Sony seems to be hogging all the limelight today as it has announced the Xperia ZR, while leaked images of Sony’s new mid-ranger Xperia S39h have surfaced online. But the company is also now showing off a prototype of its all new e-Ink slate. The company is planning to introduce this product as an alternative to a paper notepad and thus has stretched the size of the tab to a massive 13.3-inch to match up to the standard A4 size of paper.

Sony has developed the slate by using a technique to form a high precision TFT screen on a plastic flexible electronic paper which will offer a 1200×1600 pixel resolution. The tablet screen has been developed using “an electromagnetic induction method and an optical touch panel technology” to work well with an e-pen or stylus. The slate will be merely 6.8mm thick, and will weigh at 358g. The company justifies the size by highlighting that it would offer an “easily readable text size and layout similar to a paper document”.  Also, the e-Ink slate will support various file formats like PDF and will feature several editing and sharing options as well.

Other features in the tablet will include a Wi-Fi connectivity and a microSD memory card slot. Sony has also taken care of the battery requirements and is saying that the slate will be able to work for up to 3 weeks on a single charge, however without using Wi-Fi. This should not be shocking considering e-ink technology is known to be frugal and does not consume as much power as say an LCD screen.

The tablet holds quite an impressive set of features, however knowing that this is still the prototype, you can expect some tweaks in specs in the final commercial version, which the company aims to launch sometime in the 2013 fiscal year.

It has only been two days since we informed you about Notion Ink’s plans to finally introduce the Adam II, the successor of the Adam tablet launched way back in 2011, and now we have more information regarding the tablet’s specifications as they were revealed at the National Technology Awards in India. According to the release, the tablet will be introduced with Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean and be competitively priced for Rs 12,000.

In terms of specifications, the Adam II will have a 10.1-inch IPS display offering 1280×800 pixels resolution. The interesting part is that it will also feature a secondary screen which will be a small monochrome screen for displaying notifications on the tablet’s spine. It will run on a dual-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU clocked at 1.5 GHz and will come with 1GB RAM. There will be two 2-megapixel cameras each on the front as well as the back sides. Wireless connectivity options will include support for Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth. There will also be an HDMI and a microUSB port. The tablet will house a 6000mAh battery which is claimed by the company to run for as long as 10 hours.

Though the price of the Adam II is mentioned as Rs 12,000 in the Indian market, but there is no confirmation on its rumored possible launch in June.

For those don’t remember, Notion Ink rose to fame with the original Adam tablet that also had the ‘Eden’ UI running on top of Android Gingerbread. That device flattered to deceive and did not perform as advertised and costed much more than what the company is aiming for with the Adam II, hence it remains to be seen if the tablet can make it.

Rumors of upcoming smaller Windows tablets from HTC have been doing the rounds of the Internet for quite a while now. With Acer likely to be one of the first companies to unveil a smaller Windows tablet, PhoneArena now claims to have credible information that HTC is indeed set to launch a 7 and 12-inch tablets running on Windows RT Blue later this year.

The tablets in question are the HTC R7 and R12, which according to the report are codenames based on their screen sizes. The smaller of the two, the HTC R7, seems to be sporting a 7-inch Full-HD display and is said to be powered by 2.3GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 and 2GB of RAM. Other features likely to be included on the tablet are a 13-megapixel rear camera and connectivity options like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and A-GPS. There will also be an optional variant that said to support LTE/HSPA+.

The HTC R12, on the other hand, is said to sport the same features, except a 12-inch display with support for 2048×1536 resolution.

The report further mentions that the tablets will be unveiled sometime around the second week of October and then eventually hit stores during the Holiday season. This time frame, we might add, coincides with the first preview and the eventual launch of Windows Blue.

Acer’s W3-810 leaked last month, but not much was known about the tablet. Today the folks at PCWorld spotted the tablet accidently listed on Amazon for $380 (Rs 20,000 approximately), before it was promptly taken down.

According to the listing, the Acer W3-810 runs on Windows 8 and features an 8.1-inch (1280×800 pixels) display, an Intel dual-core Atom processor, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator GPU and 2GB of RAM. Other features included on the tablet are a 2-megapixel rear camera, a front facing camera, 32GB of internal memory, connectivity options like miniUSB and HDMI port and a battery that is said to last 8 hours.

