Acer’s 7-inch Iconia Tab A100: To Buy or not to Buy?

Acer’s 7-inch Iconia Tab A100 has arrived. The device is the follow-up to the company’s first Android Honeycomb tablet, the Iconia Tab A500. The tablet, as per its official website, “offers unrivalled portability and matches it with the ultimate high performance, taking your mobile experience to the next level.”

The device has arrived with a 600 x 1024 pixels LCD capacitive touchscreen and has Acer UI, accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate and gyro sensor. The device, comparatively, is a bit smaller and cheaper than the 10.1-inch A500. The tablet, in its class, is more compact then others.

“With a 7” display and a weight of only 410g, this stylish and compact tablet is particularly comfortable to be held with just one hand. And as it’s so compact, you can slip it in your pocket and take your online world wherever you go,” the official Web site said.

The device is powered by a dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor, ULP GeForce GPU, Tegra 2 T20 chipset and comes with a dark blue plastic finish along with rounded edges. The device has micro HDMI, micro USB, a proprietary docking port, microSD, and an audio jack.

The best thing is that the compact size goes hand in hand with a powerful performance. Powered by the dual-core NVIDIA® Tegra™ 2 processor, the ICONIA TAB A100 provides the same great performance as the 10” tablet in the same Acer ICONIA TAB series. On this 7” (1024x600) full touch screen tablet, you can enjoy movies, read books, and browse the web with Flash 10.3 support,” according to the official site.

“Most impressively you’ll be able to run and play premium arcade games and complex online 3D games. What’s more, you can relish movies on your big screen TV in full HD glory thanks to 1080p video playback and HDMI out. The Acer ICONIA TAB A100 is also a pleasure for the ears thanks to Dolby Mobile technology.”

The tablet has a 5 MP, 2592 x 1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash rear and 2 MP front-facing camera. The Camera quality however is in question as the image quality is somewhat flat and may seem colorless.

Compared to most of the tablets, the camera really falls flat. However, an LED flash is a good addition and not easily found on tablets. The screen is also said to be too much reflective and has a limited viewing angle.

The apps that have been included consist of a few new apps from the previous A500. Two new media players – Clear.fi and nemoPlayer have been included. Other folders have been made for games, multimedia and e-books. SocialJogger, an app that incorporates both Facebook and Twitter into one, has also been provided. Other apps include Docs To Go, syncing apps and TegraZone.

According to the official site, organizing the day with the ICONIA TAB A100 will be a breeze. All of user’s needs have been brought together by the day Acer Day Planner that will give the access to what’s next in his agenda, emails, latest news and the weather. The device has 8 GB of internal storage at 512 MB RAM and is extendable up to 32 GB.

It is being said that the Iconia Tab users may get an Android Ice Cream Sandwich update this fall that will replace the currently running Honeycomb. The battery life, again, can be questioned. The tablet suffers as it is small in size, yet offers large specifications. The battery provides as much as four to five hours of active use only. However, the battery can last longer in standby mode.