Budget tablets seem to be the order of the week. While not as easy on the pocket as the Aakash tablet unveiled earlier this week, Australian consumer electronics manufacturer and retailer, Kogan, has announced its own budget tablet offerings. The company's new Android-powered Agora 8-inch and Agora 10-inch tablets join Kogan's Agora line, which also includes laptops and a 7-inch Agora tablet that launched earlier this year.
Aside from the screen size and resolution - 800 x 600 for the 8-inch and 1024 x 768 for the 10-inch - the specs of the two models are largely identical. Both feature a 4:3 ratio capacitive touchscreen, are powered by a 1 Ghz Cortex A8 CPU and 512 MB of RAM, and come running Android 2.3 with access to the Android Market. There's also an internal G-Sensor, 2-megapixel front-facing camera and 4 GB of onboard storage, expandable up to 36 GB via microSD card.
Wireless connectivity is limited to 802.11 b/g, while a HDMI output port allows the devices to output 720p video to a HDTV. The battery is the only other point of difference with the 8-inch model packing a 3,600 mAh battery and the 10-incher sporting a 5,500 mAh battery. Surprisingly, the devices won't charge via their miniUSB ports, but require an AC adapter.
Kogan founder Ruslan Kogan says the new tablets take on board constructive feedback received in the past few months relating to the company's 7-inch tablet, although the specs for that unit seem to be pretty much identical to the new 8-inch model. Maybe all the constructive feedback was related to larger screen sizes.
There's no specific details of battery life for either of the new offerings on the Kogan website, but given the 8-inch model has the same 3,600 mAh battery as the 7-inch model, it's probably safe to expect it to get roughly the same 24 hour standby time and three hours of general use as that unit.
Kogan couldn't resist having a dig at Apple in announcing the new tablets saying, "It is true. The Kogan Agora range of tablets does have a screen and a battery. Our tablets also happen to look like a tablet. I hope this does not aggravate Apple and cause further legal proceedings."
The Agora 8-inch and 10-inch Tablets are available for order from the Kogan website now starting at a Liveprice of AUD149 (approx. US$152) and AUD189 (approx. US$193) respectively, with the final prices listed as AUD229 (approx. US$234) and AUD269 (approx. US$275). Both models are expected to begin delivery on November 4.
