HCL ME Tablet Y3 Review

In an era when manufacturers are showing off their tablets powered by dual-core and quad-core processors, HCL has bravely put forth a single-core tablet with calling features in the market. Is the tablet different from others or will it face the brunt of being an outdated technology? Let’s put it to the test and see how it fares.

7-inch display, 1024 x 600 pixel resolution

Design and build

The HCL ME Tablet Y3 is a 7-inch Android tablet and sports a rugged build quality. The shell is quite tough and definitely does not feel cheap from any angle. The tablet sports a matte finish silver back and edges with a black-bordered display panel. The tablet looks pretty decent. The rear panel sports the speaker grille, a reset button and the 3.2MP camera, but is a bit messy with lots of text markings for the ports, model number and the large company logo. Though this might not be a major concern, nobody likes an untidy looking tablet. The right side features the mini HDMI port, mini USB PC interface and charging port, a 3.5 mm headphone jack and a small opening for the microphone. The top is seen equipped with the power and volume button along with slots for the microSD card slot and two SIM cards. The tablet measures 11 mm in thickness and weighs 322.5 grams. You get a charger, headset, mini USB cable and a small micro-fibre cleaning cloth bundled along with the tablet.

Rear panel is matte finish; a 3.2MP camera is featured here

Features

The HCL ME Tablet Y3 is a calling tablet with dual-SIM support. It sports a 7-inch WSVGA HD screen with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels. The Y3 is powered by an ARM Cortex A9 processor clocked at 1GHz and features a PowerVR SGX531 graphics processor. The system is given 1GB of DDR3 RAM and an internal storage of 4GB. The operating system installed is Google’s Android ICS v4.0.4. The battery provided within the tablet is a 3100 mAh. Connectivity options available are 3G via SIM, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Wi-Fi Hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, A-GPS and mini USB for PC interface, USB OTG and charging. 

Mini HDMI, mini USB and headphone on right, volume, power, dual SIM and microSD slot on top

The Y3 also features a built-in FM radio with RDS and recording capabilities. Also included is an FM transmitter that can transmit all audio on an FM frequency. It can also automatically scan for unused FM channels in your area and set a frequency for you apart from your own choice. The feature can be useful as you can transmit music over FM for use at home or in a car. You can also enjoy videos while transmitting  the audio over FM. However, in order to get the audio purely from an alternative FM radio source, you need to keep the headphones plugged in as they act as an external antenna for both FM receiving and transmission. 

1GHz single core processor, 1GB RAM, 4GB storage, Android ICS