Acer’s Iconia Tab A500 Joins the Honeycomb Party

The year of the tablet continues, and every major manufacturer—and many smaller parties as well—are keen to get their cut of the pie. As their entrant into the tablet market, Acer is announcing their Iconia Tab A500. We posted a short overview of the Iconia-6120 Dual-Screen notebook a few weeks ago, and it’s weird to have devices that are so wildly different in the same product family, but the Iconia Tab is a far more traditional device.

Google selected NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 platform as the target hardware for Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), so it’s little surprise that Acer will use Tegra 2 (specifically the Tegra 250 variant) as the core of the A500. Perhaps more importantly, the A500 uses a 10.1” display with a 1280x800 resolution, so it will be similar in size and form factor to the Motorola Xoom. It’s actually a bit heavier (1.69 lbs. vs. 1.61 lbs) and fractionally thicker (.52” vs. .51”) than the Xoom, but since we’re dealing with tablets rather than smartphones it’s unlikely anyone will notice. What they will notice is differences in styling; the A500 has a brushed aluminum casing that looks quite nice in the photos we’ve seen.

Other aspects of the device are pretty standard. Tegra 2 starts with a dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU and pairs that with NVIDIA’s ULP GeForce graphics and 1GB of RAM. There are front- (2MP) and rear-facing (5MP) cameras, an HDMI port for viewing content on an external display (1080p supported), 802.11bgn WiFi, 16GB flash memory on the initial device (with 32GB versions planned for the future), and a micro-SD expansion slot capable of accepting up to 32GB micro-SD cards. The tablet comes with two 3260mAh Li-polymer batteries rated for up to eight hours of casual gaming or HD video playback and 10 hours of WiFi Internet browsing. Another piece of hardware is the six-axis motion-sensing gyro, which can be useful for games (and detecting orientation of the tablet). Finally, there’s a built-in GPS, and Bluetooth support allows the A500 to connect to a variety of peripherals.

One of the key elements of any tablet is the display, and here’s where things are a bit fuzzy right now: Acer’s press release states that the LCD “provides an 80-degree wide viewing angle to ensure an optimal viewing experience”. Hopefully that means it’s an IPS (or similar technology) panel, so that you’re getting true 80 degrees off-center viewing in both vertical and horizontal directions. More likely (being the cynic that I am), it’s a TN panel with “160-degree” horizontal and vertical viewing angles—except we all know that the way viewing angles are rated is often far from ideal, as one only has to look at a typical TN laptop panel to know that it can’t be used from above or below. When we can get an actual unit for testing, we’ll provide full details on the display.

On the software side of things, Acer has all the usual Android 3.0 accoutrements, but they’re including a few extras. Given the Tegra 2 platform, it’s nice to see a couple of games thrown into the mix for free: Need for Speed: Shift and Let’s Golf come pre-installed—I’m a lot more interested in the former than the latter. Adobe’s Flash is also supported, but it doesn’t come pre-installed, which is easy enough to rectify. Given that Google has expressed an interest in standardizing the Android experience and avoiding fragmentation, there’s not a lot of unusual software added on the A500. Acer includes their LumiRead and Google Books apps for enjoying eBooks, Zinio for full-color digital magazines, and a trial version of Docs to Go for office documents. Naturally, users all get full access to the Android Marketplace for installing additional applications. The A500 also includes clear.fi for digital media sharing, so it can communicate over your wireless network with any other DLNA-compliant devices to share multimedia content.

While the above items aren’t necessarily major improvements over competing tablets, one aspect of the A500 is sure to turn a few heads: the device is slated to go on sale at Best Buy starting at just $450. That puts it nearly $150 cheaper than the base model Motorola Xoom, albeit with 16GB instead of 32GB of integrated storage. The Iconia Tab A500 will be available for pre-order at Best Buy starting April 14 and available in stores and online starting April 24.

