MapMyIndia, the popular mapping services provider from India has announced a new, appealing product known as the CarPad. The product which, is essentially a tablet complete with Wi-Fi and 3G ability is however, positioned more as an in car infotainment device.
The CarPad runs on a custom UI known as Aura atop an Android 2.2 core. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 processor based on the dated MSM7227-1 chipset. The processor is clocked at 600MHz and is coupled with an Adreno 200 GPU. It gets 512MB of RAM which for a device with these specs is reasonable. The device gets a micro SD card for memory expansion and gets a 2 megapixel camera at the back for casual imaging purposes.
The device gets a standard resolution of 800*480 pixels, which is not bad at all for a 7 inch display. Also, noticeable is the fact that the screen is capacitive in nature. The device has a battery rated at 3400 mAH, which should be strong enough to power the device for 7 hours of continuous usage. Thanks to 3G and GSM support, the tablet can make and receive voice calls – which, sure is a welcome addition.
The CarPad can be yours for Rs. 22990 which for a tablet with these specs is obviously expensive. On the flip side though, MapMyIndia is not positioning this as an alternative to your run of the mill tablet – instead, this is touted to be a mapping device on steroids. If you look at it that way, the price looks somewhat sensible – but then, for most of us, this will remain a tablet – and that too a somewhat outdated one.
