Calling a new Android tablet a
potential iPad killer is a cliche. But make no mistake: Acer's Iconia Tab A700
has its sights set on doing just that thanks to an impressive list of
specifications that includes a 1920-by-1200-resolution display and 32GB of
storage, and a $450 price that comes in at 25 percent below the price of a
same-capacity iPad. The Iconia Tab A700 goes on presale today, and will be
shipping later this month at retail and directly from Acer; it will be
available either in black or silver. Acer was one of two Android tablet makers
to introduce a high-resolution, “Full HD” 1920-by-1200-pixel display in January
at CES 2012. Asus, the other manufacturer, followed up its CES announcement of
a "Full HD" tablet with a renamed variant at the Mobile World Congress
in February, but it has remained mum on U.S. availability. In the interim,
Apple introduced its third-generation iPad with a 2048-by-1536-pixel
display—264 pixels per inch—a move that effectively left Android tablets in
dire need of playing catch-up.
Finally, three months later, Acer's A700 becomes the first model
to do so. The A700's 1920-by-1200-pixel resolution doesn't quite match the
pixel depth of the iPad, but it nonetheless provides a significantly enhanced
viewing experience over existing 1280-by-800-resolution tablets (the pixel
density is 55 percent higher at the new resolution). The demo unit I saw had
crisp, detailed text, images, and video, and the best display I've seen yet
from Acer or any other Android tablet maker. I'm eager to get my hands on a sample
of this tablet and view my own test images on it. Acer says that the 16:10
aspect-ratio display has a 178-degree viewing angle—certainly sufficient for
sharing. The display itself is a 10-point touch-capacitive screen, for improved
responsiveness.
Acer also significantly undercuts Apple by offering 32GB of
storage built in. That's double the capacity of the baseline Apple 16GB iPad,
and Acer does this at a price that's $50 less than that 16GB iPad, and $150
less than a 32GB iPad. Not a bad deal at all. And if you need more storage,
this Acer model has a microSD card slot, for use with cards of up to 64GB. I
wish this model still had the full-size SD card slot that Acer's
first-generation Iconia Tab had, simply because of the camera/tablet
interoperability such a slot offers, but microSD at least provides some level
of storage expansion—a critical point given that the high-resolution display
means you'll want to have more, and larger, media files stored on your tablet.
As the company's premium tablet, Acer goes all-out with the rest
of its specs. This model packs an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor and 1GB of
RAM, and it runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. It also has a micro-USB port
for charging—a welcome change from the plethora of proprietary chargers we've
seen—and data transfers. And it has a micro-HDMI port, via which you can output
video to your home theater system (with 5.1-channel Dolby Surround Sound), or
use the tablet as a dual display. The A700 has Dolby Mobile 3 and improved
audio capture capabilities, too. Also present are now-standard features such as
integrated GPS and e-compass, 802.11 b/g/n wireless, and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR.
The rear-facing 5-megapixel camera lacks a flash; the front-facing 1-megapixel
camera suffices for video conferencing. The 9800-mAh battery should last up to
10.5 hours for video playback, according to Acer. Acer bundles Polaris Office
3.5 to read and edit documents, and preinstalls Evernote and its own Acer Print
app and Acer Ring navigation interface, all in the name of getting you a head
start on productivity. The one disappointment about the Acer A700 is its size
and weight. It comes in at 1.47 pounds—just 0.01 pound more than the current
iPad, and about 0.2 pound heavier than some of the lighter Android tablets of
the same screen size. And it's 0.06 inches thicker than the iPad. These numbers
are competitive, but it would have been better still if Acer had been able to
shave a bit off these dimensions to further outdo the iPad.
Next on deck in the high-resolution tablet race will be Asus; I
expect the company will have some news soon, since it has previously targeted a
summer release for its 1920-by-1200-resolution tablet. Less clear is when we'll
hear anything from anyone else, since Acer and Asus are the only companies that
had already discussed product plans for this summer. The lack of news from
Samsung on the high-res front is of particular concern, considering that Samsung
has been a front-runner in innovation and sales in the Android tablet market.
They'll get there, I'm sure, but the bigger question is when—and at what price?
That, apparently, only time will tell.
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