average tablet? I can assure you it won’t be a great browsing experience with the slow processor, resistive screen and an old web browser. We don’t even have the concept of public WiFi hotspots in India. I don’t see anyone ever wanting to buy something like this. I consider buying an iPod Touch or a phone with a decent browser a much better investment.
Maybe if they can get deals with Retail stores/Hotel chains and get appropriate apps developed, this can act as a good digital catalog. Or an alternative to the Simputer those Trafffic Police officers in Bangalore use.
[via TechTree]
