Thursday, June 2, 2011

Iconia Acer Tab A500


Iconia Acer Tab A500
Revealed earlier this year at Mobile World Congress 2011, A500 Acer Loss Iconia recently launched. The company is quietly pushing his tablets in different parts of the world, which is probably a negative impact on unit sales.

Even if the manufacturer has not yet announced a release schedule for the loss Iconia A500, it is expected to be available worldwide by the end of the year.

In addition, the tablets can be bought from various major retailers in several countries, but prices can vary widely. For example, 16 GB A500 Loss Iconia bought for $ 450 U.S. through Best Buy for $ 615 by Future Bazaar India, or for at least $ 730 in Romania.

However, Acer has to face fierce competition in all markets, and led his Icon series tablets. Apple iPad 2, Motorola and Samsung Galaxy XOOM Tab 10.1 are high-end tablets are available in the market at an affordable price compared to the A500 Tab Icon

The 16 GB Wi-Fi IPAD 2 is now $ 500, only $ 50 more expensive than the A500 Iconia tab, while customers who wish to purchase the XOOM will pay about $ 600 for 32 GB Wi-Fi only.

Acer A500 Iconia Loss is one of the bars the chance to be "blessed" with NVIDIA Tegra 2 chipset features a dual-core processor. The simple fact is that it includes a powerful dual-core processor manufactured by Intel (but not the most powerful) would be enough to convince fans Android to spend a small fortune to acquire it.

However, it seems that the market is full platform, with many manufacturers have shifted their attention to this market segment. While this makes things a little more complicated for the end user has many options available, prices could fall due to competition.

Icon Tab A500 companies have invested enterprises in tablets on the market, because it's 10.1-inch multi-touch display. Size 260 x 177 x 13.3 mm and weighs 730 (battery included).

Unfortunately, when put in comparison with other tablets of 10.1 inches Loss Iconia A500 is a thicker and heavier. Only Motorola Xoom has the same weight, IPAD Galaxy Tab 2 and 10.1 are both much easier.

The most important reason is that the tablets back cover is made of aluminum, although it contains a low battery capacity, which should be replaced.

Above the big screen, Tab Iconia A500 has a 2 megapixel camera video-chat high school. If held in landscape position, we note that in the right side of the tablet, there is a very small reset button, USB cable and a microUSB port and slot-load.

The left side of the device has an on / off switch, 3.5mm audio jack and an HDMI port.

The top of the tablet is a touch long but thin volume, a small slide switch that can lock the phone screen, so you do not switch between landscape and portrait modes, and microSD card slot, covered by a strip of plastic.

You may notice that the track is slightly higher than it should be. This is mainly due to the fact that the SIM card slot, which in this case is locked, because this model does not support GSM voice communication.

Obviously, the docking port was placed in the bottom of the tablet, users can view the screen in landscape mode.

Acer A500 Icons tab runs Google's Android 3.0.1 Acer and its user-friendly interface developed.

As seen in the screenshots, which has 5 customizable home screens, which are arranged like a carousel. Half of a carousel most likely. To access the main menu, click the Apply button at the top right of the screen.

Although the device is not as snappy as a high-end smartphone Android, scrolling a window is fairly smooth.
I managed to run some benchmarks to try to make a comparison with other pills, but it seems that the results are almost the same for devices with the same processor is not overclocked.

For example, dial (standard version) result of 1944 points placed in the same range as XOOM Motorola, he received between 1800 and 2100 points.

But it turns out that Quadrant has not yet been fully optimized to run on the units dual-core processor.

On the other hand, Smartbench 2011 is much better as a reference point when it comes to experimenting with a dual-core processors. You can see screenshots of the A500 icon Tab to do quite well.

I tested the tablet browser WebKit, which seems to be a lot better than coming Froyo Android 2.2 or higher.

I used the V8 benchmark suite (version 6) and the SunSpider (0.9.1), but I did only with respect to the browser Dolphin HD. As you can see screenshots, image browser was a bit 'faster, a very small margin.

Although dolphins HD browser is not yet optimized for the tablets can still be used as a reference because it is considered one of the fastest browsers Android.

Although it is extremely difficult to try to take pictures with a 10.1-inch tablet, I did it, but I'm not completely satisfied with the 5 megapixel snapper. See the examples below to get a better view of the image quality.

It 'clear that the appliance is equipped with NVIDIA Tegra Zone to save the application. You'll find a handful of games that have been specially designed to take advantage of the Tegra two dual-core processor.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of games available for download, and about half of them are not available in all areas. Of course, you must pay for all the games, but studies are also available for download.


I like playing Gameloft's "Hero of Sparta," and I found the game very addictive for those who want the games hack'n'slash. The management of the main character is very easy, but the tablet is definitely something you should play, when they are based on a flat surface.

The game is full of QTE (Quick Time Events), which requires players to click several buttons that appear in a certain order in different places on the screen. Well, it is difficult to reach half of a 10.1-inch screen while holding the tablet with both hands.

Apart from that, the graphics OK-ish, but not mind blowing. I'm sure there are other games that look much better on a shelf Android powered by an Intel dual-core.