Smartphone and tablet launches in India this week: Feb 18-23

In the hustle-bustle of everyday life, you might have missed the launch of smartphones and tablets this week. Worry not. Here’s our round-up of this week’s launches. Let’s start with the smartphones.

HTC One
The much-awaited HTC One was unveiled by the company in London and New York and there’s a good chance we could see the handset in India in March, with the global roll-out of the handset.

The HTC One is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor with each of its four cores clocked at 1.7GHz. It comes with an Adreno 320 GPU and has 2GB of RAM. The new flagship has a 2300 mAh battery, which is not user-accessible. HTC One has dual front stereo speakers along with Beats Audio, a package which the company calls "HTC BoomSound".

The HTC One has a 4.7-inch full HD display

Other specs of the phone include:

• 4.7-inch SuperLCD3 display with 1080p resolution and pixel density of 468 ppi
• HSPA+; LTE, Cat3, 50 Mbps UL, 100 Mbps DL
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/ac/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot
• Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP
• GPS and GLONASS
• NFC
• Infrared blaster
• HTC Ultrapixel primary camera with simultaneous HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, face and smile detection, OIS, HDR Video and HTC Zoe
• 2.1MP front camera with 1080p video recording and HDR mode
• 32/64GB internal storage
• MHL-compatible microUSB

The One comes with HTC's Sense 5 and BlinkFeed, a new homescreen experience

Videocon A27
Videocon Mobile launched the Videocon A27, a dual-SIM low-end handset priced at Rs 5,999. The A27 is powered by a 1GHz Broadcom processor with 3.75G capabilities.

Videocon A27

Here's a quick look at Videocon A27’s specs:

• 4.0-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen display
• Dual-SIM 3G, GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA
• Wi-Fi with Wi-Fi hotspot
• Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP
• GPS and A-GPS support
• 3MP rear + front VGA camera
• Internal memory expandable up to 32GB

Videocon A27 runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and comes with pre-loaded applications for news, music and movie editing.

Huawei Ascend Y210D
Huawei launched yet another entry-level smartphone, the Ascend Y210D. The phone is priced at Rs 4,999.

The Ascend Y210D has a 1GHz Qualcomm processor ticking underneath but only has 256MB of RAM, which explains why it only runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread and not ICS or Jelly Bean. However, the battery life should be good thanks to the 1700 mAh battery that comes with Huawei’s Power Saving Technology.

Huawei Ascend Y210D

Other key specs of the phone include:

• 3.5-inch HVGA display
• Dual-SIM, dual-standby, 3.5G, GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with Wi-Fi Hotspot
• Bluetooth with A2DP
• GPS with A-GPS support
• 2 megapixel camera with CMOS sensor

The Ascend Y210D is available in two colours – Ceramic White and Phantom Black.

Swipe Fablet F2 and Fablet F3
Swipe Telecom launched two smartphones that cater to the phablet-crazy market.  The Swipe Fablet F2 and Swipe Fablet F3 are price at Rs 7,590  and Rs 9,290, respectively.

Swipe Fablet F3 runs Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean and comes with 512MB DDRIII RAM and is powered by a 1GHz dual-Core Processor.

Swipe Fablet F3

Here's a quick look at the specs of the Fablet F3:

• 5-inch display with 5-point multi-touch screen
• Dual-SIM, 3G, GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA
• Wi-Fi with Wi-Fi hotspot
• Bluetooth with A2DP
• 5 megapixel rear camera and 0.3MP front facing camera
• 4GB built-in memory, expandable up to 32GB
• FM Radio

The Fablet F3 is fuelled by a 2200 mAh battery. Swipe has introduced 360° Camera Technique, a camera technique which shoots pictures in .mop format and presents a 360-degree view of the subject. Fablet F3 comes with three back casings (Black, White and Trendy Blue), which are available to the users for free with the Fablet. The device also comes with a Free Business Navigator (flap cover) to protect the device from dust and scratches. 

The Swipe Fablet F2 is powered by a 1GHz Processor and runs Android Gingerbread 2.3.6 OS; it also has a 2200 mAh.

