Tablets come in all shapes and sizes. Until the success of the original iPad, they were something of a fiasco with companies trying to run a stripped desktop version on them. iPad (10”) gave the companies confidence to play with display size and now we find ourselves with Android powered screens ranging from 3” to 13” (in the portable screens).
Most of them have found themselves in the market in last couple of years with the surge of small local companies in the market. The size that is universally acknowledged as the most successful is 7” for Android. The success of Google Nexus 7, Galaxy Tab 7.0 (all iterations) and Kindle Fire (despite having a forked Android) can all be considered as the reason behind it.
It also saturates the market for this size. The local companies either have to offer their tablets cheaper, which they sometimes do, or they attempt to cater a market that has not been tested. While for some time now, the two standard sizes have been 7” and 10” for tablets, a lot of companies are attempting at in between sizes. 8” has been the most attempted size in these cases. Even Apple’s attempt at a mini has been a 8” tablet (7.9” to be precise).
iBall now has added another screen size in the market. iBall Slide i9018 has screen size of 9” and will be priced at INR 9,990. Seems to have a lot of nines this one.
iBall Slide i9018 Specifications:
- 9” 1024×600 screen
- 1 GHz dual core Cortex A7 processor with Mali 400 MP2 GPU.
- 1 GB RAM
- 2 MP Rear and VGA Front Camera
- 8 GB Internal memory, expandable to 32 GB.
- Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
- WiFi, HDMI, Bluetooth, MicroUSB and 3G via dongle.
- 5000 mAH battery.
In Sandeep Parasrampuria’s words (Director, iBall), “With growing demand for Tablet PCs, need for bigger size screen size at affordable price is seen and we are happy to introduce iBall Slide i9018 with 9″ HD screen and Dual core processor which is being offered for the first time in India.”
It is of note that this tablet is in the performance range of iBall which already has 6 tablets in its kitty. As for this one, I do not want to sound skeptical but 9” is too close to 10” for me to actually have a visible impact. Although it is good to see that the company is launching it with Android 4.2.
