NVIDIA launches $999 GeForce GTX TITAN powered by 'world's fastest GPU'

Anupam Saxena, February 21, 2013

NVIDIA has unveiled its new GeForce GTX TITAN chip which, according to the chipmaker, is powered by the fastest ever GPU and designed for the fastest gaming PCs including personal gaming supercomputers and small form-factor PCs. 

The chip is powered by 2668 graphics cores, which, as per the company, is 75 percent more than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 GPU. It contains 7 billion transistors and claims to delivers 4.5 Teraflops of single precision and 1.3 Teraflops of double precision processing power. It also supports new GPU Boost 2.0 technology which automatically boosts graphics performance and supports unlocked voltage and advanced controls for more gaming control and overclocking customization. 

According to NVIDIA, the GPU harnesses the power of 3 GeForce GTX TITAN GPUs simultaneously in 3-way SLI mode, which allows gamers to max out every visual setting without the fear of a meltdown while playing any of the most demanding PC gaming titles. Just like the GeForce GTX 690, which NVIDIA had launched in July, last year, the GPU sports an aluminum chassis.

The GeForce GTX TITAN GPU will be available starting February 25, 2013 and is expected to be priced at $999.

"GeForce GTX TITAN is a beast of a GPU -- and the only one in the world powerful enough to play any game at any resolution at any time," said Scott Herkelman, general manager of the GeForce business unit at NVIDIA. "And yet, all of this immense power is housed in a sleek, sexy design, so gamers can also build beautifully-designed PC gaming machines about the size of a gaming console, yet magnitudes more powerful and always upgradeable."

The GTX TITAN is built with the same NVIDIA Kepler architecture that powers Oak Ridge National Laboratory's newly launched Titan supercomputer.

 

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PlayStation 4 will let you stream and play games hosted on servers

Reuters, February 21, 2013

Sony Corp unveiled its first video game console in seven years on Wednesday that will let users stream and play video games hosted on servers, hoping the move will help stem user losses, pre-empt the next version of Microsoft's Xbox and propel it back to the top of the videogame hardware industry.The company revealed its PlayStation 4 console, which will succeed the PlayStation 3, at a flashy event in New York with game developers like Ubisoft and Activision Blizzard in attendance.
Sony said the console would be available for the holiday 2013 season. It did not immediately disclose pricing.
The console will be up against the next version of the industry-leading Xbox console, which is expected later this summer.
The controller on the new console dubbed "DualShock 4" will have a touch pad, Mark Cerny, lead system architect on PlayStation 4, said.
Sony purchased U.S. cloud-based gaming company Gaikai for $380 million in July. Using that technology, the new console will offer a cloud-gaming service, the company said.
The 8GB PlayStation 4, which has been in development for the last five years, can also instantly stream game content from the console to Sony's handheld PlayStation Vita through a feature called "Remote Play," the company said.
Sony has also revamped the user interface on the new console that keeps tabs on user preferences and added social networking features.
Sony's announcement comes amid industry speculation that Microsoft is set to unveil the successor to its Xbox 360 later this summer. The market-leading Xbox 360 beats the seven-year-old PlayStation 3's online network with features such as voice commands on interactive gaming and superior connectivity to smartphones and tablets.
Gaining a lead over Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo Co Ltd's new Wii U could help Sony revive an electronics business hurt by a dearth of hit gadgets, a collapse in TV sales and the convergence of consumer interest around tablets and smartphones built by rivals Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.
Tablets and smartphones already account for around 10 percent of the $80 billion gaming market. Those mobile devices, analysts predict, will within a few years be as powerful as the current slew of game-only consoles.
After six years, Sony PlayStation sales are just shy of Xbox's 67 million installed base and well behind the 100 million units of Wii sold by Nintendo, according to analysts.
© Thomson Reuters 2013

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PS4 represents the future of gaming: Sony

Agence France-Presse, February 22, 2013

Sony unveiled a new generation PlayStation 4 system Wednesday and laid out its vision for the "future of gaming" in a world rich with mobile gadgets and play streamed from the Internet cloud.