Swipe Fablet F2

Here's a quick look at the specs of the Fablet F2:

• 5-inch WVGA capacitive multi-touch screen
• Wi-Fi with Wi-Fi hotspot
• Bluetooth with A2DP
• 5MP back camera, 0.3MP front- facing camera
• 4GB built-in memory, expandable upto 32GB

The Fablet F2 comes in Black, White or Trendy Blue colours. The smartphone has an in-built FM receiver for music on the move.

Intex Aqua Style
Intex Technologies launched the massive Intex Aqua Style priced at an attractive Rs 11,200. The Aqua Style is dual-SIM (2G+3G) phablet that runs on Android Ice Cream Sandwich. The phone is powered by a 1GHz Dual-Core processor and has 512MB of RAM.

Intex AQUA Style

Here’s a quick look at the specs of the Aqua Style:

• 5.9-inch capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels
• 3G + 2G, GPRS/EDGE
• Wi-Fi with Wi-Fi Hotspot
• GPS with A-GPS support
• Bluetooth
• 8MP rear camera with flash, 1.3MP front camera
• 4GB internal memory offering 1GB free space, expandable up to 32GB

The phone has a 2500mAh battery, which gives user a talk-time of 3.5 hours and 100 hours of standby. It comes with 3D equaliser for the music player and is available in black or white.

Plenty of options to choose from when it comes to smartphones, but tablet launches aren’t far behind. Three Indian manufacturers launched slates this week. Here’s a round-up.

Micromax Funbook P600
After the Canvas HD launch, Micromax has turned its attention to tablets with the launch of the Funbook P600, available online for Rs 9,499. The Funbook P600 is powered by Qualcomm MSM8225A ARM Cortex A5 1Ghz dual-core processor. It runs on the Android 4.0.4 operating system and comes with 512MB RAM

Micromax Funbook P600

Here’s a quick look at the specs of the Funbook P600:

• 7-inch capacitive multi-point touchscreen
• 3G, GPRS/EDGE
• Wi-Fi with Wi-Fi hotspot
• 2 megapixel rear camera along with front-facing camera
• 2GB internal memory, expandable up to 32GB

The company claims that the tablet’s battery should last up to 10 hours under normal usage and has standby time of up to 224hrs.

Penta T-Pad WS707C
Pantel Technologies launched the Penta T-Pad WS707C, a Jelly Bean tablet with a price tag of Rs 7,999. The Penta T-Pad WS707C is powered by a Cortex A9 1GHz processor, has a Mali 400 GPU and 1GB of DDRIII RAM. It comes with a SIM slot. The device comes with multi window support a la the Samsung Galaxy Note 2.

Penta T-Pad WS707C

Here’s a quick look at the specs of the Penta T-Pad WS707C:

• 7-inch multi-point, capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels
• EDGE/GPRS
• Wi-Fi capabilities
• Bluetooth
• 0.3MP front camera, 2MP rear camera
• 8GB internal memory, expandable up to 32GB

The tablet is fuelled by a 3000 mAh battery. The Penta T-Pad comes bundled with 3D goggles and supports a wide array of video and audio. It also has a USB port, an HDMI Port and a TF card slot.

Go Tech funTab 2G Talk

Go Tech Digital unveiled a new addition to its funTab range of tablets, the funTab “2G Talk”, priced at Rs. 6,999. As the name suggests, the tablet has a SIM slot that supports voice calls.

The tablet has a Boxchip A13 Cortex A8 1.2Ghz CPU ticking under the hood along with a dual-core Mali-400 GPU. Additional processing power comes thanks to the 512MB DDR2 RAM.

Go Tech’s funTab 2G Talk

Other specs of the device include:

• 7-inch capacitive LCD touchscreen with a resolution of 800 x 480
• Voice calling on 2G connection   
• Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g/n with Wi-Fi hotspot, Data dongle support
• Bluetooth with A2DP
• USB with host support
• 2 megapixel rear camera and VGA front-facing camera
• Internal memory of 4GB, which is expandable up to 32GB

The tablet will launch with Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich and will have a 3000 mAh battery.