Acer Iconia Tab A500 10.1in 32GB

Review Acer Iconia Tab A500 Tablet/MID

Acer's Iconia Tab A500 is a solidly put together tablet, which considering its weight, adopted materials, and appearance, offers good basic features . The battery life is good, and will last between 3 and 6 hours in practice depending on the type of use.

Acer Iconia A500

What should a tablet computer look like? If this question has you imagining Apple's iPad, then you're not alone; it seems as though you share this concept with Acer's design team.

Acer Iconia A500 review: Acer Iconia A500

With HDMI and USB ports, Acer's A500 is more business friendly than the competition, but these features only add to its weight and ultimately makes this tablet too heavy to use as intended. What should a tablet computer look like? If this question has you imagining Apple's iPad, then you're not alone; it seems as though you share this concept with Acer's design team. The A500 sports a 10.1-inch display up front, surrounded by cool, grey brushed metal in a shade slightly darker than that chosen by the Cupertino designers. Unlike the iPad, the A500 is littered with ports and switches around the edge of the tablet, offering connectivity options unknown to anyone who has bought a tablet before now.

Acer Iconia Tab A500 Review

The Android tablet wars are starting to heat up, and Acer has entered the fray with its Iconia Tab A500. Priced at $449--$50 lower than the iPad 2 --this slickly designed 10.1-inch Honeycomb slate features a brushed-metal design and a full-size USB port, plus Nvidia's powerful Tegra 2 processor.

This Honeycomb tablet holds its own with plenty of features. If good connectivity and audio matter most, it's a smart choice.

Acer Iconia Tab A500

Is anyone else starting to see a pattern here? It's a simple recipe, really: A scoop of Honeycomb, mixed with a fast Tegra 2 processor and a splash of Flash beta, served inside a big, bright screen.

Acer Iconia Tab A500 review

In the contest to replace your laptop – and maybe even your TV – Android 3.0 tablets such as the Motorola Xoom are ganging up on the Apple iPad 2 by sheer quantity. We absolutely thrilled over the Asus Eee Pad Transformer , for example. Now it's time for the Acer Iconia Tab A500's day in the sun.

Acer Iconia Tab A500 Review

The Acer Iconia Tab A500 has good underlying software coupled with decent hardware. But we think the display can be improved. If not an IPS panel, the least Acer can do is get rid of the blue cast.

Acer Iconia Tab A500

Android tablets come in waves. First there were the budget models, which lapped around our ankles, too often chilling us to the bone with their penny-pinching compromises. Now it's the turn of their expensive cousins, like the Acer Iconia A500 and Asus Eee Pad Transformer.

Acer Iconia Tab A500 review

Whether it likes it or not, Acer's got a reputation in the consumer electronics business: its computers are rarely the most well made, but they're always the most affordable on shelves.