Micromax Funbook, priced at Rs 6,499, is set to get some stiff competition from another digital education and entertainment device - HCL MeTab U1, priced at Rs 7,999.

With the "aim of combining learning with fun", the Micromax Funbook on Ice Cream Sandwich was launched last week by educational publisher Pearson, Micromax Informatics and education company Everonn.

The device, based on Android 4.0.3 digital platform, will help children watch their favourite movies, read books and play games at the same time.

While Pearson will provide content for students, BigFix, Zenga and Indiagames will pitch in with games and entertainment features.

The Funbook has a 7-inch screen, runs on 1.2 GHz processor and is 1 cm thick. It can be customized as a mini library by storing contents upto 4 GB in its internal memory which is expandable up to 32GB for avid readers.

The Funbook integrates a 0.3 MP camera to capture images and has HD Video playback watching videos, movies and clips. A port lets allows the user to connect to other multimedia device such as TV or projector.

Set to give the tablet PC some competitions is the the MeTab U1 from IT company HCL Technologies.

Like the Funbook, HCL's latest tablet too has a 7 inch capacitive touchscreen with 800 x 480 pixel resolution, Android 4.0.3 platform, a front-facing VGA camera. But HCL score over Micromax with a 3600 mAh battery compared to the latter's 2800 mAh unit.

What can work against the MeTab is no access to Google Play app store and a slower 1 GHz processor.

The HCL HCL MeTab U1 is priced at Rs 7,999 but doesn't have any content; the K12 version which offers course material from KG to 12th is priced at Rs 11,499 (Rs 3,500 for the content) and the higher education version, on which some content can be accessed on the cloud is offered at Rs 10,000 (Rs 2,000 for content and cloud access).