With  Microsoft having relaxed the hardware requirements for Windows tablets a couple of months back, the Acer W3-810 will be the smallest tablet in the market, as all the ones before were either 10-inchers or bigger.

Controversy has been synonym to Datawind ever since the Aakash project has come into existence. The brand, however, has its own line of devices for consumers apart from the government proposed Aakash tablet. The Ubislate 7C+ is one of the Datawind’s latest tablets, which features voice-calling capability. Datawind has also recommended it to the government for consideration for the next Aakash tablet, as the company believes that the tablet will be a perfect device to integrate voice-calling and internet connectivity at a low price point. The 7C+ is priced for Rs 4,999 but Datawind plans to supply it to the government for Rs 2,500 per unit (excluding sales tax and other taxes) on a bulk order for more than 10 lakhs units if the government approves it as the next variant of Aakash and gives the tender to Datawind. But the question is whether the tablet would really be able to work better to serve the purpose or is this just another hyped out model by the company. We have the tablet with us and here are our first impressions.

To begin with the looks and the design, it will be too much in this price for this tablet to look like a premium one, and be based on some over the top design modules. As expected, the tablet looks ordinary with black plastic chassis defining its body, though it felt sturdy and tough. The device is a little thick at 13mm, but is easy on weight at 350 grams.

The 7-inch display on the front has a thick bezel around the screen, and features an earphone grille for voice calls on one side and a VGA camera on the other. The camera on testing resulted in some noisy and distorted images but what else can one expect? As far as the voice clarity on the earphone goes, it is average. A pair of ear phones are recommended if one intends to make calls from it.

The rear is full of branding, and apart from these printed labels, carries a small speaker grille and a reset option. Talking about the speaker, the first point is that it won’t be audible if the device is placed on its back on a thick surface, secondly knowing that it is not a powerful one and thus works fine only for personal use. In noisy environs of an open space or with people around, it will leave you struggling to even figure out the track playing on it.

The tablet features SIM card and microSD card slots. There also are a volume rocker, a charging slot, a microUSB port and a 3.5 mm jack slot. Users will be able to connect a 3G modem dongle with USB OTG and the box comes with a cable for connecting it.

Talking about the screen, the 7-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen has 800X480 pixels resolution, and considering the resolution it offers decent quality for its price, though it is a fingerprint magnet. The touch interface works fairly well when compared with other devices, though there are frequent lags.

The Ubislate 7C+ comes with Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich and runs on a 1GHz Cortex A8 processor with 512MB RAM. It also features 4GB of internal memory and support up to 32GB of additional memory on microSD. Over all, though the operating system is relatively old, but at this price, these specs look decent at least on paper.

The company clearly says that the software matters much more than the hardware, and thus is offering a bunch of pre-loaded apps on it as well. This is supplemented with Datawind’s own app store that has been launched with this tablet. The company claims that the device gives three hours of talk time, which we are yet to test. However, it heats up really fast on continuous use.

Watch this space for our detailed review of DataWind’s Ubislate 7C+.

After having launched quad-core phones like the Wammy Titan, its successor the Wammy Titan II and the Passion Y HD, Wickedleaks has now launched its first tablet called the Wammy Desire Tab 2. This 7-inch quad-core tablet will be available from the second week of this month for Rs 9,999.

Talking of specifications, the Desire Tab 2 sports a 7 inch IPS (1280×800 pixels) display and is powered by a 1.4GHz quad-core Exynos 4412 Cortex A9 processor, Mali-400 GPU and 1GB of RAM. Other features included on the tablet are 2-megapixel rear camera, VGA camera at the front, 8GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 32GB using a microSD card and a 3,300mAH battery.

On the connectivity front, the tablet supports 3G via an USB dongle and currently runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, which the company claims will soon be upgraded to 4.2 Jelly Bean.

Microsoft launched the Surface RT in the later part of last year and the Surface Pro more recently in the US and Canada. The Redmond-based company is now reportedly planning to launch the next-generation Surface tablets at the Build developer conference scheduled to run from June 26 to June 28 this year, reports DigiTimes.

