Acer Iconia Tab A500-10S16u 10.1-Inch Tablet Computer (Aluminum Metallic)

As many of you know, the computing world is being infiltrated by a small horde of tablets - including the Motorola Xoom, Samsaung Galaxy Tab, and the infamous iPad 2 by Apple. While these devices are relatively new to the market, there are a lot of choices to be had.One of these choices is the ~$400 Iconia Tab A500 by Acer, an Android tablet which delivers in style, power, and includes a competitive price tag assuming you're willing to give up a 3G mobile connection.Like many other selections out there, the Iconia sports a shiny 10.1-inch capacitive touch screen and no physical buttons to be seen in front. It's just enough for the simple yet advanced interface of Android Honeycomb, which is at version 3.0 on startup. On the sides, it has a volume rocker, a lock/unlock button, and a plethora of different I/O that I'll go over in a second. The device itself feels very durable and solid, with a brushed aluminum backside featuring an Acer logo and stereo speakers. However, a downside for some people could be the above average weight at about 25 ounces.On the inside, we have basically the same stuff as you'd find in other high-end tablets of the day. At the machine's core is the nVidia Tegra 2 processor, which is dual core running at a standard 1GHz. Hackers should be aware that this can be clocked much higher after installing custom software. The Tegra 2 not only provides some snappy general performance, but impressive graphics as well. I was surprised to see how well 3D animations rendered under Android, in games especially. As for memory, the Iconia A500 has a gig of DDR3 RAM. Note that I said DDR3. Most other tablets only have DDR2, so there is a slight performance edge here.Overall, the Iconia pars with (if not supersedes) the power of all of the other popular tablets out there such as the iPad 2 or Xoom. So, if you want performance for the price, this could be a smart buyer's choice.As for the I/O (ports for input and output), there are the basic things you expect with most tablets - including your power connector, 3.5 headphone jack, micro-HDMI port, and a microUSB port. However, something that impressed me was the inclusion of a FULL SIZE USB 2.0 port. This allows you to plug in all sorts of peripherals such as external keyboards, mice, and USB flash drives which will indeed allow you to manage files across Honeycomb, so long as the drive isn't formatted NTFS, although I haven't tried ext4 yet. Mouse functionality in a touch screen device is gimmicky, I would say, but the keyboard connectivity isn't a bad idea, especially if you purchase one of those tablet cases which integrate a small keyboard. There's also an extra microSD card slot covered by a metallic flap on the side, which can help if the tablet's internal 16GB storage (technically, another microSD) doesn't suffice for your needs. If anything, the full size USB port is what sets this tablet apart from others in terms of sheer connectivity.Like mentioned before, the Iconia Tab runs Android 3.0 Honeycomb from stock condition. However, you should upgrade to 3.1 and 3.2 as soon as you can (it will alert you automatically), because software compatibility and speed increase dramatically with the new and matured versions of Android. Acer was generous enough to provide some extra software including a multimedia player, an ebook reader, and a social media app. None of them are special, although the media player is convenient at times. The operating system runs fast and quite smoothly, and provides a great web experience. There's nothing quite like enjoying a browser on a touch screen this large and responsive. There are a number of games and other apps available on the versatile Android marketplace, which you can add to yourself if you were so inclined ; And of course, this tablet does not include a 3G connection, Wifi only, guys!Overall, I love the Iconia Tab A500, and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants a portable computer with a touch screen. There is one issue I will point out though - it seems that the tablet likes to run in landscape view a lot more than portrait. In top-down view, the whole system seems to slow down a bit, and the aspect ratio is a bit awkward, which only goes to show, the thing was meant to be held in landscape view, although you can turn it in any which way and it'll automatically adjust the screen to be right-side-up.Pros: Fast, Long battery life, Responsive touch screen, Great operating system, full USB port, costs only $400 - significantly less than competing models of equal power.Cons: Heavier than most tablets, Works much better in landscape view, no 3G connectivity.

