Lava ETAB XTRON

Available now
17th February 2013

Sometimes we look at high-end devices that are exclusively available in Japan or Korea and wonder "why can't we have that here?" The Lava ETAB XTRON also falls into that category, not because it is particularly high-end, but because it appears to be amazing value for money.

As far as we can tell, the ETAB XTRON is shipping in India only, but LAVA do also sell devices in south Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Retailing for just 6500 Rupees (about €90 or £77), the ETAB XTRON is a fully-featured 7" Android 4.1 tablet with a 1024 x 600 pixel screen, dual-core 1.5GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of onboard flash memory plus a microSD slot, a two megapixel camera on the front and WiFi support. There's 3500 mAh battery inside and the whole thing measures 184 x 131 x 11.5mm and weighs 350 grams.

On paper it looks great, the problem is that when you look at the photos there's something wrong, because you can clearly see Samsung icons present. In fact, the screenshots seem to have been copied from Samsung's press material for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7. That's a sloppy bit of copy-and-pasting, but it is also highly inaccurate as the Samsung is running Android 3.2 on a higher-resolution screen.

All this substandard Photoshopping has dented our enthusiasm for the ETAB XTRON though, and we would strongly recommend that you see one in the flesh before you buy it, especially if 6500 Rupees is a big expenditure for you.

If you want to buy one online, the Lava ETAB XTRON is currently available at Flipkart and Infibeam. Despite our reservations, it does still look like a very good deal.. but perhaps the folks at Lava need to have a serious word with their marketing people!