acer iconia a100 Tab A100 (Wi-Fi)

The sweetest Honeycomb tablet we have seen thus far packs modern Android goodness right pocket-sized package, with OS version going far in order to resolve Android tablets' biggest problem to date: deficiency of decent tablet-sepcific apps. Even so the 7-inch Acer Iconia Tab A100's petite form means a too-small battery. Alas, though we're giving an excellent little tablet a strong recommendation, its battery woes ensure that is stays from attaining Editors' Choice status.

The Wi-Fi-only iconia acer a100 Tab A100 costs $329.99 to have an 8GB model and $349.99 for the 16GB unit, putting it in the middle of the 7-inch tablet realm between cheapo models such as Coby Kyros ($199, 2 stars) and the HTC Flyer ($499, 3.5 stars) and BlackBerry PlayBook ($499, 2.5 stars). There's no cover this being obtained by way of a U.S. 3G carrier, unlike its brother the Iconia A501, which is coming out from AT&T.

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Acer Iconia Tab A100 : Horizontal
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Physical Features, Networking and Battery Life
Acer is not a king of business design, along with the Iconia Tab A100 is of any clunker in relation to looks. That's OK though; this tablet has a lot of other stuff taking it. The Iconia Tab A100 is actually a 7.7-by-4.6-by-0.5-inch (HWD), 13.9-ounce tablet produced from shiny plastic using a cheap-looking silver design on its blue-gray back. The back and front feel just a little greasy, and usually attract fingerprints. The tablet contains a standard 3.5-mm headphone jack, Volume buttons, an Orientation Lock switch, an influence button, and a couple of ports on the bottom. It charges coming from a proprietary adapter rather than a standard micro USB connection, just about all carries a micro USB port for connecting to PCs, including a micro HDMI port to hook the tablet up to an HDTV.

Switch the tablet on and you'll visit a 1024-by-600 touch-screen LCD of average brightness. At its Automatic Brightness setting it's noticeably dim as well as screen wrong in size reflective, but pump up the brightness and it also looks great. The stereo speakers at the base are loud enough to acquire their point across, but they're tinny, just as all your other tablet speakers. I got greater sound with the headphone jack and more than a set of stereo Bluetooth headphones. Acer advertises 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi here, but we couldn't find any kind of our 5GHz Wi-Fi networks using this type of tablet, though connecting to 2.4GHz networks was simple.

Curiously, the Iconia A100 also offers a blocked Sim slot, even though slot is mentioned inside tablet's quick start guide. It is a lost opportunity, as I'd would delight the opportunity to pair the A100 having an AT&T prepaid tablet plan.

The Iconia A100's Achilles heel, plus the reason it's not getting an Editors' Choice nod, is its poor battery life, as a result of an inferior-than-usual 3060mAh battery. (Most tablets have 4000mAh or larger batteries.) We only got three hours, 53 minutes of video playback with a charge, not enough for your cross-country flight. Within the 7-inch tablet realm, that compares poorly to your 8 hours, 15 minutes we have got from your BlackBerry PlayBook, or the six hours, 32 minutes with the Samsung Galaxy Tab ($399, 3.5 stars). It's also fewer than there are of all 10-inch tablets, for example the Apple iPad 2 ($499, 4.5 stars), which lasted 7 hours, half an hour.

Android and Apps
The Iconia Tab A100 would be the first tablet shipping with Android 3.2. This can be a big issue as well as a top notch thing. The Android Market, where you can greater than 200,000 phone apps, is hideously broken for tablets, and Android 3.2 does plenty of to correct things. It's very rare to find apps made for tablet screens out there. While phone apps run, they often times look awkward or poorly designed.

Android 3.2's major new feature is Zoom Mode, which convinces phone apps that they are running over a smaller phone screen and magnifies text and images instead of entering chunks from the screen with blank space. This won't be just the thing for 10-inch tablets; as we have seen around the iPad, apps made for 3.5-inch screens and scaled up could look very grainy using a 10-inch screen.

Acer Iconia Tab A100 review

Well, folks, dog years later it's finally here. Say hello to the acer iconia a100 Tab A100, you can actually first 7-inch tablet, and also the first 7-inch tablet to run Android 3.2. In addition to its OS, its specs are fairly run-of-the-mill: a Tegra 2 SoC, five- and two-megapixel cameras, and micro-USB and micro-HDMI ports. And rejoice, geeks, because that's vanilla Honeycomb loaded on the website -- you will not find any custom skins or proprietary widgets clogging your house screens. All the promise because they vitals likely have for nerds, though, Acer is see-through the tablet is good for mainstream consumers ("moms," among others, based on the press release). We are really not sure how your mother would feel about the precious pattern to the back, but odds are she'd appreciate the bargain factor: the 8GB version costs $329.99 as you move the 16GB number rings in with a reasonable $349.99, undercutting the 16GB HTC Flyer by $150. We've been lucky to acquire some quality time while using the A100 recent days, and let's just say we're coming away with some mixed feelings. But will we as it enough that people feel this little guy was well worth the wait? That is the toughie, guys.

At 0.92 pounds, the A100 is heavier than the 0.83-pound Samsung Galaxy Tab as well as on par using the 0.9-pound BlackBerry PlayBook and 0.93-pound HTC Flyer. At first glance, it looks thinner than average, because of its nearly flat surfaces as well as the proven fact that this is a shade slimmer versus the 0.52-inch -thick HTC Flyer. However you pick up a PlayBook, just four tenths of an inch thick, plus the A100 suddenly seems like more of an encumbrance.