Besides the core unit, Acer also has a variety of peripherals planned. First on the list is a full-sized dedicated Bluetooth keyboard ($70 MSRP). There’s also a dock/charging station with IR remote and connections for external speakers/headphones ($80 MSRP), which can hold the tablet in two different tilt positions. Last is a protective case that allows access to the connectors and ports ($40 MSRP); it also lets you prop the tablet in two positions for hands-free viewing of movies or other content.

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  • czesiu - Friday, April 8, 2011 - link

    xoom has smaller bezel?

    I think that all tablets are too heavy to be comfortable. Even 300g Archos 70 feels heavy after holding for long time.
  • vision33r - Friday, April 8, 2011 - link

    A lot these tablets are gonna fail because they have a PC maker's mentality.

    Tablets are not about power, it's about ease of use, ergonomics, size, and ease of viewing.

    And price matters.

    In fact the Kindle will out live and sell most of these Android tabs because most consumers are buying them for simple tasks like reading and web browsing. Battery life and ergonomics is king on the list of requirements.

    Honeycomb is like Windows, it's too much desktop management for avg users. They want to launch apps like turning pages on a book. iOS is exactly that, simple to use and gets great battery life without all the spongy tasks running in the background like Android has.
  • JarredWalton - Friday, April 8, 2011 - link

    Except that while Kindle works fine for books, it's not so good for web browsing. Most agree that the Kindle browser is only good for text-only sites or mobile-optimized sites. YMMV of course.
  • sprockkets - Friday, April 8, 2011 - link

    But I also want a device that allows me to download content directly without Apple's bull shit itunes/walled garden.

    I also want one that doesn't require other apple devices to do what other devices do using normal industry standard protocols like DLNA.

    Apple can have their market.
  • bplewis24 - Friday, April 8, 2011 - link

    It's pretty clear you've never owned an Android product, let alone used Honeycomb. Otherwise you wouldn't make statements that are patently false.

    Brandon
  • Commodus - Saturday, April 9, 2011 - link

    I was at CES, Mobile World Congress, and CTIA, so I've used four or five Android 3.0 tablets already. He's right.

    Android 3.0 is certainly simpler than Windows, but it still feels uncomfortably close. The UI is also a bit bipolar -- literally. You end up jumping between the top and bottom too often. Performance can sometimes be an issue. I've seen some tablets run terribly next to one with a similar widget load, for no seeming reason.

    Plus, having used an iPad 2 (in fact, I'm writing this with it), I'd say most of the advantages for the current crop of Android 3.0 tablets have gone away. You really have to just be opposed to Apple culture or like the Android groove to prefer one over the iPad.
  • medi01 - Sunday, April 10, 2011 - link

    Right. Advantages like being able to access file system on your device.
    Advantages of having expansion slot are "gone" on android devices.

    Oh, I recall lack of something could be good, if it's about Apple devices. So I guess you should sell this idea to Canon/Nikon, they should start manufacturing camers with no card slots. And also advise them to allow syncing with only one PC. Direct file system access confuses customers, you know, it's very Windows like.
  • Henk Poley - Monday, April 11, 2011 - link

    I see your sarcasm, but what you say is true. A list of items of previously edited documents is easier than having to hunt them on a filesystem. Also, if camera makers can add enough high performance flash into their cameras they certainly should (we are not at that point though).
  • medi01 - Sunday, April 10, 2011 - link

    What does Kindle have to do with this, apart from Apples ridiculous attempts to sell tabs as reader devices? Have you ever used a device with modern e-ink screen? It puts much less strain on your eyes than TFT and it's battery lasts weeks (!) not hours.
  • bill4 - Friday, April 8, 2011 - link

    Get the Asus eee transformer coming soon instead. It has a gorgeous ipad quality s-ips display and looks to be priced at just 399. plus you can get the awesome dock for 149 more which isnt even an option on most tablets.

    Every preview, hands on, etc I've seen of the eee ends of positively glowing.

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