Datawind, the company behind the PocketSurfer web browsing device, has launched what it claims is the world’s lowest-cost tablet in the UK. The Ubislate 7ci is one of three new tablets and phablets from the company, and will sell for £29.99. The company says the devices, running on Android, have already enjoyed significant success in India.

The UbiSlate devices boast multi-touch projective capacitive touch screens and are powered by a Cortex A8 – 1Ghz processor, with 512MB of RAM. Flash memory of 4GB can be supplemented by up to 32GB through its micro-SD card slot. In addition to embedded wi-fi, the UbiSlate 7Ci tablet computers support external 3G for mobile broadband data connectivity, while the UbiSlate 7C+ (£69.99) has an embedded quad-band GSM-Edge modem and the UbiSlate 3G7 (£129.99) incorporates a 3G modem.

The phablet models with cellular connectivity can use a regular SIM to make phone calls and access the internet anywhere there is mobile network coverage. Incorporating DATAWIND’s web delivery platform, which the company says compresses and accelerates web content by factors of 10x to 30x, the devices come bundled with a SIM and a year of free mobile web browsing.