But because of its more e-reader-like shape, it feels deceptively lighter compared to the Flyer. At 4.6 inches tall, it's narrower in portrait mode, so that it is much much better to cradle with two hands and pound out emails using both thumbs. However a width of 7.68 inches, it stretches farther in landscape mode, so this means, conversely, that according to the measurements the hands, you could possibly feel a lot more of the stretch within your fingers while tapping onscreen objects. Also, the bezel is greater to the two short sides, which suggests in case you are holding the A100 in panoramic mode, you should have more space flanking the display than if you ever held it in portrait.

Aesthetically, the A100 generally seems to take some design cues from laptops -- some slightly outdated ones, during that. The trunk cover features a navy finish with a pattern of thin, golden ribbons stretching from edge to edge. Your back side is additionally stamped with Acer's logo, though we believe it would have looked more elegant without one. Additionally , there is the five megapixel main camera within the back, along with an LED flash next to it.

Tablet PCs
Acer Iconia Tab A100 review
By Dana Wollman posted Aug 12th 2011 8:00AM
Review
It's been nine months -- nine months! -- since Acer first announced it had been getting into the tablet game, which has a promise of both 7- and 10-inch slates. Well, the 10-inch Iconia Tab A500 have been in this area for months, but up to now we have been tapping our feet impatiently looking forward to additional tab to decrease. Acer came out and said it wouldn't be here prior to the second half of the season, and meanwhile we'd heard rumors it will arrive in September which that it was delayed because of "Honeycomb compatibility issues".

Well, folks, dog years later it's finally here. Greet the acer iconia a100, their first 7-inch tablet, along with the first 7-inch tablet to run Android 3.2. In addition to its OS, its specs are fairly run-of-the-mill: a Tegra 2 SoC, five- and two-megapixel cameras, and micro-USB and micro-HDMI ports. And rejoice, geeks, because that's vanilla Honeycomb loaded on there -- you may not find any custom skins or proprietary widgets clogging the home screens. Just as much promise because these vitals likely have for nerds, though, Acer you can see the tablet is for mainstream consumers ("moms," among others, good press release). We are really not sure how your mother would feel about the precious pattern around the back, but it's likely that she'd appreciate the bargain factor: the 8GB version costs $329.99 as the 16GB number rings in in the reasonable $349.99, undercutting the 16GB HTC Flyer by $150. We have been lucky to acquire some quality time together with the A100 recent days, and let's just say we're coming away by mixed feelings. But do we think itrrrs great enough we feel this little guy was definitely worth the wait? Which is a toughie, guys.
acer iconia a100
Look and feel


At 0.92 pounds, the A100 is heavier compared to the 0.83-pound Samsung Galaxy Tab additionally , on par with the 0.9-pound BlackBerry PlayBook and 0.93-pound HTC Flyer. At first glance, it looks thinner than average, because of its nearly flat surfaces and the indisputable fact that it's really a shade slimmer versus the 0.52-inch -thick HTC Flyer. ; however , you select up a PlayBook, just four tenths inch thick, along with the A100 suddenly feels like much more of an encumbrance.

But because of its more e-reader-like shape, it feels deceptively lighter than the Flyer. At 4.6 inches tall, it's narrower in portrait mode, making it a whole lot of easier to cradle with two hands and pound out emails using both thumbs. However with a width of 7.68 inches, it stretches farther in panoramic mode, which implies, conversely, that with regards to the size both hands, you can feel much more of an stretch in your fingers while tapping onscreen objects. Also, the bezel is greater about the two short sides, which suggests for anyone who is holding the A100 in landscape mode, you have more blank space flanking the display than should you held it in portrait.

Aesthetically, the A100 generally take some design cues from laptops -- some slightly outdated ones, during that. The rear cover carries a navy finish using a pattern of thin, golden ribbons stretching from edge to edge. The trunk side is also stamped with acer iconia's logo, though we expect it could have looked more elegant without them. There are the 5 megapixel main camera around the back, along with an LED flash beside it.


The flip side towards A100's clean lines and squared-off corners is that there is not much to maintain onto. As dense because the Flyer is, we've for ages been endeared by the rubberized panels on the back, since they increase the risk for tablet simple to grip. The A100 incorporates a glossy plastic back cover having a subtle contour that puffs out ever-so slightly within the center and tapers near to the edges. Make no mistake: it's not really a challenge of ergonomics -- you're not more likely to drop the A100 to an untimely death. There's just something to be said for your tactile example of resting your fingers on rubber or cold aluminum in lieu of warm, slippery plastic.

About the front, you can find the 2 megapixel secondary camera up top, having a home button that are part of the lower bezel. That button isn't a physical key, per se, within the sense you do not push it, but tap it. Still, the house icon doesn't glow, but is instead painted in order that it is usually visible. Then there is no haptic feedback, therefore it doesn't feel really like interacting with the common range of keys on an Android device. Individuals who know their way around Honeycomb will spot this addition redundant, but we quite often found it handy considering the tab in landscape mode.

Completing our tour, there is a glowing power / lock button for a passing fancy edge because the front-facing camera, so if you were holding the tablet in portrait mode these could be sitting ahead. Ladies 3.5mm headphone jack there. Within the opposite edge, below the property button, the two small speakers on either end, using a micro-HDMI port, docking connector, as well as a micro-USB socket in between. (That docking connector, by the by, in concert with a similar optional dock that was released at about the time the Iconia Tab A500 came out.) Finally, if you cradle the slate in landscape mode, you'd go to the lever to lock the screen orientation, a volume rocker, along with a door hiding microSD slot. There's another slot alongside it, but it's covered, and although oahu is the perfect area for a Sim, Acer just won't comment. We do wish that Acer labeled those volume buttons, though once you rely on them enough times you'll know that is certainly which. Within the pros, we appreciate how the company made the auxiliary storage so ea