Wishtel ira icon tablet - overview

Wishtel ira tablet (icon) has been launched in Indian markets by Wishtel in association with India’s leading telecom services provider BSNL. Before we get into the details, a bit on the story of Ira tablets.

The company ‘wishtel’ was formed by two MBA graduates while having a discussion on how to fix the Indian education scene. The duo believed that the Indian education has been a long-standing challenge which continues to grow bigger with growing population and poor infrastructure, lower quality of teachers and availability of high quality study material. The brand ‘Ira’ aims to address this problem.

Ira derives the name from Indian Goddess of Knowledge – Saraswati and the management aims to use the brand to revolutionize theIndian education scene by popularizing the tablets among Indian teachers and students. In their introduction, the company says that their range of tablets will replace the need of bulky desktops and laptops. The range of tables from Wishtel has been designed in accord with specifications from IIT Rajasthan (also responsible for testing of the Aakash tablet that set the Indian tablet markets on fire). Ira brand not only offers low budget tablets, but ensure that the tabs are efficient for long term use.

The Wishtel Ira Icon Tablet has been launched in association with BSNL and as you’d expect BSNL’s offered built-in 3G connection with the tablet. BSNL promises 2GB of data usage with a validity of about 2 months; but be sure that you’ll consume all of it in just a month. I’ll give you a quick run-down of the tech specs and features and also offer my own opinion at places where necessary. But if you’re in a hurry – the features that matter the most are : Android ICS (not sure if the firmware can be upgraded to Android Jelly Bean), calling facility through BSNL, 1 GB RAM, 4G internal storage, expandable to 32 GB, 2 MP rear and VGA front camera for video conferencing.

Overview of wishtel ira 3G tablet

Body & Display: The chassis encloses a 7” TFT LCD display and measures 196mm*120mm*7mm. It weighs about 400 grams, and comes in Black and White colours. It’s multi-touch capacitive screen. The display is just in-line with what you’ll find on leading tablets. 7” is quickly getting into the mainstream as Apple’s rumoured to launch the 7” iPad mini later this month. The display is said to be HD-ready, with ability to display HD 720p movies.



Firmware Information: I don’t have exact information on the firmware, but the product specification sheet says that it’s the Android ICS (4.0). I hope the hardware will support the latest Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, but that’s just my speculation.

Processor & Memory: 1.2 GHz CPU should be capable enough to handle the tablet gracefully. I couldn’t find information on the details of the processor. Moreover, the memory in most of the gadgets these days is around 1 GB and Wishtel Ira is just at par with its rivals. I’m not sure of the multi-tasking abilities of the tablet; but the processor & memory combo should be able to handle it (leaving apart complex graphics).

Storage Capacity: With most of the tablets, users are going to store photos and videos for quicker accessibility and the Ira tablet offers you 4GB of internal storage. I think it’s too less! But that should not be a deal breaker. You can expand the capacity by adding a microSD card. The good news is that the prices of micro SD cards are falling day by day and you can get a decent 16 GB one for under Rs. 1000.

Power System: Being bigger in size than phones, the tablets have one advantage – they offer more room for the battery compartment. The ira comes with 4000 mAh battery and promises 4-5 hours of regular usage. If you run the tablet on lower brightness, you may extract a little more; but I’ve always been disappointed by android’s pathetic power management systems. It seriously needs to learn from the Apple iOS.

The tab ships with a 9V DC adapter.

Connectivity: For your direct peripheral connections, you have a mini-USB, micro SD, HDMI-mini (to duplicate display), standard headphone jack (3.5mm). The body of the tablet has mic for your video and regular telephone calls.

For wireless connectivity – you have 3G from BSNL and IEEE 802.11 wi-fi. You can insert SIM card and have your favorite telecom services provider for data services. Of course, there’s Bluetooth but not sure if it’s 3.0.

Audio: The Ira chassis offers stereo speakers and mic inbuilt. The hardware offers support to the most of the popular file formats you throw at it including the old-school wav, wma and mp3, aac, .rm (real media audio), APE, FLAC, AAC, OGG, AC3 etc.

Video: The tablet offers support to AVI, MP4, mov, .3GP and supports 3d converter. In addition, the tablet plays H.264, VC-1, H.263, MPEG 1/2/4, DIVX, XVID, AVS etc.

Photos: You’ll be able to load your .jpegs, .bmp, .gif and .png

Software: The company has managed to pack the most frequently used software including MSN, Skype, Gtalk, QQ messengers along with software to support office documents like .doc, .xls, .pdf, .ppt, .txt etc.

Price of Wishtel Ira Icon:

The tablet ships for Rs. 10500 and I believe that the tablet is little over-priced. The most ideal price of the tablet would have been around Rs. 7-8k, but it’s still a good deal. Being in the range of economical talbets, the Ira has several advantages over the ever-popular Aakash, but the price difference is huge. I’ve doubts whether it will fulfill the aim of being the tablet of choice for teachers and students. It’d have been great if the tablet shipped with some educational content pre-loaded.