Xolo Play Tegra Note 7″ tablet goes on pre-order in India

The Xolo Play Tegra Note built on NVIDIA’s platform is now available for pre-order in India. The tablet is based on the Tegra 4 chipset and is priced at INR 18,000 ($290). If you pre-order now, Flipkart and Xolo will throw in a Smart Cover, which otherwise costs INR 2,499 ($40).

The Xolo Play Tegra Note is a 7″ tablet running Android 4.2, with software updates coming straight from NVIDIA rather than Xolo. The Tegra 4 chipset packs four Cortex-A15 cores at 1.8GHz, a fifth power-saver core, a 72-core GeForce GPU and a somewhat less inspiring 1GB RAM.

The 7″ IPS screen is fairly unimpressive with its 1,280 x 800 resolution (216ppi, like the original Nexus 7), but there’s an HDMI out for TV gaming (up to 4K resolution, I’m guessing more for video playback than gaming).

The screen does support NVIDIA’s DirectStylus tech, which takes aim at Samsung’s S Pen with finger and palm recognition. Other specs include front-facing stereo speakers, 16GB of built-in storage, microSD card slot, HDR-capable 5MP camera and a 15.17Wh battery.

The biggest obstacle ahead of the Xolo Play Tegra Note is the Nexus 7 2013 for the INR 21,000 ($340). The Xolo is cheaper (and you get the case), plus it has expandable memory and a stylus, but still it’s a tough sell (the Nexus has a better screen, more RAM and updates straight from Google).