The $25 Dollar Tablet

Ultra low-cost Sakshat tablets set to take off

Multiple media reports suggest India's ambitious ultra low-cost computing device “Sakshat” is finally going to arrive this month. The launch which was supposed to take place some six months ago hit several bottlenecks including an overhaul of the contract with the vendor.

Early reports suggest that the tablet is likely to be priced at Rs 2,200, out of which the Indian government will subsidize the 50 per cent of cost – bringing down the price to Rs 1,100. Nearly 10,000 tablets will be dispatched to IIT-Rajasthan later this month, while some 90,000 devices will be rolled out over the next four months, according to reports.

The device has a 7-inch touchscreen display, external hard drive and two USB ports. Moreover, the device has three-hour battery life. The tablet also supports several commonly used software applications including Word, Excel, power point, PDF viewer, Open office, zip/unzip facility, video streaming, flash video and web browser with javascript support. Officials claim the device has capacity to work in extreme conditions as well.

Sakshat is considered to be a revolutionary gadget, as it aims to connect the rural India with the ongoing technology boom. The tablet, which is mainly meant for students, is an attempt to ensure accessibility of information and latest technology for the masses in the rural areas.

With everything seemingly to be in place, the much-awaited device is set to take off very soon. The HRD ministry of India is going to manage the distribution of the gadget. The low cost Sakshat tablet project, if executed well, could prove to be a unique initiative that will empower and bridge the gap between rural and urban India.

This is great

I hope it doesnt get delayed further.

Dont know how smooth the thing will be. Hope for best

Hopefully its not a joke as once happened with Sakshat's early launch in 2009. I had compiled it here: India's Low cost $10 or $20 Sakshat Laptop-What is it ? A Reality Check!:eTI .. I hope this time its something useful!

N

Useless if internet connection speeds don't improve.

talktoanil said:
Useless if internet connection speeds don't improve.

This is not a cloud-based OS.

'Sakshat' Tablet PC finally!

Hello! friends. Just for a change I want your views upon this tablet.

SAKSHAT, yes it is the name of our 'Indian' tablet. Finally, it has been decided to release it this month for Rs.2200. After few time it will be available for Rs.1100. Just Imagine! even a Chinese mobile doesn't comes with these features at such an unbelievable price. Made by HCL, it's an affordable tablet for everyone. Perhaps, it will be seen in every home in a few years just as it is necessity of life.

Support for video web conferencing facility; multimedia content viewer for example .pdf, .docx, .ods, .adp, .doc, .xls, .jpeg, .gif, .png, .bmp, .odt, .zip, AVI, AC3, etc.; searchable PDF reader; unzip tool to unzip zip files; possibility to install suitable firmware upgrades; computing abilities such as Open Office, SciLab, cups (for printing support); media player able to play streamed and stored media files; Internet browsing, JavaScript, PDF plug-in Java; wireless communication for audio/video I/O; cloud computing option; remote device management ability; rendering YouTube and other online video services (open source Flash players, e.g., gnash or swfdec).

*upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/India-35-dollar-tablet.png

*nexus404.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads2/2010/09/Sakshat_Indian_tablet.jpg

*eyuva.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Sakshat-Tabel-Cheapest-Tablet-Ever.png

*media.snaphow.com/images/indian-tablet-35$-ipad-review-features-Sakshat.jpg

Here, are its specs:

-Display: Touch Screen 7"
-Keyboard: Built in
-RAM: 2GB
-Connectivity: Wifi, USB
-Operating System: Linux
-It has single unit system which has a touch screen.
-Two USB 2.0 ports
-Wifi
-SIM card slot
-Support for 3G USB modem

Features:

-Video web conferencing facility,
-Multimedia content viewer for example pdf, jpeg, zip, etc,
-Computing capabilities such as Open Office, SciLab and
-Internet browsing with flash plug-in, JavaScript.
-It is enabled with a touch screen.
-An in-built keyboard is attached with this laptop.
-The laptop can store the data of up to 2 GB memory. It is a RAM memory.
-Wifi connectivity and USB port are this laptop’s additional features.
-2 watt system is used up by this laptop so that it can even perform in
areas where power supply is low.
-Linux system is programmable in this laptop.

What do you think? Getting one this summer?

Re: 'Sakshat' Tablet PC finally!

I would love to owe one !!!

When where and how can i get it???

PS :- I heard its only for students :twisted:

( I just passed 12 this year :grin:

)

Re: 'Sakshat' Tablet PC finally!

mohityadavx said:
PS :- I heard its only for students ( I just passed 12 this year )

Initially, it will be for students for Rs.2200, then it will be made available to everyone for Rs.1100 after Govt. removes 50% tax from it. It will be available at the end of this month.

waiting.....