The Acer Iconia Tab A500 is a tablet running the Android Honeycomb OS. It has a 10 inch wide screen (1280×800 resolution), weighs 1.69 pounds and is 13.3mm thick. It sports the popular dual-core 1 GHz Tegra 2 processor, and has 1 GB of DDR3 RAM. All of this makes for a snappy, responsive tablet with a large, comfortable screen.In this review, I'm not going to get into all of the technical details or benchmarks. I'll focus more on usability and my impressions of it while putting it through day-to-day use. This is my first experience with the Android Honeycomb OS, so take that into account while reading my review. That said, let's get started.With this tablet, you get a set of dolby stereo speakers, a standard headphone jack, a volume rocker (which changes direction, depending on the tablet's orientation - pretty slick), a screen orientation lock switch, a micro SD card slot, a dedicated charger port, micro-USB for file transfers, standard host USB for keyboard/thumb drive, a dock connector and a mini-HDMI port for output to a TV. You also get a front and rear facing camera.The Iconia is comfortable to hold - not too heavy, but also not so light that it feels like a toy in your hands. Its construction feels solid and durable.One of the first things I noticed was that if I installed apps that weren't quite designed for Honeycomb, the Iconia did a few strange things. The screen orientation lock wouldn't engage, the screen orientation wouldn't change when the tablet was rotated, other apps would not function, etc. When I took those off and rebooted the tablet, all of those symptoms magically disappeared. One other issue that continues to exist is that when the screen is locked, it will sometimes turn on by itself. This is a known issue with this product, and rumor has it that it will be repaired when the next release of Honeycomb is out (sometime this summer). Currently that is the only issue that I have with the device.Navigation on the tablet is smooth and fast. Moving from screen to screen is snappy, and opening apps is quick as well in any orientation. The speakers sound great for the tiny little things they are. I've also encoded a few movies to play on it, which play perfectly (More on this at the end of the article).Although this tablet is Wifi only (It's rumored a 3G version will be available sometime), I carry it with me everywhere I go. Most places I go have wifi anyway, so it isn't an issue for me. I use it routinely to check news sites (I have the CNN and USA Today apps - very nice, as well as the News360 app which aggregates news from several sources), check the RSS feeds I'm subscribed to (using Newsr, which integrates with Google Reader), check and update Twitter (using TweetComb) and browse websites. It is generally easier to use than pulling out my MacBook for what would amount to a few minutes worth of browsing.I also have the Amazon Kindle app, WeatherBug, and of course, Angry Birds. All of these apps work great, and more Honeycomb optimized apps are being added to the market all the time.One of my favorite apps on this tablet is SpringPad. On iOS I used Evernote, but the developers haven't quite kept up with the Android tablet market, where SpringPad has been all over it. I use this app for notes from anything to teaching, to recipes, to things I just need to jot down so I'll remember them later. This isn't so much a plug for SpringPad (though I do love them!) as it is for the ease of use of this tablet.Another cool thing about the tablet is that Google Talk has video chat built in. So if you have someone using Google Talk in gmail, you can do a video chat with them. I've used this multiple times and it works flawlessly. The front-facing camera even tracks your head so that if you move (within reason of course), it pans the camera with your movement. Ok, so the camera is fixed so it technically can't pan. It appears it zooms in somewhat on your face and tracks your movements that way. Pretty slick anyway.Conclusion: Aside from the screen turning on randomly (it goes back off after a few seconds generally), this tablet is just about as perfect as they come. In my mind, the only downside to this tablet in comparison to the iPad is the availability of apps. The Android market is still growing strong, so I wouldn't think that to be a big problem.NOTE FOR VIDEO ENCODING: I had encoded videos using HandBrake for my Apple TV 2. They work perfectly on that, of course. When I copied those videos to the Iconia, they were jumpy, missing frames and generally terrible to try to watch. I found a YouTube video (search for xoom video encode) that details how to encode videos for smooth viewing on the Iconia. The video references the Xoom, but using the same HandBrake settings works perfectly on the Iconia.