Acer's Honeycomb Tablet Cheaper Than iPad 2
Acer is introducing its first Android tablet next week, an exclusive at Best Buy stores.
Friday Acer said its very first Android-based, 10.1-inch tablet is now available for pre-order exclusively at Best Buy for a suggested retail price of $449.99. That's slightly cheaper than the 16 GB Wi-Fi version of Apple's new iPad 2, selling for $499 USD.
Called the Acer Iconia Tab A500, the new tablet will come packed with Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), a dual-core 1 GHz Tegra 250 Cortex A9 processor, a high-resolution 1280 x 800 TFT WXGA display, 1 GB of RAM, 16 GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot supporting up to an additional 32 GB of storage.
"Staying connected and entertained are firmly embedded as a part of our everyday lives -- and the Acer Iconia Tab A500 does this and so much more in a performance-minded, sleek and stylish design," said Sumit Agnihotry, vice president of product marketing, Acer America. "This tablet absolutely delivers on the expectation that customers can be entertained, stay in touch with family, friends, colleagues and social networks, as well as keep up on the world around them in a way that is intuitive and fluid, and also incredibly enjoyable."
Other features offered by the tablet include 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi connectivity (no 3G), a 5MP rear-facing camera, a 2MP front-facing camera, an 80-degree wide viewing angle, support for HD 720p video in a 16:10 aspect ratio, HDMI output, a 10-point touch display and six-axis motion sensing gyro meter control fine-tuned for gaming, and two pre-installed games including EA's Need for Speed: Shift and Gameloft's Let's Golf. Also pre-installed is Google Books, Acer LumiRead and Zinio, the latter of which allows users to read full-color digital magazines. There's also a trial version of Docs to Go.
"Customers will enjoy extra-long uptime with their Acer Iconia Tab A500," the company said. "The system's two 3260 mAh Li-polymer batteries provide up to eight hours of playback for casual games, eight hours of HD video playback and 10 hours of WiFi Internet browsing."
The Acer Iconia Tab A500 with Wi-Fi is now available for pre-order online at bestbuy.com and may be pre-ordered locally in stores beginning April 14. However the tablet won't make its official retail debut in stores and online until April 24
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Isn't the Asus Transformer going for $399? with the exact same specs?
i want to hold it and see what its like!!!
No. The transformer has an IPS screen and lighter. It also has an easy-on-the-eye design. I like that better than the angular design on the Iconia by Acer.
i want to hold it and see what its like!!!
That's what she said...
This price point at least gives it a chance, but it's going to be a hard battle against the iPad. Selling a similar product for a similar price is very difficult if what people really want is an iPad.
All Honeycomb needs now is some app love from developers.
btw: "Iconia Tab" is a stupid name. "iPad" at least sticks in your head. I've got a feeling Acer is run by engineers and bean counting accountants and not by marketing people.
App love is right. Less than 100 tablet apps vs iPad's 65,000+ is a big gap. What's the holdup with devs?
And what exactly is wrong with being run by engineers? Quality products >> catch name, especially when those bean counting accountants put it at a good price point. I have been nothing but impressed with the quality of acer laptops at their respective price points, I hope this tablet is the same.
half the problem with seling these things is some people dont even realise something other than an ipad or iphone exists. i have people at work (which is an IT company) that went and bought these things and keep telling me all the wonderful things they can do. I tell them that there are a million other phones that can do that and more, and they say "what phones?". they need some serious advertising to come close to pulling this off if they want to compete with apple.
I'd never buy this with the Transformer priced so closely and with such superior functionality.
And what exactly is wrong with being run by engineers? Quality products >> catch name, especially when those bean counting accountants put it at a good price point. I have been nothing but impressed with the quality of acer laptops at their respective price points, I hope this tablet is the same.
There is a lot more to marketing than choosing product names. Marketing starts even before the the development of a product begins. It's the difference between doing things right and doing the right things.
Designing this tablet with these specs for this price is an engineering success. Having it sit in the market right next to the iPad is a marketing fail.
A slightly lower price, SD card slot and marginally bigger display are most likely not enough to kick the iPad from it's throne. Not while iOS has all the tablet apps.
The Transformer is looking slightly better than Acer's tablet offering... Better screen, optional Keyboard dock, a price that's rumored to be lower...
I'm excited about these honeycomb tablets because Apps or no apps, I can't do my flash-based online homework on an ipad.
Isn't the Asus Transformer going for $399? with the exact same specs?
Yes, but at that price you only get teh tablet. The keyboard docking costs more.
... just another android...
Too much
Yes, but at that price you only get teh tablet. The keyboard docking costs more.
Even with the dock it is still much cheaper.
Tablets are nice but too overpriced.
This is not what people want, i can not comment on the software but that is not a visually appealing tablet.
Look at the screen, a huge black border is not pretty; there is a difference when holding a "screen" in your hands and a device that has a screen on.
I agree with the marketing comment, but others who read it assume that Apple do not have quality engineers; the reason why the iPad is successful is because it is visually appealing(marketing) and also has quality engineering behind it.
They could have sold a ton more if it came in at $399.00. I don't know if $50 will be enough to sway the potential iPad 2 buyers. Time will tell.
The Asus Transformer has USB ports only on the keyboard dock, while the Acer has at least one.
" This tablet is the first on the market to feature a USB 2.0 port with host support for viewing content from flash drives or smartphones, or for connecting a USB keyboard for fast typing." from acer's website
aside from that everything else seems the same to me. I personally plan on tethering my phone to a tablet while away from wifi. While i haven't tested wireless tethering i'm pretty sure I'd need USB for wired tethering.
$449.99 ...
WOW...
Here is what I could do with that much.
1. Buy an "as is" i7 laptop with 4GB of ram and a decrete nVidia graphics (with a broken screen) on eBay (Saw one yesterday that sold for $330. It was an 8440p)
2. Buy a new screen to fix the laptop ($100) (Don't need to pay to have it installed cause I've got skillz)
That's it... I would have a (slightly used) working Core i7 w/ 4GB of ram, good graphics and a warranty all for LESS than a dumb little tablet.
This is why I will not spend $450 on a tablet... It's just too much for a weakling computer.
LOL you geeks are so sad. People are paying $100-300 over for the iPad 2. Price is not the problem. It's all about marketing and the apps.
Can you do DJ Hero on Honeycomb? Do you have iMovie? Are there any cool apps on Android at all vs the thousands more quality apps on iOS app store.
$449.99 ...WOW...Here is what I could do with that much.1. Buy an "as is" i7 laptop with 4GB of ram and a decrete nVidia graphics (with a broken screen) on eBay
(Don't need to pay to have it installed cause I've got skillz)That's it... ~~ all for LESS than a dumb little tablet. It's just too much for a weakling computer.
Wow! So like there are MILLIONS of these $350 damaged notebooks for people to buy? Yeah such details is important because Apple is selling about 1million iPads a month, they can't make enough of them.
You may have skillz to put a screwdriver to a notebook, but you are lacking in other skillz.
You are being a tech/kid. Not a consumer/user/business. Thats why I get paid to do what you are talking about.
You are not understanding the market. Not everyone has a pick-up truck when a regular car will get the job done. On a business project I work on, such a notebook (and I do have notebooks) having such a device is not as elegant or easy as an iPad or tablet. A 2lb device that rotates quickly, comes on instantly has its place. As does a 5~7lbs notebook.
When *I* work, its on my nice 24" screen. When I'm in front of the TV and want to relax or look up something quick, a press of a button - 2-3 secs to lock onto the wifi - and I'm ready to go.
Not a bad looking device... Still don't care for the EXTRA wide-screen display.
The name is stupid "Iconia Tab A500"... what does A500 mean? They are trying to grab some of the mass market. "Iconia Tab" would have been fine.
Android experience on our phones made us go with an iPad. Not that Android is BAD, its does somethings... badly and many things messy. Since I have no love for Apple, I'd like to see Google/Android make vast improvements in delivery and interface designs.
Exciting times.
Do you guys know ANYTHING about Android? It is clearly superior to iOS of any kind; the only problem is that ordinary people don't know anything about technology, and Apple has been dominating the market with their "user-friendly" devices purely off of former success (and since each product is successful, the next one succeeds too, regardless of how many better alternatives there are). For some reason, Apple always beats everyone to the next big thing, so then everyone has to compare to them (hence the terms "iPhone killer," "iPad killer," etc), and that puts them on top. I won't deny that Apple's products are perfect for everyday technologically-impaired people, which unfortunately for Android, makes up a large majority of the market, but as a student of computer science, and a mobile application developer, I just can't stand Apple.
This won't kill an iPad. Believe it or not, you can get on a corporate network (WAP-EAP style) with an iPad out of the box. You can't do the same with most Android-based products including this one. Works well at home out of the box.
While Android may seem superior, until you can get on a corporate network with tablets based on this OS (and I can't believe I'm saying this), the iPad has an edge. Imagine advising your CEO he should go with an android-based tablet and then have to tell him he can't login to the corporate network when he's in the office.
If anyone knows a way to get these things to work on a WAP-EAP secured network without rooting the device, let us know.