If you are looking for a budget tablet today you may want to consider one of these devices. Not only because they show off some decent power under the hood, but because they run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.
If you are one who is looking to pick up a budget tablet, and is looking to do so under the Rs. 12,000 price point, you are in luck. 2013 has barely begun and we have seen tablets that not only boast of some good specifications under the hood, but also run on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean rather than 4.0 ICS.
One of the biggest disadvantages of owning a budget tablet is that you aren’t sure whether the device will receive the latest Android version via an update. If the device runs JB straight out of the box, you have the latest OS straight out of the box.
So why should you consider a device running Jelly Bean?
1. Speed: The biggest advantage of Jelly Bean is that it has made the interface and the overall performance of the OS a lot faster. In our experience the budget tablets running Jelly Bean still do lag, but not as much as the ones running ICS. The performance is a definite improvement.
2. Notifications: Notifications too have seen some improvement, becoming much more interactive overall. Notifications from the same application are grouped together, and the first item is automatically expanded. You can also pinch notifications to expand or collapse them. You can now touch-hold a notification to identify the application that created it and turn off notifications from that application if needed, as well as uninstall the application.
3. Google Now: One of the biggest additions to the OS. Google Now can be accessed straight from the lock screen and gives you access to information such as weather, traffic, transit, news and more. You can customize this information as per your requirement.
4. Voice typing and Search: Google has introduced Offline Voice Typing to Jelly Bean, placing the previously-cloud-accessed Google Speech Recognizer on the device itself. For now, it only supports U.S. English, but more languages are due to be added later. Google has also improved voice search, with faster response times, increased accuracy, and a more natural sounding voice. Relevantly, Google also announced it would be supporting more languages, with 18 new languages, including Persian, due soon.
5. Camera and Gallery: Google has made improvements to the native camera and gallery apps, with the new version supporting such features as an undo button, simple deletion UI, and a film strip mode.
6. Widget Control : Google has improved the widget-adding experience, and app widgets can now be automatically resized, depending on where the user drops them on the homescreen, the size to which the user expands them, and the space currently available on the homescreen.
7. High-res contact images: JB lets users add high-resolution pictures for their contacts. These pictures can be pulled from users Google profiles. This may not be a big deal for the most, but it is a nifty feature nonetheless.
You can take an in-depth look at the features of Jelly Bean here. You can take a look at our detailed review of Jelly Bean here.
Now that we have gotten you all excited about the new OS, lets take a look at six budget tablets available in India that run on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean straight out of the box.
| Name | Wickedleak Wammy Desire | Karbonn Smart Tab 8 | Karbonn Smart Tab 10 | iberry Auxus CoreX2 3G | Videocon VT10 | Spice Stellar Pad |
| Display Size | 7-inch | 8-inch | 9.7-inch | 7-inch | 10.1-inch | 10.1-inch |
| Display Type | LCD | TFT | TFT | IPS | IPS | IPS |
| Display Resolution | 480×800 | 1024×768 | 1024×768 | 1280×800 | 1280×800 | 1280×800 |
| Processor cores | dual-core | dual-core | dual-core | dual-core | dual-core | dual-core |
| Processor Speed | 1.5GHz | 1.5GHz | 1.5GHz | 1.6GHz | 1.5GHz | 1.5GHz |
| RAM | 1GB | 1GB | 1GB | 1GB | 1GB | 1GB |
| Built-In storage | 8GB | 1.5GB | 1.5GB | 8GB | 8GB | 16GB |
| Expandable Storage | 32GB via MicroSD card | 32GB via MicroSD card | 32GB via MicroSD card | 64GB via MicroSD card | 32GB via MicroSD card | 32GB via MicroSD card |
| SIM Card slot | NA | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Battery | 3000mAh | 4500mAh | 6000mAh | 4100mAh | 4100mAh | 7600mAh |
| Price | Rs. 6800 | Rs. 7,025 | Rs. 10,490 | Rs. 10,990 | Rs. 11,200 | Rs. 12,999 |
From the above table it is clear that the sub Rs. 12k tablets boast of some good specifications. They all show off dual-core processors clocked at 1.5GHz/1.6GHz, 1GB of RAM and of course, the Jelly Bean OS.
The cheapest tablet on the list is the Wickedleak Wammy Desire. For a budget of around Rs. 7,000 this tablet is definitely worth it. It has some impressive power under the hood and a very appealing design. The unique thing about the tablet is that it is very well built. The only shortcomings of the tablet are the speakers and the battery life. We also wish the resolution of the display was better. You can read our in-depth review of the device here.
Wickedleak Wammy Desire.
The Karbonn Smart Tab 8 boasts of an 8-inch display and has quite an acceptable resolution of 1024×768 pixels. Its battery is larger than the Wammy Desire at 4500mAh. Its built-in storage is a little low at 1.5GB user available, but that can be expanded via a microSD card. The display is also larger than the Desire at 8-inches.
Karbonn Smart Tab 8 Velox
If you are looking for a device larger than 7-inches, you may want to take a look at the Karbonn Smart Tab 10. It has a 9.7-inch display with a resolution of 1024×768 pixels, though we wish the resolution of the display could have been better. Just like its sibling, the Smart Tab 8, The Smart Tab 10 has a low built-in storage of 1.5GB but that can be expanded up to 32GB via a microSD card. Its battery too is larger than the Smart Tab 8, at 6000mAh.
Karbonn Smart Tab 10
One tablet that really caught our attention is the iberry Auxus CoreX2 3G tablet. The 7-inch IPS display has a resolution of 1280×800. That’s the same as the Jelly Bean flagship device, the Google Nexus 7. The display on the Auxus CoreX2 3G is fantastic but the device unfortunately bears underpowered speakers. Its built-in storage is high at 8GB and the expandable option surpasses the competition at 64GB via the microSD card. You can read out detailed review of the iberry Auxus CoreX2 3G tablet here.
iberry Auxus CoreX2 3G
The Videocon VT10 is a 10.1-inch tablet with a 1280×800 resolution. Its other specification are at par with the iberry Auxus CoreX2 3G tablet such as a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB built-in storage expandable up to 32GB. So, if you are looking for a device with a 10-inch display, you can consider this device.
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Videocon VT10
The Spice Stellar Pad is the latest entry in the Jelly Bean powered tablet race. It is also the most expensive tablet on this list priced at Rs. 12,999. Its hardware is at par with the Videocon VT10, with the exception that its built-in storage is higher at 16GB and the battery is larger at 7600mAh. We will comment on the battery life of the device when we put it through its paces.
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