World's cheapest tablet goes on sale

PUT it on the slate. The world's cheapest tablet has gone on sale and it's a mind-boggling bargain. Last minute Christmas present, anyone?

Check out this tablet

THE world's cheapest tablet has gone on sale and it'll set thrifty consumers back just A$54.

It's called the Datawind UbiSlate 7Ci and it's a basic 7in device that was originally launched in India as an affordable way for students to get access to the internet. Now, the slate has been made available for world market from its website and its the cheapest slate to hit the UK and US.

The price (excluding a A$30 shipping fee) has been converted from Datawind's UK store, which is the only store from the Indian manufacturer that we've found to ship to Australia. The US store does stock the tablet for an even cheaper US$38 (A$42) but its shipping is locked to US addresses.

While the price is almost too good to be true, the cost reflects the specs of the Android device with a screen that cannot match the sharpness of more premium tablets and relatively sluggish performance. But is does boast a storage that can be expanded by microSD card up to a none-too-shabby 32GB. There's built-in Wi-Fi too.

This basically means you'll be able to do most of the basic functions like web access and email that you can do on more expensive tablets like the iPad or Galaxy Tab. You'll be able to play Angry Birds, just don't expect to be blown away by the hardware.

The unit has received fairly adequate reviews with the overall consensus being that is can be pretty clunky to use with a poor screen and not-so-great battery life, but for the price it's a brilliant entry. For non-tech savvy folk this is a great gift.

Datawind has said it is planning to "disrupt" the tablet market by bringing low-cost devices complete with processing power to match Apple's latest iPads. We like the sound of that.

Datawind UbiSlate 7Ci specs:

- 7in, 800 x 480, display

- 512 RAM

- 1GHz processor

- 4GB storage expandable to 32GB via microUSB

- Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich