Typical of me, I went out yesterday to purchase a new wall switch and came home with a Acer Iconia A100! Kind of a stretch, but not really. I didnt' buy it as soon as I saw it . . I came home, and did some googling, and headed back to grab it. I had read that it was due out early this summer, and although the big brother 10.1" A500 had shown up on time, this one was only speculated to be coming soon. Now, don't get me wrong, I do love my iPad! But I'm thinking that a 7" form factor tablet might be something that I would really appreciate.This Tablet is currently the only Honeycomb 3.2 7 incher currently on the market. I've got it out of the box, and pulled in several of my favorite apps! I do like it! Actually, I like it a lot! But it's not perfect . . . . Here are my impressions:
Hardware: This 7" tablet is exactly what you would expect from Acer! In fact the back side reminds me of any Acer Netbook I have ever seen in a Walmart! It's a blue-gray color with some sort of geometric netting running in a wavy pattern. I really don't have a problem with the color or the pattern. It's the plastic that really bothers me. A fingerprint magnet! Weighing in at just under a pound, it's well balanced whether I'm holding it in Portrait or Landscape mode. It's comfortable in my hand(s) and because of the smaller form factor, I find it much easier to manage than an iPad.
Holding it in a portrait mode, you will find a 3.5mm Headphone Jack and the power button on the top right. Pushing this for a couple of seconds gives you the device vibrate, letting you know, it's booting. Boot time is very fast, and you can go from off to running in about 45 seconds. On the right side, near the top is a button to lock the screen rotation as well as the volume rockers. These buttons feel good to the touch. Not too spongy, and not too stiff. At the bottom right is a bay with a swingaway door that houses the micro-sd card, and a slot for a SIM card. I can't find any info as to when or if Acer will offer offer this device on Carriers.
The bottom side of the device has a lot going on! Here you will find a reset button, the stereo Speakers, mini HD out, a docking port, a USB and the power slot. This irks me! I would love to see USB cables serve as both USB and Power on these devices. USB allows sync and transfer to a PC if that is needed, but won't charge while connected. Charging the battery requires the power adapter which means one more thing to pack and keep up with when traveling.
Only the home button lives on the front of the device. Many times, in landscape mode, my thumb has rubbed across this button sending me out of what I am doing and back to the home screen. The battery, is slightly undersized in my opinion. It's rated at 1,530mAH which is smaller than the 1900mAH I have in my Motorola Atrix. Acer claims around 6 hours. That's pretty accurate based upon my limited experience. Unlike an Android Smartphone, the cover is not easily removed so extra batteries are not an option. If Acer did ever support Carrier 4G in this device, with that dismal battery, I'm betting battery life would be the number one complaint.
Cameras. A 5 meg camera on the back with a flash and a 2 meg one on the front. So far, I have been pretty impressed with the 5 meg camera. I'm no expert, but the picture colors look natural and aren't grainy or cloudy. Taking pictures from the device is not that awkward either. I'm not claiming that I'll be using this device as my main camera from now on, but I'll gladly reach over my iPad 2 to grab this device when I need a camera. The Camera software seems to work and offers a few filters. The front facing camera isn't much, but it's about what has been come to be expected on tablets of this sort. Video records at 720p. I'm not that impressed with the video quality at all! Again, I would choose it over the iPad 2 video.
Display/sound: Holding the device and looking flat at the screen, you won't be disappointed. Honestly, the 1020 X 600 DPI is stunning for sure! But if you were to view at any angle, you will seen a lot of color washing. Take an iPad and tilt it to a steep angle and see how much of the fading and washing you see. Yea, it's a great screen as long as you keep it pointed right at you. The speakers located at the bottom of the device are not too shabby at all. In fact, I have had laptops with worse sound than this device. I was expecting tininess and non-existent bass. Not bad for a unit of this size at all!
Performance: I have nothing to compare this to, other than the Motorola Xoom that I picked up in a best buy. I locked it up simply scrolling the screens. I am well aware of reported Android Tablet performance issues. I have not experienced any kind of lagging or problems with this device. Scrolling is smooth and responsive. I think this is the biggest reason why I like this device so much. . . . .
Software: No Manufacturer overlays here Gang! This is Honeycomb and Honeycomb only! I'm loving it too! Acer has kept the bloatware to a minimum. One Acer app called Social Jogger is actually pretty handy at quickly browsing through my Facebook and Twitter updates. Acer has also grouped folders to add things such as games, books, Social and Multimedia. So life is good here. Where it isn't however is in apps failing to work on the device. I'm not sure this is an Acer issue or a Google Fragmentation issue. An example: my Kindle app launches and gets to a point only to force close. Googling this confirms that this isn't my personal problem. If you have visions of buying this to double as your ereader, be aware that for the moment, Kindle is not an Option. Surprise! Google Books work just fine! The web browser is excellent. There is support for Flash out of the box, and it recognized the sites that are mobile optimized and asks you which version you would like it to open. This is something I long for in iPad's Safari.
Conclusion: The Acer A100 is a solid device! To many, the seven inch form factor is a great alternative to ten inch tablets. Unlike the Samsung Tab 7", this device is running on the Tegra 2 platfrom, and sporting Android's Honeycomb 3.2. You might want to check the Android Market and make sure that your favorite apps exist for the Android tablet platform before pulling out the plastic however. Although getting better, Android Tablet apps lag well behind the apps available for Apple's iPad. If you are a heavy Google Services user, (Docs, Calendar, Gmail, G+, GReader, Maps, News) and need the portability of a 7" form factor right now, it's hard not to consider the Acer Iconia A100. Throw in the $329 price tag, and now it's really tempting! If thousands of games, a larger form factor, and less plastic is important to you, then you best move along! Nothing to see here . . . . .
Comments
RSS feed for comments to this post.