At a press event in New York, computer entertainment unit chief Andrew House said PS4 "represents a significant shift from thinking of PlayStation as a box or console to thinking of the PlayStation 4 as a leading place for play."

Absent from the Sony event was mention of what plans the company had regarding films, music, television shows and other digital content offered on the PS4.

In a move that was not lost on observers, there was no glimpse of a PlayStation 4 at the launch event.

"It was odd that Sony did not show a physical device," said Gartner consumer technologies research director Brian Blau.

"These days, people love beautiful devices, especially because of Apple."

Sony spoke ambiguously about the device, leaving much to the imagination during a two-hour presentation aimed primarily at gamemakers and players.

"They don't want to give it all away, which is the nature of the industry," Blau said. "Sony was really trying to get developers excited about what is going on."

PS4 was designed to get to know players, ideally to the point of being able to predict which games people will buy and have them preloaded and ready to play.

It also allows to gameplay to be broadcast in real time, letting friends virtually peer over one another's shoulders and gamemakers act as "directors" guiding players along.

Sony has also given a green light to building "the most powerful network for gaming in the world," according to David Perry, chief of the Gaikai cloud gaming company that Sony purchased last year.

Gaikai specializes in letting people play videogames streamed from the Internet "cloud" instead of buying titles on disks popped into consoles or computers.

"By combining PlayStation 4, PlayStation Network and social platforms, our vision is to create the first social network with meaning dedicated to games," Perry said during the event.

He spoke of letting people access and play videogames on the Internet using PS4, smartphones, tablets or PS Vita handheld devices.

"We are exploring opportunity enabled by cloud technology with a long-term vision of making PlayStation technology available on any device," Perry said.

"This would fundamentally change the concept of game longevity, making any game new or old available to get up and running on any device, anywhere."

Sony needs to adapt to changing lifestyles while not alienating videogame lovers devoted to its hardware.

Low-cost or free games on smartphones or tablet computers are increasing the pressure on videogame companies to deliver experiences worth players' time and money.

A PlaySation App will let iPhones, iPads or Android-powered smartphones or tablets be used as "second screens" augmenting play taking place on televisions connected to PS4 consoles, according to Sony.

Sony said the PS4 would hit the market in time for the year-end holiday season but did not provide details.

New-generation consoles are typically priced in the $400 to $500 range, and blockbuster game titles hit the market at $60 each.

Using Gaikai streaming technology to let people play PlayStation 3 titles on PS4 hardware was likely aimed at calming worries that fans switching to the new system would be forced to give up beloved older games, according to Blau.

He was unimpressed by word the PS4 would integrate with Facebook, saying that "pretty much everyone else" already has hopped on the trend of syncing with the leading social network.

"I'm a little worried about their integration of social," Blau said. "You would think that a company like Sony would have lots of experience in exposing users to social mechanisms, and I didn't see that today."

He referred to the PS4 as evolutionary rather than revolutionary.

"Sony believes the future will be like the past and has built the game console to prove it," Forrester analyst James McQuivey said in a blog post.

"While the technology that goes into the console is definitely of the future, the idea behind the PS4 is rooted firmly in the past," McQuivey continued. "Specifically, the PS4 yearns for a glory day of gaming."

Sony shares fell in the wake of the presentation, ending down 1.77 percent at 1,331 yen on Tokyo's Nikkei index.

Ratings agency Fitch meanwhile warned the new gadget was unlikely to turn the firm's fortunes around.

It was "unlikely to be Sony's savior," Fitch Ratings said, noting the company lost money on the PS3 for the first several years after its launch until production costs fell.

"The competitive nature of the market may also constrain profitability," the agency said in a note Thursday.

"The key to the product's success will be price, timing, content and how it compares with the yet-to-be-announced next generation Xbox. None of these details are currently available."