The report though is very light on details and all the source has revealed is that the upcoming Surface tablets will be smaller than the current-gen tablets with screen sizes ranging between 7 and 9-inches. From the above details, we can assume that one of the tablets could be the 7-inch Xbox Surface which was reported to be an upcoming gaming tablet or that Microsoft might be launching an entirely new set of tablets having relaxed the minimum hardware requirements for future Windows tablets.

On a different note, an IDC report has placed Microsoft in the top-five tablet vendors for the first quarter of this year, with the Redmond-based company shipping nearly 900,000 units in that period.

Aakash tablet maker DataWind has announced to have completed the 1,00,000 Aakash tablets, set to be delivered to IIT-Bombay under the Indian Government’s Ministry of Human Resources Development’s National Mission for Education through Information Communication Technology. The company has also revealed that the project was won by DataWind in an open and transparent international tender for the supply of Aakash 1 devices at $49.98 (currently Rs 2,684.68), was subsequently modified to 98,000 Aakash 2 devices and 2,000 devices with DataWind’s recommendations for Aakash 3, all at a price of Rs 2,263 (currently $41.61).

According to the company, they have delivered 74,700 units to C-DAC, Noida and IIT-Bombay, which have accepted the delivery. It also adds that, the remaining 25,300 units are with the transporter in Noida, who is awaiting the processing of Letter of Credit documentation by IIT-Bombay. Once the process is be done, thes final shipment will be released by State Bank of India (IIT-Bombay’s bank) upon endorsement of the delivery order, as per the Letter of Credit requirement established by IIT-Bombay.

In addition to the completion of the 1,00,000 unit Aakash project, DataWind has also announced to have completed deliveries of its pre-paid backlog for its commercial Ubislate tablets, which had landed it in the pit of controversies many a times earlier. It claims that less than 1 percent of pre-paid backlog customers remain pending due to lack of courier coverage or contact information. Also, DataWind adds that new deliveries for UbiSlate devices are now processed within 72 hours.

The Aakash 2 is delivered to IIT-Bombay with 12 months warranty and accessories at Rs 2,263. The device features a 7-inch capacitive touchscreen, runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, is powered by a Cortex A8 1GHz processor, and come with 512MB of RAM with a flash memory of 4GB that can be expanded by up to 32GB through microSD card. In addition, there is support for Wi-Fi and external 3G and EVDO dongles for mobile broadband data connectivity. It also features a VGA camera, G-sensor, internal microphone, speakers and headphone jack.  Commercially the device is sold as the UbiSlate 7Ci. Datawind has also said that Aakash 3 will contain an embedded quad-band Edge modem to allow voice-calling as well as data connectivity. According to the company, it is  now preparing to participate in the next tender for Aakash 4 and is confident to be able to bag it.

Timeline of Aakash 2 project

May 16, 2012: IIT-Bombay establishes LC for start of Aakash2 project

August 29, 2012: Final specs approved for Aakash 2 after product testing

Nov 5, 2012: IIT-Bombay accepts and issues Golden Samples.  Contract allows for 6 month delivery period after approval of Golden Samples, resulting in a final delivery date of June 5, 2013 and order validity till June 15, 2013.  The project has been completed by DataWind well within this time-frame

Nov 11, 2012: Launch of Aakash 2 – 14,100 devices delivered

Nov 10 to Dec 14, 2012: Indian customs stops further clearances under IIT-Bombay’s exemption certificates pending verification and reconciliation by IIT-Bombay.

Jan 2013: Datawind restarts manufacturing. After delivery of 3,000 units, by end of January, Customs again stops accepting IIT-Bombay’s exemption certificates

Feb-Mar 22, 2013: Production lines lie idle, components sit at Customs incurring huge demurrage as customs again refuses to accept validity of IIT-Bombay’s exemption certificates.

Mar 23, 2013: Customs starts to accept some of the verifications/confirmations provided by IIT-Bombay and starts clearing goods.

