back to article Acer Iconia A100 7in Android tablet

Hey, tablet geeks out there, do you remember what you hated most about Samsung’s original 7in Galaxy Tab? The grainy display, the glitchy software, the lack of memory, the poorly located buttons that you kept pressing by mistake? Acer Iconia A100 7in Android tablet Designed for portrait usage I suspect Acer drew up the …

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  1. alan buxey
    Thumb Up

    7" formfactor is just right

    I've always said that the 7" form factor is just right for 'on the move' tablet stuff, rather than eg sitting on sofa or at desk ...smaller sizes feel like overgrown smartphones and bigger ones are a balancing act or cause your wrist to be well exercised

    I'm not surprised at lower battery life if the CPU is chucking that amount of horsepower around...perhaps they should have gone for eg eeepad transformer speeds? Wouldn't be surprised to see a large community around this one..perhaps performance tweak to improve such things by a magnitude eg underclocking mods/utils

    1. RegisterThis
      Paris Hilton

      Agree ...

      As somebody who has not yet taken the plunge into tablet land, but played with plenty in shops, I have been waiting for the 'perfect' 7 inches to come around. The iPad was clearly streets ahead of the Samsung Tab, but the Samsung TAB was just more 'practical'. The reality is that my main use of my laptop is productivity, and 10 inches of less functionality (iPAD) is not a reason to dump a laptop - especially when Macbook Airs and the new wave of competition (Samsung series 9 etc.) provide plenty of real portable computing. 7 Inches of screen real-estate (more than a smartphone) for days when a laptop isn't required has always made more sense from the perspective of not carrying a laptop. Sadly, I think though that I am still waiting after this review. The other interesting one will be the 5" Samsung note as a 'true' convergence device. Never played with the Dell streak to be able to comment on that form factor vs. 7 inches.

      (Paris also likes the greater maneuverability of 7 inches)

  2. Ginger

    All I can see are the 512 MB ones at that price :(

  3. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

    Sounds interesting. I might give this one a more detailed look.

  4. Shades

    Hang on a minute...

    ...This Pad (I prefer Pad as it sounds more Star Trekky!) has a round button that takes you back to the home screen? I wonder how long before Apple attempts to set upon Acer with one of its spurious patents?

    1. Craigness

      And

      The way it tapers at each end is reminiscent of a Nokia N8. As Samsung showed, there's only so many ways to make a tablet...

      Grab it whilst it's still on the shelves!

  5. Silverburn
    Happy

    You have a man bag???

    Please no...if buying a 7" tab makes me the type of guy who needs a man bag, I'll be perfectly happy with my 10" and proper chest-haired rucksack, ta very much...

    1. Dcope
      Thumb Up

      Agreed real men do it with 10 inches and a rucksack, i do:)

      1. Some Beggar

        Do you two have matching cagoules?

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Steve Gill

      Ah, you misunderstand - the 10" models need a man bag, the 7" only needs a decent sized pocket.

      1. Dcope
        Facepalm

        you are correct my hatred of man bags and love of rucsacks took over

        (that and skim reading at work and reading the comments as there usually more interesting than the articles)

  6. GettinSadda
    Thumb Up

    This is the first Android tablet that has actually got me thinking "I wonder if I could find the cash from somewhere..."

    I shall watch this space...

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Review is too brief and too generous

    I've got one of these but it's heading to eBay soon and I wish I'd coughed up the extra £70 for an Asus Transformer or £50 for a 16GB HTC Flyer (Amazon is now selling this for £330) or waited for the new Archos G9 8-inch which has just hit the market for £200.

    1 - Battery life is dire. Loop a video and you will be lucky to get to the 4 hour mark before it dies. For a £100 budget tablet that may be OK but for a £300 unit it's not.

    2 - The screen is horribly prone to wash-out with any variation in viewing angle away from head-on. It's significantly worse than any other known-brand tablet I've used in this respect and more on a par with the cheapest of cheap Android phones.

    Yes it's pretty powerful but the design and build are nothing to rave about unlike the Flyer. If I was rating it, I'd give it 65% tops.

    And just to clarify matters UK A100s run Android 3.2

    1. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

      I can PHONE people on my Galaxy Tab, but

      This thing gives up after playing four hours of video and you're DISAPPOINTED? What on earth are you wanting to watch that's more than four hours? Perhaps you have a number of entire movies more than two in mind? Or two movies about Harry Potter or the Lord of the Rings? Suit yourself, but this sounds like a marvel of technology, and something that Microsoft could only dream of when WINDOWS tablets were launched, such as the Compaq TC1000.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Megaphone

    I'd be interested...

    but not at £300 for a 7-inch pad. What planet am I on? Well, what planet are "THEY" on? They want to sell them by truckloads? Then they need to convince people who don't really need a table (who actually DOES by the way?), that it won't hurt their wallet too much. £199 does that, £299 doesn't. And the ipad boys? Well, this type is not exactly driven by common sense, they don't count ;)

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Wot no 3G?

    Fat lot of good this is for mobile use. I'll stick with my clunky Galaxy Tab for now, warts and all.