 

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Sony seeks head start over Microsoft with PS4

Reuters, February 22, 2013

Sony Corp said it will launch its next-generation PlayStation this year, hoping its first video game console in seven years will give it a much-needed head start over the next version of Microsoft's Xbox and help revive its stumbling electronics business.The new console will have a revamped interface, let users stream and play video games hosted on servers, and allow users to play while downloading titles as well as share videos with friends. Its new controller, dubbed DualShock 4, will have a touchpad and a camera that can sense the depth of the environment in front of it.
Sony, which only displayed the controller but not the console, said on Wednesday the PlayStation 4 would be available for the year-end holiday season and flagged games from the likes of Ubisoft Entertainment SA and Activision Blizzard Inc, whose top executives also attended the glitzy launch event.
It did not disclose pricing or an exact launch date.
Sony's announcement comes amid industry speculation that Microsoft Corp is set to unveil the successor to its Xbox 360 later this summer. The current Xbox 360 beats the seven-year-old PlayStation 3's online network with features such as voice commands on interactive gaming and better connectivity to smartphones and tablets.
But all video game console makers are grappling with the onslaught of mobile devices into their turf.
Tablets and smartphones built by rivals such as Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd already account for around 10 percent of the $80 billion gaming market. Those mobile devices, analysts predict, will within a few years be as powerful as the current slew of game-only consoles.
"It looks good and had a lot of great games but the industry is different now," Billy Pidgeon, an analyst at Inside Network Research, said of the new PlayStation.
"It'll be a slow burn and not heavy uptake right away."
Migration to mobile
Console makers will also have to tackle flagging video game hardware and software sales, which research firm NPD group says have dropped consistently every month over the last year as users migrate to free game content on mobile devices.
PlayStation 4 will have an app on Android and Apple mobile devices that connects to console games and can act as a second screen, Jack Tretton, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, said in an interview.
"Playstation 4 ... really connects every device in the office and the smartphone and the tablet out there in the world," Tretton said.
The console, which has been in development for the last five years, will have 8 GB of memory and will instantly stream game content from the console to Sony's handheld PlayStation Vita through a feature called "Remote Play," the company said.
"What Sony is banking on is the ease of the use of this system," Greg Miller, PlayStation executive editor at video game site IGN.com, said.
After six years, Sony PlayStation sales are just shy of Xbox's 67 million installed base and well behind the 100 million Wii consoles sold by Nintendo Co Ltd, according to analysts.
Tretton said it would be a big undertaking to manufacture and distribute the console in Sony's four major markets by the end of the year, adding that it would be a "phased rollout" that starts before the end of the year.
Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia predicted Sony would probably get a couple of million units of the PlayStation 4 out by the 2013 holiday season and 7 million or 8 million out a year later.
Sony also announced a strategic partnership with video game publisher Activision Blizzard to take its Diablo III game to the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 consoles.
Activision's upcoming sci-fi shooter game "Destiny" in development by its Bungie Studio will also be available on PlayStation consoles.
© Thomson Reuters 2013

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Kindle Fire HD: First impressions

Associated Press, September 07, 2012

Amazon's new Kindle Fire HD boasts a much more vibrant screen than the original tablet that came out about a year ago. That makes buying movies and TV shows to watch on the device a lot more appealing.

The screen is such a major improvement that I can't see why you would purchase the upgraded non-HD older model, even if it means saving $40. The new offering brings the new Kindle Fire HD into closer competition with Apple's market-leading iPad, which introduced a higher resolution screen earlier this year.

By the numbers, the difference between screens on the new and older model doesn't seem that big. The smaller Kindle Fire HD, with a screen measuring 7 inches diagonally has a screen resolution of 1280 x 800. Last year's 7-inch model, and the upgraded version with better innards unveiled Thursday, has a screen with 1024 x 600 pixels.

That doesn't come close to the latest iPad, which has a resolution of 2048 x 1536. Nonetheless, this upgrade feels like a big leap for Amazon. It means not seeing any of those annoying pixels, a welcome relief that feels even better when you consider the price. At $199, versus $499 for the latest iPad, I can see this being a popular stocking stuffer this Christmas.

