Micromax came out with its Funbook Talk P350 tablet in India again with its patent street price and this time the price tag was set at Rs 7,249. This tablet is a new member of the already existent Funbook family from Micromax, which adds new valuable features of voice calls as well as GPRS functionality. The Micromax Funbook Talk P350 features a dual-band GSM radio that lets you make and receive voice calls. This feature of the tablet allows you to stay connected even on the go. The tablet does not have a 3G radio built into it however; its maker has made it up with support for 3G dongles via the mini USB port. 
Design and Build Micromax claims that the Funbook Talk P350 is the first tablet to be developed in India. While that is a fact, it should be said that it is a better built sub-10thousand Android tablet. It feels light enough in your hand and is sleek as well, making it a very good eBook reader. Its built quality is also pretty tough and even with a considerable pressure it doesn’t seem to give way. The glass protection for the screen is also good though it attracts a lot of fingerprints which is rather common. The rectangular tablet’s ports are all placed on the right side and the power and volume rockers buttons and SIM slot are placed on the top. Tablet has a 7 incher capacitive screen along with a resolution of 800 x 480. The screen also offers several touch features such as the multi-touch, pinch-to-zoom, etc. 
Interface and performance The Funbook comes powered with Ice Cream Sandwich Operating System along with Android 4.0.3. The tablet is also powered by a 1GHz CPU and comes with 512MB of RAM. There’s only a single front facing VGA camera for video calls through Skype and other apps. While the interface is quick to respond, at times it may slow down. The touch sensitivity is also average for a tablet in this price bracket. The Funbook also takes considerable time to wake up the from sleep mode. Micromax uses an ARM Cortex-A8 single-core CPU running at 1.2GHz along with the NEON instruction set for decoding video files. The NEON technology from ARM works in motion with the Mali-400 MP GPU allowing it to easily download as well as decode almost any type of video file, irrespective of the container or codec. Along with 512MB of RAM, this ensures a very good multimedia experience. While the Mali-400 MP GPU is quite capable, not all games can be played very smoothly but games such as the Angry Birds Space and other popular games can be played very well. 
This tablet is also for those who were looking for a low cost tablet with a SIM option, as the Micromax Funbook Talk P350 offers this very option with a built-in SIM slot. The Funbook talk can be obviously used for voice calls as well as surf the net using GPRS. However, no 3G for the Micromax Funbook Talk as it only supports the 2G networks. You can watch full HD videos without any lags. Moreover there is the HDMI port to connect the tab to your HDTV. The ICS runs smoothly with minor problems at times. The overall performance of the tab is also average, which could be enhanced with a bit of work on its ICS. Apart from that the entire phone’s features work well. In case you find the call speaker volume too low then you will have to use the earphones. You can also surf the net using 2G (GPRS). You can surf even with the 3G enabled SIM card, over the GPRS network. There is a front camera of VGA (0.3 MP resolution which can be used for Skype video calls using Wi-Fi, not possible on GPRS network. However, the Tablet does tend to get heated up a little when you use it continuously. 
The Funbook Talk includes an e-learning app and allows users to access study materials, videos, multimedia, tests and assessment. The tablet also features sample papers and study materials for engineering, medical and MBA exams. The Micromax Funbook Talk also has good multimedia playback support. Audio formats supported include MP3, WMA, MP2 OGG, AAC, M4A, FLAC, APE, 3GP, WAV, etc. There’s also a whole bunch of video formats supported like MPEG, MP4, VIMKV, DivX, etc. Micromax has also included a miniHDMI port so you can connect the tablet directly to an HDTV. The Micromax Funbook Talk P350 also features a 2,800mAh battery, which promises up to 5 hours of talk time and 112 hours of standby time. Though the battery life really depends on how much of work you do on the tab as well as which apps you use. The tablet comes with 4GB of internal memory which can be expanded to 32GB via a microSD card. As already mentioned, you’ll get a lot from this tab, as it is loaded with educational stuffs (images / videos etc). The stock media player can play many audio and video formats. The volume is hear-able in a quiet room. There is the Mali 400 GPU which will keep the Gaming users happy. We have seen the Allwinner A10 performance on other tablets too. 
Conclusion Remember the first Micromax tablet the Micromax Funbook has given its successor the Micromax Funbook Talk the same hardware but obviously the latter has added features including the phone functionality. While the other latest tablets available in the Indian market have moved on to the micro USB port, the Micromax Funbook Talk is the one that still features the mini USB port. As far as performance is concerned, it is rather good as other Allwinner A10 tabs. However, the hard truth is that the hardware with which the Micromax Funbook Talk comes in the market is outdated and very soon the market will get flooded with low cost tablets with dual core CPU and Jelly Bean OS. The Micromax Funbook Talk offers the option of connecting it by making it compatible with 3G dongle using the mini USB port. The Micromax Funbook Talk major point to notice is its SIM feature but when that is taken away from it, it becomes the same old Micromax tablet. The tab is priced at under Rs. 7,249, which is cheap but surely is not that cheap considering the fact that you can have a dual core tab within the same price range albeit without a calling feature.