Heard it's 32$ not 25$

BTW, must say, HATE, HATE that metal buttons on the left. Ugly.

Can anyone tell about battery capacity?

R

This tablet Is good for only budget !!
I mean If you dont want to go above Rs.2000,this is the best tab ever.
Like If some of you are going to buy a chinese mobile,maybe a chinese I phone for Rs.2500
just go for this tab.

T

Ya! It was reviewed at NDTV Gadget Guru show by Mr. Kapil Sibal himself.

And he said they will roll it out in mid 2011.

It will be for schools and colleges only (read students)!

Initially in the first phase for government schools and colleges. later private schools will get sample sets (for free) and then they can order it for their school students.

The Tablet will come pre loaded with school curriculum (as e-books) and interactive videos lectures.

Visit the SAKSHAT website for FREE bies!

Sakshat - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Notice
Power : Internal rechargeable non-removable lithium-polymer battery

if battery goes, then i have to throw away whole tablet :?:

and i googled for some time, but nowhere found battery capacity......

If it were made available even for 2500, I will buy right away... on the spot.
But sadly, those are just for students. Hoping it opens for general public, even at non-subsidized rates.

ok. so for 2500 you are getting a "working" electronic item. but what will one get for 3000-3500? a Chinese tablet with Android with much more capable H/W.

some will say Chinese electronic = bomb. but then they are OEMs for some big multinational company. & who can guarantee this can't be used in place of an IED?

It will be working with 2GB of memory (expandable upto 8GB).
Battery backup will be near about 3 hours.

@AshutoshM: You have said it's RAM, which means you will need to use a storage device (like pen drive) along with this tablet. :-(

I still don't expect much from it... Most of the promised specs won't be present..

However, even I would want one... Who won't?

lets wait for the Videocon, Micromax, Lava tablets. they'll be running on Android & even if they ship with 500-600Mhz proccy+ Android 2.1 + 256Mb ram & 0 internal memory (microSD card only), they will outperform it.

Prime_Coder said:
It will be working with 2GB of memory (expandable upto 8GB).
Battery backup will be near about 3 hours.

@AshutoshM: You have said it's RAM, which means you will need to use a storage device (like pen drive) along with this tablet.

Yes, You are right. It will be using flash memory as its RAM. Probably, it's own storage memory.

And to all the users, its price is not Rs.2500. It is Rs.2200. I think you are multiplying $25 with 50 to get the price in Rupees. Let me tell you that value of 1 $ is Rs.46 currently. Multiply 25$ with 46, you get 1150, which is nearly Rs.1100 (which is the price of the tablet after govt. removes 50% tax). Now, the finalized price is Rs.2200 not Rs.2500. :smile:

Also, it is not an International tablet that you are saying "the 25$ tablet". It's an Indian tab so call it in Rupees.

AshutoshM said:
Yes, You are right. It will be using flash memory as its RAM. Probably, it's own storage memory.

And to all the users, its price is not Rs.2500. It is Rs.2200. I think you are multiplying $25 with 50 to get the price in Rupees. Let me tell you that value of 1 $ is Rs.46 currently. Multiply 25$ with 46, you get 1150, which is nearly Rs.1100 (which is the price of the tablet after govt. removes 50% tax). Now, the finalized price is Rs.2200 not Rs.2500.

Also, it is not an International tablet that you are saying "the 25$ tablet". It's an Indian tab so call it in Rupees.

You're right it is $24.5. The tablet is very highly anticipated in foreign countries with the name of "The $25 tablet (in India)"..thus the name here.

Re: 'Sakshat' Tablet PC finally!

AshutoshM said:
Initially, it will be for students for Rs.2200, then it will be made available to everyone for Rs.1100 after Govt. removes 50% tax from it. It will be available at the end of this month.

Are you serious :O

!!

Re: 'Sakshat' Tablet PC finally!

Tejas.Gupta said:
Are you serious :O !!

Nah, he is kidding. This tablet is vaporware and this thread doesn't exist.

T

Re: 'Sakshat' Tablet PC finally!

SyGeek said:
Nah, he is kidding. This tablet is vaporware and this thread doesn't exist.

^^

Vaporware !! cool.

AshutoshM said:
Initially, it will be for students for Rs.2200, then it will be made available to everyone for Rs.1100 after Govt. removes 50% tax from it. It will be available at the end of this month.