Amazon has also made a couple of important design changes in its new HD models. For one, the speakers are now on both sides of the device when held in landscape mode, meaning you can watch movies in Dolby Digital Plus stereo sound without headphones. The old Kindle Fire had stereo speakers off to one side when held this way, and that hasn't changed with the upgraded version that now costs $159.

Both the upgraded Kindle Fire and new HD 7-inch models also come with a full suite of new features that are nifty but not game-changing.

Both devices will feature the "X-Ray" series of features that provide insights into the book or movie you're enjoying.

An on-screen tap during a movie will list actors in the scene, with more clicks, you can learn more about them from Amazon's movie information service IMDb. In books, X-Ray has been a popular feature on the Kindle Touch that now works on Kindle Fire. It gives you a bird's eye view of where characters or ideas appear later on in a book.

Amazon.com Inc. has also upgraded its audio book offerings. "Immersion Reading" allows you to read a book while hearing narration from a famous actor. I find this feature to be a distraction, but some book lovers will appreciate it.

For parents, Amazon has added a system that can control how much time a child can spend on various media. So, you could limit how much your kids can watch video and play games, but let them read as much as they want.

The 7-inch models ship Sept. 14. The larger 8.9-inch screen Kindle Fire HD, which costs at least $299 and comes with an even better 1920 x 1200 pixel screen, won't ship until Nov. 20.

Some aspects about the Kindle Fire HD sounded great but weren't testable in the short time that Amazon gave reporters to try out the devices Thursday.

For instance, it was impossible to tell whether Kindle Fire HD's two antennas made its performance in Wi-Fi noticeably faster than the latest iPad or Google's Nexus 7. Or whether its 11-hour battery life held up for real.

In handling the device, though, I found that video played well and images looked sharp. But it was not as responsive as I would have liked. It seemed to lag when swiping through pictures or through the news feed on the custom-built Facebook app.

There was no app that independently controlled the front-facing camera, which is new to the Kindle Fire HD. The Facebook picture I took with the device turned out upside down, even though the camera was clearly meant to be at the top of the device when held in landscape mode. Amazon's representatives said the camera was mainly for use with a Skype app made for the device.

If I were looking to buy a new tablet, I might be able overlook these minor annoyances because of the sharper screen.

Ultimately, the decision to buy a Kindle Fire HD could be determined by the array of content that comes with the device if you join the $79 annual free-shipping program known as Amazon Prime.

Amazon has made plenty of big investments lately that make Prime a more compelling offer. On Tuesday, it announced a deal with the Epix pay TV channel that allows Prime members to watch 2,000 movies like "The Avengers" and "The Hunger Games" for free, on top of some 23,000 movies and TV shows it had already.

Prime members can also "borrow" books from the Kindle Owners Lending Library, including all seven "Harry Potter" books, for no extra charge.

Backstage at Thursday's news conference, CEO Jeff Bezos said in an interview that the company has been investing hundreds of millions of dollars in digital content for Amazon Prime.

"Licensing 'Harry Potter'? Not inexpensive," he said with a belly laugh.

It's that kind of investment in content, paired with a device that can show video in HD, that I think could open a lot of wallets this holiday season.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 800 review

Gaurav Shukla, September 17, 2012

The stylus is back in business and we should give Samsung some credit for this, which released its first S-Pen sporting device, the Galaxy Note last year. The so-called phablet turned out to be a decent success for the company. The Korean manufacturer has since moved forward to reveal the successor and a bigger version of its Galaxy Note in the form of the Note 2 and Note 800 respectively.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is yet to reach India, but the Note 800 (called Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 in other markets) has already landed in the country. Packing a quad-core processor and Ice Cream Sandwich, the tablet looks enticing on paper but do the specs translate into real performance? We shall find out in this review.

Hardware
Don't expect any design innovation here. Samsung has played safe and kept the looks of the Note 800 similar to its other tablets. Blame it on the design patent troubles with Apple, or just laziness, there is nothing extraordinary about Samsung Galaxy Note 800's looks. That said, it isn't bad either. The Note 800 is a decent looking Android tablet, but the all-plastic build makes it feel cheap.

