Though it lacks 3G and there's no SIM card receptacle, cell standby uses a significant amount of idle power (also fixed in a firmware update).
We also noted a few bugs including the device's about string saying it's an A501 (the AT&T version, which it most definitely is not), a bad habit of waking the display every few minutes (the wake-up bug was fixed in a firmware update) and a complete inability to play 1080p video at more than 10fps. Build quality overall is good, but we noted that on our Best Buy purchased unit the case doesn't meet as tightly on the lower and upper right corners as it does on the left. It doesn't look in the least bit cheap and feels lighter than its hefty 1.7lb. The Acer Iconia A500 is an attractive tablet with a brushed aluminum finish and gray plastics that remind us of attractive TimeLineX notebooks like the Acer TimelineX 1830T. Two 10"Android Honeycomb tablets: the Motorola Xoom and Acer A500.
Note: Acer issued an over-the-air free update to Android OS 3.1 in June 2011. The X500 runs vanilla Android OS 3.01 Honeycomb with only the most minor customizations to the user interface such as folders with backgrounds for like-purpose apps such as eReading, Multimedia, Games and Social. Its capacitive multi-touch display looks nearly identical to the Xoom's and is bested by the IPS display on the even less expensive Eee Pad Transformer as well as the bright and vibrant Galaxy Tab 10.1 display. It has 16 gigs of storage and no 3G/4G (the A501 will have AT&T 3G).
Like the Xoom, Asus Eee Pad Transformer and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, the A500 has a 1GHz dual core Tegra 2 CPU, a gig of RAM, HDMI out, front and rear cameras, WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth and a GPS. That means quality, price, storage, 3G/4G options and display quality will be the main differentiators. We tested both the card slot (it worked fine with our 8 and 16 gig cards) and the USB host port (it worked with flash drives, keyboards but not external hard drives, mice or optical drives).Īs the 10.1" Android Honeycomb tablet space fills in, it looks like we'll see several products with nearly identical specs.
The Xoom gives you a few improvements for your money like double the storage and dual band WiFi 802.11n, but Acer counters with a functioning microSD card slot and USB host capability (we're still waiting for a software update to enable the microSD card slot on the Xoom). The Iconia Tab A500 has very similar specs to the Motorola Xoom WiFi-only model, but it currently sells for $150 less ($450 vs. Acer, whose strong suit is making a notebook with the same specs as tier 1 competitors and pricing it significantly lower, is doing the same thing with their first US Android tablet. The tablet floodgates are open, and the Motorola Xoom is no longer the only Android Honeycomb tablet on the market. 2012: Be sure to check out our review of the newer Acer Iconia Tab A200 10" tablet. What's hot: Attractive, solid materials, plenty of ports, relatively low price.