Accord launched its @Pad Android Tablet a few months back and we have been playing with the device for the last 2 months to share our review (as a consumer).
Lets first get to the specifications of the Android Tablet from Accord [@Pad, P270].
@PAD is a mobile Internet device (MID), multimedia-capable mobile device providing Wireless Internet Access and offers following features
- 128 MB RAM.
- 2 GB HDD (supports upto 16GB).
- 7inch TFT.
- Resistive Touch Screen.
- Android 1.7.
- Supports Wifi , 3G and Ethernet.
- One can connect external keyboard, mouse and HDD (what a relief!).
Review: Accord @Pad
Form Factor
Much better than Infibeam Phi. And that’s because the controls are on the left hand side. Unless you are a left-hander, you will find it much easier to hold the tablet on your left hand, use thumb to control the menu and use your right hand for navigation/typing.
Rating: 4/5
Touch
Accord @Pad has resistive touch screen and it works as-expected. If you are hooked to iPad, you won’t find this very cool (goes for all the resistive touch screen devices).
There is no magic here, but the important part is that you don’t really need to spend a lot of time calibrating. And in general, there isn’t much of a lag and as I said, touch works as you expect it to (a lot of devices do not fall under this category!).
Rating: 3.5/5.
Battery Life
My typical tablet usage mostly revolves around checking email, playing games and IM (i.e am mostly online activity) and the tablet lasts peacefully for 2 days.
Battery life isn’t as great as iPad, but its similar to any Nokia smartphone – i.e. if you use it like a PC, you charge it like a PC.
Rating: 3/5.
What’s Really Cool?
The fact that you can connect external mouse, keyboard, HDD to the device. This takes away any issue you will ever have with the touch screen. Personally speaking, this is a huge savior and scores a ++ over other existing devices.
What’s Not So Cool?
The device runs on Android 1.7 and so far there hasn’t been any update from the company on the upgrade (to 2.1 atleast?). It’s the same case with Infibeam Phi, which runs on Android 1.5 [Olivepad runs on 2.2].
Indian companies, if they have to compete with global players will need to focus on technology and I hope to see an upgrade in the next few weeks.
Concluding Thoughts
The price of Accord Apad is Rs. 9,999/ and this is probably the best bet if you are looking to buy a tablet as a secondary device. Strongly recommended for enterprise/sales team, as the tablet offers good feature-to-price parity.
We look forward to Android version upgrade and will update this review accordingly.
Aside, I am not sure whether Android really is geared for smartphone tablets – infact, the more Android tablets I use, the more I end up with an i-Itch.
What’s your take on Android?
[Review Reproduced from Gadgethon]
