After the relative success of Funbook, Micromax has now launched a bigger version of the tablet, called Funbook Pro. Like the Funbook, the new 10 inch display based tablet, at sub-Rs 10,000 price, comes as a really exciting proposition. Besides, the free Tata Photon dongle and bundled data benefits further ups its appeal for the price conscious Indian consumers.
During a press briefing that took place during the launch of the Micromax Funbook Pro, we got a chance to get our hands on the device and here is the first impression of the tablet.
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The 10 inch display based Micromax Funbook Pro comes in silver and black dual tone polycarbonate body as the older Funbook. The colour certainly helps in enhancing the looks of the device while the polycarbonate shell of the tablet gives it the required strength to withstand accidental falls.
The Funbook Pro carries a similar design as its older cousin with all the ports and the power key being placed on the right hand side for easy operation. On top, there are volume rocker and return keys that will come in real handy for people migrating from Android smartphones or tablet based on Gingerbread who are accustomed with the sue of hardware keys.
Micromax has done some major redesigning of older Funbook to create this new 10 inch tablet. Unlike the older pal, the new Funbook Pro has no front hardware keys while the scratch resistant layer now runs EDGE to edge giving the tablet a flush and neat finish.
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The Funbook Pro comes with 16:9 aspect ratio based display that makes it perfect device to watch movies or to play games but due to the bigger screen size, some applications and visuals do look kind of stretched. But overall, the display offers ample brightness and justice to visuals in terms of vibrancy and colour reproduction too.
On top of the 10 inch screen lies a plastic based capacitive touch sensitive layer that protects the display from getting damaged during day to day usages. The capacitive touch of the device is one thing worth mentioning, due to its sensitivity and accurate operation. Along with that the touch layer of the device features a five point capacitive touch as well for better and much more accurate multitouch capabilities too.
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The device comes with Android’s latest operating system – the Android 4.0 Ice cream Sandwich, running on a 1.2 GHz Arm Cortex A8 based processor, and 1 GB of DDR 3 RAM. Besides that the tablet has got a 0.3 megapixel front camera which is good enough for voice chats but there is no rear camera. Also there’s a 5600 mAh battery pack to power this up and 3G connectivity is provided through data or cellular dongle which can be obtained by the buyers from Tata Photon for a small fee of Rs 500 for which you will also get 2 GB of free data in first two months (1 GB each month).
The operating system and the user interface of this tablet are quite similar to the older Funbook but Micromax has added a slew of education and entertainment related applications to it as a preinstalled option. Users can access the Micromax M store as well as the Google Marketplace to download applications for the device and to improve the productivity of the tablet.
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The weight of the tablet however has increased due to the bigger display and the bigger 5600 mAh battery pack. But the weight is evenly distributed so that users don’t feel the weight on any single hand while utilising the device.
The Funbook Pro features a stereo loudspeaker setup which is good enough for limited amplification of sounds but users can also use the 3.5 mm Audio Jack for connecting the Funbook pro to any audio device for better powerful sound output. The device features an 8 GB onboard memory along with an option to expand it further to 32 GB with a Micro SD card too. There are two USB connectors for data cards and USB peripherals such as dongles along with an HDMI connector as well for playback on external devices.
All in all at Rs 9,990, the Funbook Pro comes as a cost effective offering with 1 year warranty and tech support from India’s leading mobile brand. We are in the process of doing a detailed review of the tablet soon so stay tuned for a comprehensive test of the Micromax Funbook Pro.