You can even the feel the plastic in your hands. The plastic back of the tablet bends if you apply pressure - certainly not Samsung's best work.

At just 0.35 inch thickness, the Samsung Galaxy Note 800 is slim and feels light in hand, so you at-least won't have trouble holding it for long durations.

The front of the tablet is largely taken by the 10.1-inch display, which is surrounded by a huge bezel and a dark silver border framing stereo speakers.

The top of the tablet features the power button, volume rocker, SIM card slot, microSD card slot, infrared sensor and 3.5mm jack, which is pretty much everything apart from the proprietary charging-cum-data port that is present at the bottom. We don't find any sense in why Samsung uses this proprietary port, when a Micro-USB would be much more useful and easily accessible.

Samsung also bundles its S-Pen with the tablet, which fits at the bottom right of the device. The company has made the S-Pen slot smart as it recognises when you pull out the pen and gives you a shortcut menu of apps, which support S-Pen or even wakes up the tablet if it is in the sleep mode.

Display
The 10.1-inch display on the Note 800 comes with 1280x800p resolution, which is slowly becoming obsolete for 10-inch or bigger tablets and the full-HD is the latest trend. Apart from that, the viewing angles are decent and the display is sufficiently bright for indoor as well as outdoor usage. The colour reproduction is also good.

The display is however a fingerprint magnet and loves smudges.

Camera
We aren't the ones who click photographs with our 10-inch tablets and the Galaxy Note 800 doesn't offer anything that'll change that.

If you do plan to click, Samsung has included a 5MP rear camera with LED flash on the tablet, which in no way spectacular. The resulting images are mediocre, at best. Similarly, the recording video quality is just okay and the camera only allows you to record 720p videos.

The tablet also comes with a 1.9MP front camera, which can be used for video chatting or making video calls over 3G network.

The camera app is decent and includes quite a few options to tweak, like effects, focus mode, and white balance.

Software/ User Interface
Samsung has pre-loaded Ice Cream Sandwich on the tablet with its Touchwiz UI on top. Considering that Jelly Bean is already out in the market, we are a little disappointed to see Android 4.0, especially given the fact that Samsung was one of the first manufacturers to get hold of Jelly Bean source code as they are involved with Galaxy Nexus. Anyways, company has promised to provide Android 4.1 before the year-end.

As expected, you will hardly notice any stock Ice Cream Sandwich on the tablet and everything has been completely customised. While some of these customisations are good, others are totally unnecessary.

One of these unwanted customisations is the irritating touch sound, which is enabled by default in the tablet and we are not sure why Samsung thought it was necessary to keep it enabled out of the box.

Samsung has replaced the default Android apps for Calendar, Browser and Email with its own re-worked versions, which in no way seem to add any value. However, the one place where Samsung's customisations do add value are its mini apps. Tapping the ever present small arrow in the bottom of the tablet brings forth the full list of mini apps, which can float on any existing open apps and with a single click; you can even open their full version.

These mini apps are Alarm, Calculator, Email, Messaging, Music Player, Phone, S Note, S Planner (calendar app), Task Manager and World Clock.

Another useful Samsung customisation which we will also like to see in the tablet version of stock Android, is multiscreen mode. It allows you to open select apps side-by-side. But the usability is lowered because multiscreen only works with Polaris Office, S Note, Video Player, Gallery, Email and Browser.

Samsung has also added a Safari like Reader mode in its custom Android browser which allows you to view the vanilla version of a webpage sans all the ads, links, menus and other media. It is especially useful on websites filled with too much of unwanted content.

The company has also bundled quite a few apps including Adobe Photoshop Touch (costs $10 in Play Store), ChatOn, DropBox, My Education (content for students), Polaris Office, and Peel Smart Remote.

Overall, the Note 800 is a mixed bag on the software front, though Samsung has added some useful stuff. The reworked version of the default apps does not necessarily work as well, as the company would have hoped.