Mar 23 to May 1: Remaining 82,900 units are manufactured and shipped, despite ongoing difficulties in release by customs of certain components, non-acceptance of IIT-Bombay’s exemption certificates and delays due to extension and processing of IIT-Bombay’s letter of credit.

Tablets continued their upward trend in the market with nearly 49.2 million units shipped in the first quarter of this year. This is a near 142.4 percent increase from last quarter and more units were shipped in Q1 than the entire first half of 2012, reports International Data Corporation (IDC).

Speaking of brands, Apple was way ahead of its competition, shipping 19.5 million tablets and followed by Samsung that shipped 8.8 million units. In third place was Asus which has seen a growth in its tablet shipments largely due to the popular Nexus 7 and following the above three is Amazon whose Kindle series of Android tablets has been doing decently well in the market too.

In the fifth place is Microsoft, which has for the first time broken into the top five thanks to its Surface RT and Surface Pro tablets. The Redmond-based company shipped nearly 900,000 units in the first quarter, most of which were the Surface Pro tablets that went on sale in February.

If mobile OS are taken into consideration, the table is almost re-shuffled with Android leading the market with a 56.5 percent share, followed by iOS at 39.6 percent. Microsoft’s OS come behind the above two with Windows garnering a 3.3 percent share, while the Windows RT has earned a 0.4 percent share in the market.

Fly Mobiles has launched 3 Android phones and an Android tablet in India today— the F51, the F45s, the F40 and the 8-inch F8s tablet. The phones are available from Rs 4,500 to Rs 12,500 while the tablet is priced at Rs 13,499.

Starting off with the F8s, which is the company’s first Android tablet. The tablet supports 3G, features an 8-inch tablet and runs on the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. It is priced at Rs 13,499.

Fly’s flagship phone, the F45s, flaunts a 4.5-inch display and runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean while the others are F51 runs on Andrid Ice Cream Sandwich followed by the entry-level F40 which runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread. The F45s is priced at Rs 12,500, the F51 at Rs 7,790 and the F40 at Rs 4,500.

In addition to the above devices, Fly also plans to launch the F50s this weekend. In terms of specifications, the Dual-SIM F50s will feature a 5-inch WVGA display, 1GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 8-megapixel rear camera, 2-megapixel camera at the front, expandable memory up to 32GB, 2,000mAH battery and run on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

You can read the detailed specifications of the phones and the tablet below.

After introducing the i-Buddy Connect tablet last August, Intex has today launched the i-Buddy Connect 3G. The 7-inch tablet with pre-loaded education apps like Educlass is available for Rs 9,990.

Talking of specifications, the i-Buddy Connect 3G runs on Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich and sports a 7-inch display. Other features on the tablet are a 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 3-megapixel rear camera, 1.3-megapixel at the front, 4GB of internal memory which can be expanded up to 32GB and a 3,500mAH battery.

On the connectivity front the tablet supports 3G and can accommodate two SIM cards that allow users to make voice calls. The i-Buddy Connect 3G also comes pre-loaded with apps like Nimbuzz, Skype, Facebook, Yahoo Messenger, GChat. For students, the tablet also has an Educlass app that contains NCERT text books from class 1- 12 and other interactive educational content.

The i-Buddy Connect 3G is available in black and brown color variants and will compete against the likes of the Micromax Funbook Talk P360 and the iBall Edu-Slide both of which are also targeted at students.

Last week we had reported about Samsung India putting up the Galaxy Note 510 for pre-orders on its eStore. Earlier today, the folks at FoneArena spotted the tablet becoming officially available on the eStore for Rs 30,900.

As we reported earlier, the Galaxy Note 510 sports an 8-inch (1280×800 pixel) display and is powered by a 1.6GHz quad-core Exynos processor, with 2GB of RAM. In addition to the above, the tablet also features a 5-megapixel rear camera, a 1.3 megapixel front facing camera, 16GB of internal memory which can be expanded using a microSD card, and a 4,600mAh battery.

The tablet also accommodates a SIM-card and can be used as a phone too for voice calling. As with all other Note line of products, the Galaxy Note 510 also features the S-Pen stylus input and has a number of features that are tailor-made for it. Additionally, Samsung is billing the tablet as an eReader, and it has built a reading mode in the tablet that optimizes the screen brightness levels for heavy duty reading sessions.

