Me Tab G1 is released by HCL seemingly to catch up with competitors in terms of larger display. We then will take a look at the overall build of the tablet to help you decide if you want to buy it or not.

First things first, are the overall look. This tablet indeed 9.7 inches in screen size, 1024 x 768 screen resolution, has 4:3 aspect ratio, using IPS panel display, and has a multi-touch capacitive screen. It has 2MP camera at the back and 0.3MP front facing camera. One thing I noticed is the power button located beside the rear camera. It is the first time I see a tablet with a power button beside the rear camera. It’s a bit awkward especially when the tablet is asleep and you’re waking it up. You need to do an effort of probably flipping your tablet to press it, which becomes an added burden compared to having it at the top where you can push it without the hustle of flipping it back.

On one side, you have your I/O’s that are covered with a flap. Inside the flap are the micro SD card slot, micro USB slot, and HDMI out. Above it is the volume rocker, built in microphone and physical buttons. Below the flap are the adapter for your DC charger and a 3.5mm headset jack.

In terms of connectivity, you have support for WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G and 4G but through a USB Data Card since the tablet do not include a SIM card slot on it. It uses a 7000 mAh Li-Polymer battery which is sad to note that using it watching or streaming movies, only lasts up to 3 hours.

For storage, the internal memory is 8GB but is expandable up to 32GB using a micro SD. Uses 1 GB of DDR3 RAM which is good to see in tablets at this price range. It is running Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich Operating System at stock with 1.2 GHz Dual Core Cortex A9 CPU for the processor. In case you are interested on the dimensions, it is 238 mm in Height by 186 mm in Width by 11 mm in Depth and approximately weighs 368 grams.

Judging by its specifications under the hood, no doubt the HCL Me Tab G1 would run smoothly on applications and web browsing should be smoother. Other things I’ve noticed, the Me Tab G1 has no Google Play Store. Instead, it has its own Me app store from HCL, which is not much convenient for users that are used to the Play store, and mind you, the Me app store might not have all the necessary apps you wanted to install. That’s one thing to put in mind before buying the device. Another thing is the aspect ratio of the device being 4:3, when you watch movies on HD, it will leave large black spaces in below and above the screen which is not good if you ask me. Aside from that, the IPS panel is too reflective that when you go to places with much light especially outdoors, it will give you trouble in seeing what is displayed on the screen.

The Me Tab G1 is priced at approximately Rs. 14,999. Over all, if you are looking for performance despite some draw backs of the device, then the HCL Me Tab G1 might be for you.