Life is all about choices and trade-offs. With the Acer Iconia Tab A100, the main compromise is in size. This 417g tablet, the first to run the Android 3.2 operating system, is too big to be a smartphone and too small – at a 7-inch screen size – to watch movies on. It fills a small niche for those who want an ebook reader that also runs apps.
For some, the form factor might be just about right. While the HTC Flyer is now showing signs of age, both tablets fit into the same mould: both offer a compact 7-inch screen, the Tegra 2 processor running at 1GHz and 1GB RAM. The Acer Iconia Tab A100 is actually 3g lighter, but you won't notice.
However, there are a few differences between the two pocket-sized tabs. We say pocket-sized with a smirk – you really need pretty large pockets for that to work.
The Acer Iconia Tab A100 runs Android 3.2 out of the box, whereas mostHTC Flyers have to be updated to 3.2.
This version of the operating system, named Honeycomb, supports screen scaling to run apps made for smartphones. However, on the 7-inch screen the resizing for smartphone apps isn't that noticeable.
The Acer Iconia Tab A100 also provides a few interesting apps. One is called Planner and it presents a handy all-in-one view of recent news, your email, calendar and notes.
Like the Acer Iconia Tab A500, the A100 uses an app categorisation system for grouping apps into bins for social networking, ebooks, games and so on. Sure, it's nothing more than an extra home screen system, and doesn't look that great, but at least we're not talking about plain vanilla Android here.
The Acer Iconia Tab A100 also provides a 5MP rear-facing camera and a 2MP front-facing chat camera. The HTC Flyer's chat camera is only 1.3MP.
Most critically, the HTC Flyer uses a single-core CPU while the Acer Iconia Tab A100 stays current with recent 10-inch tabs by offering the Tegra 2 dual-core chip.
In truth, most of the other differences compared to the HTC Flyer are cosmetic, or related to usability and the screen technology used on the two tablets. However, the Acer Iconia Tab A100 gets the nod over the HTC Flyer if only for including a new version of Android.
And there's a smart fold-open case for the Acer Iconia Tab A100 where you can set it almost vertical on a desk.
We should mention the BlackBerry PlayBook, even though many tablet users have forgotten it exists. There are still no strong apps on it to speak about, but the PlayBook also has a 7-inch screen. We can't recommend it unless you really need the business security features or already use a BlackBerry smartphone. Both the HTC Flyer and the Acer Iconia Tab A100 are better buys because of the boatload of Android apps available.
Oh, and there's still the first-gen 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab, which shares some similarity in size but uses the older Android 2.2 Froyo operating system. It enables you to rent movies, but otherwise its apps are all designed for smartphones.
The Acer Iconia Tab A100 8GB model we tested costs only $330 in the US, and £299.99 in the UK. The HTC Flyer is priced at £480. That makes the A100 the better buy. But the reality is that 10-inch tabs aren't that much more expensive, not that much heavier – the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is only 148g heavier than the A100 – and better suited to watching movies and playing games.
In some ways, we're not sure where the Acer Iconia Tab A100 fits. The larger size of a 10-inch tab such as the Apple iPad 2 is a bit unwieldy for books, so in many ways the 7-inch screen of the Acer Iconia Tab A100 is more suited to book pages.
Otherwise, the Acer Iconia Tab A100 comes with all of the expected specs for a modern tablet: the Android 3.2 operating system, a 7-inch screen with 1024 x 600resolution, Wi-Fi, GPS, tilt sensors, a micro USB port for connecting to your computer, a micro HDMI port for video and audio-out to an HD TV, a 3.5mm headphone jack and Bluetooth 2.1.
The tablet is only 12.7mm thick and looks like an oversized smartphone.
The speakers are below the Home button in a portrait orientation. There are volume control knobs on the right, and a screen lock switch. There are no buttons on the left-hand side. At the top, it's easy to find the power button and the headphone jack.
Also below the Home button, you'll find the HDMI and USB ports, and a port for connecting the Acer Iconia Tab A100 to an optional dock. This dock includes audio connections for external speakers and one for running an HDMI-out cable to an HD TV.
One word of caution: even though the Acer Iconia Tab A100 is small and nimble, it's not long-lasting. The tablet is rated for only five hours of battery – the small size clearly means a small battery. Streaming videos will chew up the battery in about four hours, and other rich media might make the Acer Iconia Tab A100 die after four and a half hours.
The Tegra processor is faster than those on some tablets like the Flyer
Full spesification's For Acer Iconia Tab A100
| GENERAL | 2G Network | N/A |
|---|---|---|
| SIM | No | |
| Announced | 2011, February | |
| Status | Available. Released 2011, April |
| BODY | Dimensions | 195 x 117 x 13.1 mm (7.68 x 4.61 x 0.52 in) |
|---|---|---|
| Weight | 450 g (0.99 lb) |
| DISPLAY | Type | LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors |
|---|---|---|
| Size | 600 x 1024 pixels, 7.0 inches (~170 ppi pixel density) | |
| Multitouch | Yes | |
| - Acer UI |
| SOUND | Alert types | N/A |
|---|---|---|
| Loudspeaker | Yes, with stereo speakers | |
| 3.5mm jack | Yes | |
| - Dolby mobile sound enhancement |
| MEMORY | Card slot | microSD, up to 32 GB |
|---|---|---|
| Internal | 8/16 GB storage, 1 GB RAM |
| DATA | GPRS | No |
|---|---|---|
| EDGE | No | |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot | |
| Bluetooth | Yes, v2.1 with A2DP, EDR | |
| USB | Yes, microUSB v2.0 |
| CAMERA | Primary | 5 MP, 2592 x 1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash |
|---|---|---|
| Features | Geo-tagging, image stabilization | |
| Video | Yes, 720p@30fps | |
| Secondary | Yes, 2 MP |
| FEATURES | OS | Android OS, v3.0, v3.2, planned upgrade to v4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) |
|---|---|---|
| Chipset | Nvidia Tegra 2 T20 | |
| CPU | Dual-core 1 GHz Cortex-A9 | |
| GPU | ULP GeForce | |
| Sensors | Accelerometer, gyro, compass | |
| Messaging | Email, Push Email, IM | |
| Browser | HTML, Adobe Flash | |
| Radio | No | |
| GPS | Yes | |
| Java | Yes, via Java MIDP emulator | |
| Colors | Black/Red, Black/Blue | |
| - SNS integration - HDMI port - Google Search, Maps, Gmail - YouTube, Google Talk, Picasa - MP3/WAV/WMA/eAAC+ player - XviD/MP4/H.264/H.263 player - Organizer - Document viewer (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF) - Predictive text input |
| BATTERY | Non-removable Li-Po 1530 mAh battery | |
|---|---|---|
| Stand-by | ||
| Talk time |
| MISC | Price group |  |
|---|
0 comments:
Post a Comment