Performance/ Battery Life
The Note 800 includes a 1.4GHz quad-core processor and 2GB RAM, which makes it one of the most powerful mobile devices in the market and this raw power is visible in the daily performance of the device. However, there is still some lag in the tablet when working in the multiscreen mode. The tablet takes some time while switching between two apps in this particular mode, which should not be the case in a device with a quad-core processor inside.

It seems the software is not optimised to really make use of all this power. We hope that it changes with the Jelly Bean update, which is due sometime later this year.

On the battery front, the Note 800 comes with a huge 7,000 mAh battery that gives sufficient amount of juice to last through more than two days on normal usage, occasional gaming and 3G usage as well.

The tablet also offers voice-calling and messaging, which is certainly a plus, but not many of you would be making calls from your tablet unless an emergency.

Overall, the tablet works pretty good and unless you open all apps at once, decide to do some really heavy multi-tasking, you will have no problems with the Note 800's performance.

S-Pen

The USP of the Samsung Galaxy Note 800 is the bundled S-Pen and the supported app ecosystem. Since the original Note, Samsung has improved quite a few elements in the stylus and it is more fluid and responsive. Same can be said for the software.

The S-Pen now supports up to 1024 degrees of pressure, not sure how much of these pressure points are going to useful in real life. Hardware-wise, the S-Pen has grown in size, but it is still lighter than the normal pen.

App-wise, Samsung has included support for S-Pen in S Note and Adobe Photoshop Touch. More apps are available in the company's app store. S Note gives you the option to work in pre-defined templates or a blank one. It also supports handwriting recognition, but this one's a bit of a hit and miss.

Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy Note 800 looks great on paper, however not everything is hunky-dory when it comes to practical usage. The tablet has its own share of problems including the user interface and build quality. The software also doesn't seem to be optimized for utilising the raw power of a quad-core processor; however the overall performance of the tablet is still good apart from odd hiccups.

In the end, all of it comes down to whether you want S-Pen or not, then the level of integration the Note 800 offers with it is great and if you are ready to pay close to Rs. 40,000 for the same, then go for it. In case you decide otherwise, we suggest you take a look at other much cheaper options including the company's Tab 2 10.1, which comes with ICS, dual-core processor and 10.1-inch for Rs. 32,000.

Price: Rs. 39,990

Pros

S-Pen support

Cons
Poor Build Quality
Too much customisation from Samsung

Ratings (Out of 5)
Design: 3
Display: 3.5
Performance: 4
Software: 4
Battery Life: 3.5
Value for Money: 3
Camera: 3.5
Ecosystem: 4
Overall: 3.5

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Micromax Funbook Pro review

Gaurav Shukla, October 06, 2012

Since the introduction of the original Funbook in the country, Micromax has unveiled quite a few tablets. While most of these are just variants of the 7-inch Funbook, the Micromax Funbook Pro is a large 10-inch tablet with different internals.

Micromax is clearly targeting the budget tablet market with its Funbook Pro and has no interest in buyers of the Galaxy Tab or the iPad. We find out whether the tablet is a worthy addition to the growing budget tablet offerings and if it offers value for money.

Hardware
One of the first things that you notice about a tablet, or that matter any device, is the overall look and feel and that is surprisingly good in the Funbook Pro. The tablet feels sturdy and fits nicely in the hand despite the full plastic body.

Most of the front has been taken by the display, which is surrounded by a bezel, about an inch in thickness, and apart from that there is the front camera placed in one corner. The back is similar to the original Funbook, clean and coated with faux aluminium.

We found an issue with the button placements on the device. The power button has been unusually placed at the bottom corner, alongside rest of the ports. This means you end up wasting a lot of time while powering on and off the device - we just couldn't get used to this placement, despite spending a decent amount of time using the tablet. Similarly, the volume rocker has also been placed on the right corner, again not the usual place.

Display
The Funbook Pro features a 10.1-inch capacitive touch display with 1024x600p resolution. The display is good, however the viewing angles are sub-par and so is the screen brightness. Even the touch response leaves a lot to be desired.