To clarify :

Govt will not remove any TAX on the device. They will subsidise it. (subsidy) Subsidy Meaning

There is a vast difference between SUBSIDY and TAX.

(This is for information and learning purpose only)

W

I need a tablet just to read eBooks in the PDF format. I have lots of eBooks but have headaches while reading them on my desktop at a stretch. This is what I was looking for. If only it were a Android device. But it doesn't matter. Guys please REVIEW this item and tell us its pros and cons, whether this is even worth that 2500 bucks or not. Lastly do update us with the way to get one when its out. Thanks. I am a student and I solemnly affirm that I will use this device only for studies.!! :wink:

Only for students?? :-(

Sam said:
lets wait for the Videocon, Micromax, Lava tablets. they'll be running on Android & even if they ship with 500-600Mhz proccy+ Android 2.1 + 256Mb ram & 0 internal memory (microSD card only), they will outperform it.

Rightly said!! :agreed:

Whistler81 said:
I need a tablet just to read eBooks in the PDF format. I have lots of eBooks but have headaches while reading them on my desktop at a stretch. This is what I was looking for. If only it were a Android device. But it doesn't matter. Guys please REVIEW this item and tell us its pros and cons, whether this is even worth that 2500 bucks or not. Lastly do update us with the way to get one when its out. Thanks. I am a student and I solemnly affirm that I will use this device only for studies.!!

Even I want something for reading purpose... and I might order a Kindle next month...

I thought of dropping this idea & getting Sakshat instead...

But... The battery life = 2-3 hours only... Moreover, I don't expect much from such a cheap tablet's screen..

Kindle is much better..Even though its 'comparatively' expensive

And I don't think it will ship with Android...Earlier news had mentioned that it will run Android OS... Latest news have not confirmed it..

However, I would like to tear it apart & get to know how stuff works...

You can't compare this cheap plastic Indian tablet with Kindle, it's not worth it.

Yeah! Agreed!

One of my friend had been trying to pursue me to not buy the Kindle... and go for Sakshat instead. Therefore I had to give it a thought...

Man.. features you posted.. are too good to be true in this price range.. however, what is the speed and how much reliable this piece is, that is the real thing we have to know.

Because you know, how Govt. things works. .. it should look that it works.. it will be passed..!!

W

Isn't Google Android open source are rather a free ware???

Whistler81 said:
Isn't Google Android open source are rather a free ware???

It is open-source but still limited in some areas. Actually, Google calls it open-source (proudly), developers don't.

It's not a freeware, you can't buy it directly, neither it is available to the company free of cost. Although it's source code is available online for free.

R

thanks for that, i have also came to know that GFIVE is also going to launch there tablet with a price of Rs10000. tablet war began as were on mobile phones.

N

10K is fine

hey.all that specs. for 2200.
kidding or what??

Ya, I was just kidding. Not sure, will this product be going to become a reality or not. Lets hope for the best. And to Tech&ME, from 'tax' I meant 'subsidy' only. It was just a way to say it in a simple term. Why are you going so deep in this matter? This third class product is just like a regular dream and nothing more. Who knows? We all are wasting our time on this piece of trash.

Tell me one thing, will it not be our foolishness to believe on the statements of our Indian Govt. ? It will definitely be. Our Govt. is not trustworthy at all. The whole system is corrupt! . I will not be doing Politics here. So, enough for now.

W

Ricky said:
Hopefully its not a joke as once happened with Sakshat's early launch in 2009. I had compiled it here: India's Low cost $10 or $20 Sakshat Laptop-What is it ? A Reality Check!:eTI .. I hope this time its something useful!

I just remembered this...!!! back them the term laptop was more widely used than tablet. So i ignored it, wasn't at all interested in laptops.

If HCL is making this device them i am sure thy will manufacture more and more of these because they i am sure will know how much this will sell in Indian markets. Not everyone who wants to read ebooks(and also do a lil' bit more) can afford an iPad.

and I heard its Android!!!! WOW!!! JYJ!!! -Jumping with Joy

I heard that HCL is no longer making the tablet. It was delayed because of production problems and now HCL no longer wants to associate with the tablet. The production will be handled by some other company.

and which touchscreen is used for it?? like the one which is used in our smart card machines on a mumbai local's railway platform?? when i touch on "andheri", it gets touched on "dadar"..rofl..

bhushan05d251 said:
and which touchscreen is used for it?? like the one which is used in our smart card machines on a mumbai local's railway platform?? when i touch on "andheri", it gets touched on "dadar"..rofl..

it'll use punchscreen. punch to select so you never miss your mark :-D

Is this for real ? Even a good Casio scientific calculator costs about 1000INR.

