The much awaited and the cheapest tablet Aakash 2 is all set for its launch in October in India.
When converted to Indian rupee the tablet would cost Rs.1960. A commercial version of this for the Indian public will retail for $63, and a higher-end version is expected to sell in the U.S. next year for $79.
Further Christopher Peri of the Venture Beat wrote that Aakash 2 is greatly improved over the first version in all categories. It looks better, runs better, and feels better. Android 4.0.3 feels responsive, screen pans are smooth, and apps open as quickly as you would expect.
It has a USB port as well as a card slot. Since there is only 4GB on-board storage, you a memory card in here will be required. Unlike its predecessor, the V2 has an on-board speaker, microphone, and front-facing camera which however only support 640 x 480-pixel images which are not enough for video chat. The commercial ones are also made available with a sim card slot as well.
As reported by Alice Truong of Forbes the Aakash tablet costs US$41.15 but with the subsidy from the Indian government the cost comes to $35 a piece for a student.
RAM has also been upped from 256MB to 512MB. You can overload it if you have too many things running at the same time, but some simple app management takes care of this easily.
The Aakash tablets will initially be deployed by the Indian government in post-secondary institutions. The government has been deploying free broadband and Wi-Fi access in colleges and universities through the National Mission for Education through Information & Communication Technology (NME-ICT) and the National Knowledge Network projects. So far 600 universities and 1,200 colleges are covered.