Note: The Cheapest Laptop covered in this article is known as Aakash Tablet today. You should also consider reading Aakash Review and ACi Icon 1100 review.

The cheapest Laptop for students in India will be out soon. After 6 year of efforts by the Government, the first cargo will be introduced this month. Launched under the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology under the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD), the device will cost only Rs. 2,200. The Government of India is seeing this product as a revolutionary change in the field of higher education. The laptop is designed and manufactured in India itself while keeping in focus the study methods and requirements of the students taking higher-education here.

According to the HRD Ministry, the product is low-cost access-cum-computing device. Currently, an order of 1 lac laptops has been placed by the ministry which will be availed in next 3-4 months.

3000 laptops will be given for free trail to each state through which they’ll reach the higher-education students. The first batch of 10,000 laptops will go to IIT Rajasthan this month. The improvements will be made if the product comes out to be defected or erroneous.

As the current order placed is of only 1 lac units, the total price including all the expenses is coming out to be Rs. 2200. In future, as the orders increase, the price may go down to around Rs. 1500.

I guess, the laptop has very limited features and support when compared to a modern one of it’s category, let’s see how much it lives up to the expectations of the students.

Specifications:

  • Display: 7″ Touch Screen
  • Network: Wi-Fi Network
  • Serial Ports: 2 USB
  • Battery Backup: 3 hrs
  • Memory: 32 GB external HDD
  • Additional features: Solar charge support, A/V output support, 2G shock. Can work fine in the temperature from 0 to 48 °C.

Software:

  • YouTube playback
  • Flash Video, MP4 AVI Support
  • S3 Audio Codec
  • Video Streaming, Video conferencing
  • MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Open Office, PDF support
  • ZIP, RAR Support
  • Remote Device Management

Update: The Govt. of India has launched a Tablet device “Aakash” instead of a Laptop on October 5, 2011. Most of the features that are mentioned above are missing in this Tablet PC. Still, it is expected that a laptop will also be launched in 2012 carrying all these features. Read the complete Aakash Tablet Review. Also see our Tablet PC buying guide.