Sam said:
it'll use punchscreen. punch to select so you never miss your mark

It might use the hole screen too. Use the stylus to stab the screen and create holes to ensure that you never miss the mark.

^^ In that case, it would be called, Punchur screen!!! :rofl:

On serious note, I would want to add, that we can do nothing but speculate about $25 tablet. We have to realize, that even if it were true it is meant for Students, and I dont think, general public would have any chance to get a hold of one piece. (unless they have "contacts", which I assume some will have.)

Some Negative points which will make people go mad:
1) Horrible Touchscreen: Typing will be very difficult. Press A but S gets typed.
Hope it comes with Usb on the Go for external keyboard support
2) Quality: Its quite safe to assume that a full fledged Tablet costing only $25 is going to be dirt slow. How will companies manage total build cost from the touch screen all the way to the battery? Will remain a mystery.
Even a Nokia N73 battery costs around $10(Rs. 450 appx)

Some Positive points:
1) Portability: I dont know how many students are going to use it but its going to help them keep their files portable?

Wait! we dont have e-Textbooks do we(atleast Ncert text books arent)
2) Low cost: Its going to help the economically weak students those who cant afford have a pc to atleast have something to store their things on. They can surf web,etc

touch screen will be the main problem..screen even of cheapo 5230/5233 costs 3-4k..and it is resistive not even like capacitive or amoled or super lcd..internal hardware specs will come next like processor, memory, ram, usb etc..if u dont have proper user-friendly screen which even misses a stroke what's the point in using other hardware specs and features..u will throw that mobile in two hours..

lets hope...it may come up with good screen and other features..

H

thetechfreak said:
Wait! we dont have e-Textbooks do we(atleast Ncert text books arent)

Whoa wait a sec....

Code:

*www.ncert.nic.in/NCERTS/textbook/textbook.htm

NCERT textbooks have been online for years now...

@hellking
I know bout that but how many students would want Pdf's of books they already own in paper?

H

don't know about that......... somehow I feel better reading off a PC..... I can just surf wikipedia or google for more engaging content regarding the subject matter (and that helped me concentrating..).... I did use these ncert ebooks during my school days...

T

The whole logic behind this Tablet for Students is to bring the e-Classroom experience to every student.

Not all the schools can afford high tech SmartClass for its students, companies like Educom, etc provide such services at a very high cost to schools, which in turn adds the cost of fees to the students.

This tablet is targeted for use as an additional source for learning textbook contents through multimedia. So, some special multimedia content will be pre-loaded on this tablet.

Comparing this Tablet with products like NOKIA , etc will be like comparing MAC with PC.!!

W

Where is India's $35 tablet, Mr Sibal? - The Times of IndiaWhere is India's $35 tablet, Mr Sibal? - The Times of India

Whistler81 said:
Where is India's $35 tablet, Mr Sibal? - The Times of IndiaWhere is India's $35 tablet, Mr Sibal? - The Times of India

It took more than a year for ChromeOS be widely available after it was first revealed. And we're talking about Indian Government here.

sygeek said:
It took more than a year for ChromeOS be widely available after it was first revealed. And we're talking about Indian Government here.

You mean Indian Standard Time. isn´t it? being always late...
God knows when this device will come to the hands of indian students and a year after that mainstream persons will start using it...

Heard its coming next week, oct 5th to be precise. Priced @ 1700 :razz:

Anyway I am quite not sure. Someone posted about this on my facebook wall.. :-|

breaking news : apple has decided to cut the price of ipads by 90%, fearing competition from the "affordable" indian tablet.

Last i heard, these were being already despatched to IITs :/

doomgiver said:
breaking news : apple has decided to cut the price of ipads by 90%, fearing competition from the "affordable" indian tablet.

its only affordable, not worth a gadget to proudly own.. Do BMW actually need to reduce their prices in India, just because M800 is available under 2lac?? :-o

it was satire.
the makers have hyped it up to OMGWTF levels.

frankly, i dont care about a $25 tablet. why? it will be crippled in unacceptable ways.
these pot smoking bozos should at least put reasonable targets.

i bet that when it comes out, it will be just a piece of cardboard with the words "tablet" scrawled carefully on it, oh, it will also be usable as a box for keeping your (e)books and music cd's in.

Whatever be the functionality, I'm definitely buying it if its priced around 2.5k. The hardware is decent enough to facilitate use as an eBook reader, and I've already grown tired of lugging around a couple of 1kg books or a 3kg laptop during the semester exam season