Acer Iconia Review

The Acer Iconia Tab A500 is an Android tablet that competes against some renowned devices such as Motorola Xoom, T-Mobile G-Slate and ASUS Eee Transformer. It is true that all of them provide the same basis inside but there are different approaches in terms of price, shape and even more important, features. Therefore, the following paragraphs describe the most important features of the Acer Iconia Tab A500 which must be known by anyone who wants to make a documented choice.

Hardware 
Coming in with a stylish aluminum case of 13.3mm and weighing 1.69 pounds, the Acer Iconia Tab A500 represents a truly portable device. A great thing about its brushed aluminum case is the fact that its rounded edges turn the single-handed reading into a possible task. However, even more important is the fact that its case comes embedded with a 2-megapixel front-facing camera which was specially designed without buttons so that the users can easily utilize the slate the way they want. A drawback of this camera is the fact that it cannot provide the best focus on the objects that are situated at a considerable distance thus blurry images become a quite often fact.

The tablet also comes along with a lock switch which allows users to easily go through its software menu. Anyone can easily find microSD cards and SIM slots, translucent power button, mini-HDMI port and 3.5mm headphone jack. Additionally, it is already well known that its video connections work quite well, ensuring a display that mirrors images at a resolution of 720 pixels. The device also provides an optional infrared remote charging dock and two USB slots (micro-USB and full-size USB). The back of the device comes with a LED flash five-megapixel camera and two stereo speakers which provide a rich sound field that is full enough to escort any games and movies.
Display and Performance 
Thanks to the new technologies the Acer Iconia Tab A500 provides a “stellar” viewing angle that permits viewers to enjoy a clear picture from almost any angle. The TFT LCD display of 1280 x 800 allows users to easily view and share any types of files. The mirror-shine finish of the screen does not only provide an elegant note to the device’s appearance but also a surprisingly good LCD panel. Thanks to the screen qualities the text is crisp and images come along with crystal-clear and beautiful colors which are accompanied by strong whites and dim blacks. At oblique angles the only difference consists of the fact that some colors wash out marginally.

In addition to all these, the capacity digitizer of the Acer Iconia Tab A500 is also very responsive, tracking simultaneously ten points of contact. This feature is incredibly useful in multi-finger gestures for different applications. Some weaknesses highlight visible pixels and the difficulty of being able to watch different things on device’s display outside. However, at the bottom line, the device ensures a high-quality screen that definitely competes with many other tablets.
When it comes to performance, any potential user must know that the Acer Iconia Tab A500 is powered with the dual core Tegra 2 system of 1GHz, with 1GB of RAM. This thing actually means that this device works faster than DDR2 system-on-chip, which is used by most Android’s competitors. Tegra 2 tends to become the heart of many devices especially because it is able to deliver some of the best features in terms of performance. A recent SunSpiderJavascript test shows that A500 completes a run in 1,988 ms, when Xoom takes 2,042ms.
Software
Of course, everyone knows that Android 3.0 represents a great and functional operating system. It comes along with the well-known quirks of Android which show a great browser that brings in the Gmail client, maps and chat applications, photo browser, calendar, music player and some other additional Android features. All these help users to properly run the Acer Iconia Tablet A500 and get the best out of it. A series of applications assist users to get started, these applications being of a great help especially for those who do not know how to operate this system.

Therefore, some of the top applications are LumiRead (e-book reader, which guides users towards different gooks), SocialJogger (Facebook and Twitter status update browser), NemoPlayer (music, video and photo navigator), Clear.Fi (multimedia browser), Gallery and Music, Media Server, Photo Browser 3D and MusicA. In conclusion, this device is able to deliver some great features that can easily satisfy the average consumer. Therefore, if brushed aluminum and basic features are your favorites, the Acer Iconia Tab A500 is not going to disappoint you.