Oct

DroidPad from Spice launched, looks similar to OlivePad, ViewPad

Here is one more tablet that breaks cover in India and is just in time to cash in on the ongoing festive season. It’s named DroidPad MI700 brought forth by Spice Mobility and comes with some decent specs. It’s built around a Qualcomm MSM 7227 chipset clocking in at 700 Mhz along with half a gig of RAM. The DroidPad is also equipped with a similar sized ROM, while its main visible area is made up of a 7 inch 16M TFT capacitive touch screen having a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels.

The rest of the spec sheet reads out an integrated 3 mega pixel camera, a sim card slot, 803.11 b/g Wi-Fi, GSM/EDGE/UMTS (3G)/HSDPA (3.5G) networks support. Powering the tablet will be a 3240mAh Li-Polymer battery though it’s not known how long it will be able to sustain things before requiring a recharge. Perhaps the best thing with the DroidPad is the fact that it comes with the latest Android 2.2 Froyo right out of the box. In fact, Spice Mobiles is also claiming the tablet will have full access to the Android Market, making up for a really a spicy proposition.

The tablet will reach markets during the festival of lights Diwali, which is just round the corner though it’s not known as yet how much it will be priced. Spice Mobile has alreay launched the DroidPad in Malaysia where it has entered into a partnership with CSL. The tablet is selling in that country for RM 1,599 which comes to around 23,000 INR or $514. So that can be an indication of what the tablet might cost when it is eventually launched.

However, if the looks of the DroidPad is tinkling your memory, well it’s not without reason. The fact is, the DroidPad bears an uncanny resemblance with not only one but 2 tablet devices – the OlivePad VT100 from Olive Telecom as well as the ViewPad 7 from Viewsonic. In fact, it’s not only similar looks that all the three tablets share, but all of them have more or less the same specs – the same 7 inch screen with the same resolution, a 3 MP camera on all three devices along with batteries of the same capacity. The operating system is also the same, though it’s only the DroidPad that comes installed with the latest Android Froyo while the others have the option to upgrade. And lastly, all three of them have ‘Pad’ suffixed in their names.

We had earlier carried the report of OlivePad likely to be twins with the ViewPad. Well, there is one more addition to it – the DroidPad. We wonder if there are more to make the clones club.

Sovan Mandal (1924 Posts)

Sovan Mandal is the senior tablet and tech corespondent for goodereader.com. He brings a international approach to news that is not just applicable to the North American market, but also Asia, India, Europe and others. Sovy brings his own writing flavor to the website and is interested in Science Fiction, Technology and Writing. Any questions, send an email