Acer Iconia Tab A500

When the Android smartphone OS matured, the market was flooded with a whole load of new mobiles. Now, with the arrival of Android Honeycomb, Google's specially designed tablet OS, the same thing seems to be happening with touchscreen tablets. So after months of iPad domination and a few major releases from the likes of Samsung and Archos, around 10 new Android 3.0 tablets are due to be released before summer 2011. Among this latest batch of contenders is the Acer Iconia Tab A500.


Like the Motorola Xoom, the Asus EeePad Transformer, the LG Optimus Pad, Toshiba's upcoming AT300 and the Hannspree SN10T3, Acer's Iconia Tab A500 has a screen resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, a 1 Ghz Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor, a micro-USB port, a microSD slot, a micro-HDMI out and two photo/video cameras, with a 5-Megapixel camera with LED flash on the back and a 2-Megapixel camera on the front.
On top of that, Acer has added a USB 2.0 Host port for hooking up a USB flash drive or external hard drive, and the lower edge of the tablet's casing is home to a proprietary connector, which could be used to connect the tablet to the upcoming line of docks and stands Acer plans to release.

The tablet has a 32 GB internal memory, Wi-Fi connectivity, and is likely to sell for between £450 and £500. A 3G version is slated for release in June.
Design & Handling
We might as well admit that we weren't expecting such a high-quality build and finish on an Acer product. Our preconceived ideas were soon smashed to smithereens by the A500 though, as we were suitably impressed by its very high-quality plastic frame and mock brushed aluminium casing. The edges of the tablet are finished in glossy black plastic and are also home to the device's various connections.