Flipkart is trying to imitate Amazon in every possible way. First, it turned into a marketplace and then it started one day delivery of products. Now, just like Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet, Flipkart has forayed into the tablet market with the launch of its own DigiFlip Pro XT712 tablet which was launched last week in Delhi. The Digiflip Pro XT712 is an entry-level Android tablet with 7 inch screen, quad-core processor, dual SIM card slots and a price tag of Rs 9,999.
Flipkart Digiflip Pro XT712 Specifications
- 7 inch IPS LCD display, 1280 x 800 pixels, 216 ppi, 5-point capacitive multitouch
- 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek MT8382 processor, ARM Cortex A7 CPU, Mali-400MP2 GPU (500MHz)
- 1GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, microSD card slot (up to 32GB)
- Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean operating system
- 5MP AF rear camera, LED flash, full HD 1080p video recording, 2MP front-facing camera
- Accelerometer, ambient light sensor, proximity sensor
- Dual SIM, 3G, Voice calling, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth, A-GPS and microUSB
- 3000 mAh Li-Po battery, 8 hours talk-time
Hardware & Software Not Exciting Enough
The hardware of the device doesn't look very exciting. The overall feel of the device didn't seem as premium as you would get with the Nexus or Kindle Fire tablets. Granted, it has a rear camera with autofocus and full HD video recording, which others lack, it is a widely accepted fact that the camera is not a primary use case of tablet devices.
Tablets are primarily used for web browsing, multimedia playback and gaming. So the screen, graphics quality, software and ergonomics should be of primary importance rather than things like rear camera or dual SIM card slots. From the initial impressions, the screen doesn't look as good as the one used in the likes of Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire HD. It does have a quad-core processor but uses a MediaTek MT8382 processor with a relatively weaker GPU. It uses an older version of Android (4.2.2 Jelly Bean) and there is no schedule promised for the Android 4.4 KitKat update.
Dual SIM card slot in a tablet looks pointless as most of the users don't have 3 SIM cards so that they can use one in their phone and other two in their tablet device. At this price point, a user should spend a little more and get the Asus Fonepad 7 which has very good hardware and software quality.
Lack of compelling services and offers from Flipkart
The primary reason why Kindle Fire sells is due to the services and digital content that Amazon provides such as music, movies, e-books, TV shows and free apps and games from time to time. Flipkart on the other hand lacks any digital content apart from e-books. Also, they don't have their own app store like Amazon so they can't run free apps and games promotion like Amazon does.
Flipkart is providing a month of Flipkart First service for free, 50 percent off on book case worth Rs. 799, free Plantronics ML2 Bluetooth headset worth Rs. 1,199, and free eBooks on Flipkart worth Rs. 2,300. But anyone can avail an annual subscription of Flipkart First for just Rs 500. So, the offer doesn't provide enough incentives for a user to prefer the Digiflip Pro XT712 over other popular tablets. It would have been better if Flipkart reduced the price of the device instead of offering these useless offers. At a price of Rs 6,000-7,000, the Digiflip Pro XT712 would have had a lot more chance of being a success than it has now. I would suggest anyone to go with either the Nexus 7 (2012) or Asus Fonepad 7 8GB (2013).