    1. Dcope
      Happy

      wifi teathering? I use barnicle on my zte racer on threes One plan all you can eat data on a monthly rolling contract, charge each up each night and had no issue so far.

  10. Midas
    Windows

    Rather interested...but that screen angle issue is definitively a deal breaker.

    Plus, I really feel the smaller number in that 1024x600 rez spec should be something like 800...

    Hell, I'd settle for 768.

    So, keep trying Acer -- I'm not parting with my hard earned euros just yet for the sake of your 'almost there' fondleslab.

    MS bitch icon and no tablet... for the time being.

  11. proto-robbie
    Holmes

    why not...

    ... buy two at £100 - voila, infinite battery life.

  12. PurplePerson
    Facepalm

    Same resolution?

    "Sure, the 7in screen’s resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels is barely more than an iPhone 4’s 960 x 640"

    I'm not a maths professor or anything, but...

    1024 x 640 = 614400

    960 x 640 = 614400

    I could probably rustle some expert up to prove that those numbers are actually the same!

    1. proto-robbie
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Um

      First off, 1024 x 640 cannot possibly equal 960 x 640 - 1024 being a bigger number and all?

      Secondly 940 is 40 more than 900 but 1024 is 64 bigger than 960 so the total will be bigger. No calculator required...

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

    3. bolccg
      FAIL

      oh well

      In my defence, I am very tired :l Even my added brain ran a simple test case of my multiplacative theory and realised I'd just made a tit of myself (3x5 != 4x4)

      I could've withdrawn it but instead I leave it for your amusement.

  13. Lord Elpuss Silver badge

    I'm sure it's great an' all but...

    Can somebody explain why with a lousy battery life and dodgy screen, this still manages 80%? Oh and I can't find one with 1GB RAM for this price- only 512MB.

    1. 27escape
      Stop

      The amazon link has it

      If you are looking for a 1GB model.

      Shame about the battery life, I was almost ready to buy! The addition of GPS is very useful, when I find a 7incher with better battery and GPS (and a reasonable price), the vendor will have a sale and no mistake.

      1. paulikxp

        The tablet you're looking for is the old Galaxy Tab 7": as it is almost 1 year on the market it's being aold cheaply at the moment with 3G, a very good battery life and GPS, of course. It only has 512MB RAM just like the A100. Or wait for the Viewsonic Viewpad 7X, but that will have the same bad screen as the A100 and the same weak battery.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Amazon have the 1gb one for £273

    3. cloudgazer

      Maybe the reviewer really really likes a 7incher?

      1. EdfromMiami
        Trollface

        RE: Demonstrates that seven inches is plenty when properly applied.

        Reg Editors have a filthy mind. I like that.

  14. Uwe Dippel
    Unhappy

    I'll buy one ...

    ... if it runs Linux (Debian)

    And I will stay here asking each and every time a fondleslab is being introduced.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Linux

      You may have a long wait

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Look up SmartQ

      ...they do linux. The machines themselves aren't all that and the touchscreens definitely aren't...but linux. They do fine for email and are splendid as a portable library, but I wouldn't use one for any task that requires serious processing. The price is right though.

      Heh. I'm starting to sound like a company shill, but I'm not, honestly.

    3. M Gale

      Linux tablet

      You'd probably be better trying for Always Innovating's Touchbook. Though, that's more of a developer's toy than a consumer model. Tweak to your heart's content, but just don't expect it to be fully functional out of the box. It's been around longer than the iPad has too, amusingly enough.

      http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/

      They also seem to have a channel on Freenode. Or did last time I looked.

  15. ffrankmccaffery

    B&N Nook Colour

    It's cheaper at around £200 with shipping included, has a better battery life, higher quality IPS screen and an active hacking community developing for it. The processor is only single core, memory half at 512MB and no HDMI out but for basic web use it's significantly better.

  16. M Gale

    Galaxy Tab, grainy screen?

    Uhm, it's 1024x600. And probably has a damned sight better viewing angle than this thing.

    Not disagreeing with the rest of the review, but as an owner of the original 7" 3G Tab, I have to say "bollocks" to criticisms of the screen quality. 2.3 seems to have made it run a lot more smoothly, too.

  17. paulikxp

    Ever used a Galaxy Tab?

    I'm not sure if the author ever got hands on an old Galaxy Tab. Grainy screen? It has the same resolition than the A100 and has viewing angles of which the Acer can only dream of. Oddly placed buttons? Not at all. What about the bad battery life of the A100 compared to the Tab? In my opinion Acer needed one year to bring a tablet on the market with a newer OS and the Tegra2 chipset as the only ups compared to the 7" Tab. Everything else is the same or worse.

  18. Alan Denman

    Another dickhead with a 3.5" smartphone.?

    We live and learn and it sounds like your smartphone is 3.5" too.

    Of course he who spits the pips out at us decrees that we shall have 4.3" phone then obviously we become less needy,

  19. Neil Stansbury

    Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7

    I'm hoping when Samsung finally escapes from Apple's lawsuits, and gets around to releasing it, that their new 7.7 will nail most of these gripes, especially the thickness and screen res.

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