Samsung has priced the Galaxy Note 500 rather aggressively at Rs 30,900 considering the 16GB iPad mini Wi-Fi+Cellular model costs Rs 29,900, which cannot make calls and doesn’t come with a stylus optimized UI.

Earlier in the day we reported that Samsung had announced the Galaxy Tab 3, but it turns out this was just the tip of the iceberg. SamMobile by the looks of it has uncovered Samsung’s tablet roadmap for 2013, and it is reporting that the company has four more tablets in the pipeline, and all of them will be more premium offerings than the Galaxy Tab 3.  The new tablets that Samsung plans to launch include the Nexus 11, the Galaxy Tab 11, the Galaxy Tab 8.0 and the Galaxy Tab 7.0.

The Nexus 11 will reportedly be the first Octa core tablet in the world as it will use the Exynos 5 Octa processor that we have already seen in the Galaxy S 4. It will also have a 11-inch Super PLS display with an undisclosed resolution. Additionally, it will also support microSD cards up to 64GB of storage and will come with a 8-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front facing camera. Apparently, this product still needs approval from Google. It will be successor to the Nexus 10.

The Galaxy Tab 11 will also have a 11-inch Super PLS TFT display, but it will be powered by a dual-core Exynos 5250 processor, the very same chipset that powers the Nexus 10. Additionally, it will support microSD cards offering up to 64GB of storage and will have a 8-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front facing camera.

The Galaxy Tab 8.0 will have a 8-inch 1080p AMOLED display and will be powered by the quad-core Exynos 4412 chipset that powers the Galaxy Note II, Galaxy Note 810 and Galaxy Note 510. It will also have a microSD card slot supporting up to 64GB of storage and a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front facing camera. The release of this product is subject to Samsung solving an AMOLED display burn-in issue.

Lastly, the Galaxy Tab 7.0 will have a 7-inch PLS display with a resolution of 1024×600 pixels and will be powered by a dual-core processor. It will also have dual-SIM capabilities, hence will also have the ability to make calls and will have a microSD card slot supporting up to 32GB of storage. It will also pack in a 3-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front facing camera.

Samsung seems to be on a roll. After launching its flagship smartphone the Galaxy S 4,  the company has announced the Galaxy Tab 3 which is the third 7-inch tablet under its Galaxy Tab sub-brand. Design wise, it looks quite similar to the Galaxy Note 510 tablet which is currently up for pre-order on the Samsung India eStore, but internally it is a wildly different beast.

Features wise, the Galaxy Tab 3 does not dazzle. It is a decidedly mid-to-low-end product and its specs tell the entire story. It has a 7-inch display with a resolution of 1024×600 pixels and 169 PPI, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB or 16 GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot that supports up to 64GB of storage and a 4,000mAh battery. It also sports a 1.3-megapixel front facing camera and a 3-megapixel rear camera.

It will be offered in Wi-Fi only and 3G HSPA+ variants, and it runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean on top of which the Samsung TouchWiz interface is running. Samsung says that the Wi-Fi version of the tablet will start shipping in May globally, but the 3G version will only be available in June. The 3G model will also be able to make calls.

It competes more with the likes of the Asus MemoPad and the Acer Iconia B1 tablet however we are guessing it will hold an edge in terms of processing power thanks to its more powerful dual-core chipset.

Lava has announced it will be launching what it claims to be India’s first Android Jelly Bean 4.2 tablet. The tablet will be available in the first week of May and will be priced under Rs 10,000.

As for the specifications, the yet unnamed tablet will sport a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage with a microSD card slot. It will also feature 2-magapixel rear and VGA front cameras and an HDMI port. Unlike the recently launched Etab Connect, this tablet will be Wi-Fi only and not have any cellular connectivity. It will also have a 3,700 mAh battery.

The specifications seem very similar to the Etab Xtron, which was launched in February this year. We won’t be surprised if it is launched as a part of the same series. Lava has been pretty aggressive lately, launching one product every weekend.