Karbonn SMART TAB 1

I got the Karbonn smart tab 2 days back from Naaptol. Following the cons and pros that I found out, let me first start with Cons

Cons

1. Poor display and color reproduction is bad.

   
   




2. Majority of the apps in Google play are not supported. There are workarounds but not straight forward.

   
   




3. Though Karbonn claims this tab to be a good gaming device, its just the opposite. You hardly find any 3D games that are supported on this tab

   
   




4. Karbonn support seems non existent. Their toll free number is not answering and service center guys deny to support it, no response by email as well. If you face any hardware issue, then you have to throw it off.

   
   




5. Front facing 2MP camera is useless since none of the video chat apps are supported. Though you can install some versions of SKYPE, it will not login/work. This tab cannot be used for video chat.

   
   




6. Kinetic scrolling is not great. Download Dolphin HD or some other good browser for better experience

   
   




7. If you do a hard reset, then you will not be able to install Google play and lots of other apps. Again there are workarounds for this aswell, you have to do .apk installation. Google play is not officially supported on this tab.

   
   




8. User manual is a joke, its full of grammatical and spelling mistakes. This itself shows how much Karbonn cares about the tablet. It seems to be printed in China

   
   




9. RAM is not 512 MB as mentioned in specs, its only 335. I know there will be some difference but this difference is not acceptable

   
   




10. Internal memory is not 4G, its around 2.5G

    
    




11. Most of the online reviews for this tab are misleading.

    
    

Pros

1. Good looks

   
   




2. Build quality seems good.

   
   




3. Battery life is good

   
   




4. WIFI is seamless, no disconnects and good reception as well

   
   




5. Good pricing.

   
   




6. Applications run without any lag and flash plays well

   
   




7. Tab runs Android 4.0.3

   
   




8. You can connect the tablet to your HD TV by mini HDMI cable, it works well.

   
   

Conclusion.

You’ve to make a lot of compromises with these budget tablets. ’Micromax Funbook’ and ’HCL Me’ are almost similar to Karboon smart tab and will have almost all of the cons that I’ve mentioned above. Please do not have any high expectations from these budget tablets and if you can pay more then don’t go for these cheap tablets.

Still if you are looking for a cheap tab then go for Micromax or iberry auxus. Its not worth buying the Karbonn smart tab, its a cheap Chinese tab re-branded and sold in India. Worst is the lack of support from Karbonn. I gave it to my kids, they are also disappointed due to lack of gaming capability.