Overall, if you can compromise with the outdoor usage and poor viewing angles, the display should not give you any major problems, as the colour output is more than average for this price segment.

Camera

There is no rear camera on the tablet, not that it is necessary, but you will get a VGA front camera on the Funbook Pro. As you would expect from a VGA camera, the quality of the front camera on the tablet is just about enough to make it useful for your occasional video chat needs.

Software/ Interface
Micromax has pre-loaded Android 4.0.4 on the Funbook Pro and there aren't any visible software customisations on the device. The company has, however, pre-loaded quite a few apps along with its own app store on the device.

Despite packing 1GB RAM and a 1.2GHz processor, the software experience isn't as smooth as we would have liked from the tablet. That being said, it is still a big improvement over the company's original Funbook.

Micromax has also loaded a lot of education content on the tablet and more can be purchased and used with the apps present on the device. The tablet also offers access to Google Play, where users can download more applications.

On the downside, the default Android Gallery app is missing from the tablet and we don't see any reason for its absence. All the media content opens in a third-party app called Super-HD Player, which is below average. The app also indexes videos and images from the pre-loaded educational content (which takes the amount of images and videos in the app to hundreds) and makes it an impossible task to search for the real media files. Micromax or the educational app provider should have ideally marked those files so that they don't get indexed in the app.

Overall, the software might be an improvement over Micromax's previous tablet, but it clearly still needs some work.

Another point worth highlighting - as we are yet to see Micromax providing Android updates for any of its Android devices, we suspect whether the Funbook Pro will ever get one - Jelly Bean in this case.

Performance/ Battery Life
As we have already noted that the Micromax Funbook Pro tablet is powered by 1.2GHz processor and 1GB RAM, which should ideally be enough to provide decent performance on the tablet.

But does it? Yes and No. Although the Funbook Pro works decently and multimedia playback being the highlight, the interface lag and occasional jitters are a big pain and often frustrate the user.

The web browsing experience is decent, but image heavy websites are a tough task for the tablet. Even when you open multiple tabs in the Android browser, the experience goes from decent to sub-par.

Another negative of the tablet is the missing Bluetooth and GPS, two very important components for a tablet user. For example, the tablet comes pre-loaded with Google's free Navigation app, but it is rendered useless because of the lack of GPS. You can't even find your location in the maps properly because there is no cell tower reception and you are stuck with Wi-Fi for help.

On the connectivity front, similar to other budget tablets, the Funbook Pro gives plethora of options including MicroUSB port, MicroUSB HOST, mini-HDMI (no cable included) and 3.5mm audio jack. There is also a microSD card slot.

The MicroUSB to USB converter packed in the box, allows you to connect USB mouse, keyboard, thumb drives and data card to the tablet, all of which worked perfectly.

On the battery front, the tablet is packed with 5,600 mAh battery, which gives around 7 hours of backup during normal usage, however if you are planning to watch full HD videos, it will last around 3.5 hours. You might get more battery backup depending on your usage.

Verdict
The Micromax Funbook Pro is a mixed bag. On one hand, the tablet is a good multimedia device and works decently, on the other; it lacks GPS, Bluetooth and provides poor touch experience and a laggy interface.

Given the price tag of Rs. 9,999, we can't really expect the polished UI of say an iPad, but again that also does not mean we should settle for a non-performing device.

In the end, all of it comes down to one question - does the Micromax Funbook Pro provide a decent tablet experience? Yes, but with flaws. So, if you can compromise on that to some extent, the Micromax Funbook Pro is a worthy consideration.

Price: Rs. 9,999

Pros
Multimedia Playback
Pre-loaded content
Connectivity options

Cons
Touch experience
Missing Bluetooth, GPS
Laggy Interface

Ratings (Out of 5)
Design: 3
Display: 3
Performance: 3
Software: 3
Battery Life: 3
Value for Money: 3
Camera: 2
Ecosystem: 4
Overall: 3

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