Have a tight budget, and still want to own a tablet? There can be no better buy than HCL Infosystems? latest tablet called Me U1. Looks wise, it is not very stylish but is a decent looking compact device with a substantial build. It costs less than R10,000 and has enough features which will keep you busy.

In fact, it is the price and set of features like the latest Android operating system, usability and multiple connectivity that make the HCL tablet an eye-catching rival to the likes of Micromax Funbook and Zen UltraTab.

Made of plastic, the HCL device is available in white colour only. Its front panel features an 7-inch bright capacitive touchscreen display and an ordinary 0.3 megapixel front camera?which is also the only camera in the tab. It has several useful connectivity ports, such as USB 2.0 port, USB modem support for direct plug-in 3G dongles, 3.5 mm universal port, mini USB and micro SD card slot. On the side panel, it has keys for volume, switch on/off and a charging indicator that glows red when the tablet is being charged.

The tablet, which runs on the latest Android 4.0.3 operating system ?Ice Cream Sandwich?offers plenty of connectivity features. It has an intuitive user-interface with smooth wobbling between Home screens, apps and browsing. For internet, it has Wi-Fi and 3G supported with USB modem. High definition video playback is smooth, but was marred by low sound output. While playing games, the sound seemed a lot better. HCL Me U1 comes with its own app store Me Apps instead of the popular Google Play store app. However, it does not mean you cannot access the Android store at all; you can download and install it if you want.

The tablet comes with 1 GHz processor, which is what more or less most of its rivals have. The single core processor with 512 MB RAM may appear low but it keeps the tablet running well most of the time except when multiple apps are open. It has a decent battery back-up of upto four hours after playing games, watching movies and streaming videos.

SPECS

Display: 7-inch capacitive screen with 800 x 400p

Operating system: Android 4.0

Processor: 1GHz Cortex A8 processor

Camera: 0.3 megapixel front camera

Memory: 4 GB internal memory; 32 GB extendable with micro SD

Connectivity: 3G with USB modem, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth

Estimated street price: Rs 7,999