Acer Iconia Tab A500 Review

All in all, the Acer Iconia Tab A500 is a solid piece of hardware, if you have to have an Android tablet right now, but we don't know if we could recommend it in good conscience over some of the competitors on offer. Honestly, we're still slightly iffy about Honeycomb itself, and the longevity of the Tegra 2 processor, given the lack of Android 3.0 apps and speed at which OEMs are adopting faster and more efficient silicon respectively. At present, ASUS' Eee Pad Transformer seems the obvious choice if you can't afford a G-Slate -- assuming prices stay the same -- but at the same time, we don't think you'll be wholly displeased with Acer's tablet if brushed aluminum's your thing. Just keep that AC adapter handy.

If you're set on buying an Android tablet today, the Iconia Tab is one of the best bets at this writing--it tops the Xoom in functionality, and its $450 price is significantly cheaper than the $750 no-contract price of the G-Slate. The Iconia Tab is no iPad-killer, but it does give hints of the power of Android's more open and flexible platform. While I found faults with the Iconia Tab itself, many of my gripes lie with Android 3.0; if Google could only fix that OS's issues and get the native app ecosystem jump-started, Android tablets might be on to something.

The Acer Iconia Tab A500 definitely hits all the right notes for a good price: solid performance, a sturdy aluminum design, easy media and data sharing, plus a full-size USB port. We wish it were lighter and that the cameras were better, but consumers looking for a Honeycomb tablet will find a lot to like in the A500.

The Acer Iconia Tab A500 is the first of many Android Honeycomb tablets to break the sub-$500 price floor. It is arguably the tablet Android has needed from the beginning--affordable, powerful, fluid, and free from contracts. To really compete with Apple's iPad 2, however, tablets like these will need to need to get thinner and lighter to match consumer's shifting expectations.

To be honest, the Iconia Tab A500 exceeded my expectations. After years of reviewing Acer laptops with crappy LCDs and cheap plastic parts, I expected the company to take a similar route with its tablets, but instead, I was impressed with the manufacturing quality (at least for the price), the bright and crisp display, and rather-untouched software experience. Sure, the cameras aren't great and it trails other tablets in battery life, but for $450 those things seem forgivable, espcially when you consider the LG G-Slate's or the Xoom's respective $630 and $600 price tags. Of course, the real question is, does it make sense to shell out an extra $50 to snag the iPad 2? At this point, that $50 makes a load of difference in usability since the Honeycomb app ecosystem is still miles behind iOS and Apple's tablet is much thinner and lighter, but look, if you have your heart set on a Google-powered tablet, the Iconia blends quality and affordability, which is something I haven't been able to say about an Acer product for a long time.

Here's the thing about the glut of Honeycomb tablets we're seeing right now: They're really not all that different. Our Editors' Choice, the Apple iPad 2, remains the best tablet on the market, but if you're set on Android, you should definitely opt for a tablet that's running Honeycomb and packs a Tegra 2 processor. Among those models, there's not too much variation. The T-Mobile G-Slate offers a few extra features, like 4G connectivity and 3D-recording capabilities. The Asus Transformer is the least expensive at $400, and has an optional keyboard dock that turns it into a pseudo-netbook. The Iconia A500's advantage is having more connectivity options and better multimedia support than the others. In general, though, you'll get more or less the same thing from all of the top Android tablets right now.

If you happen to be focused on media consumption, the Acer Iconia Tab A500 will serve you well. But if you can wait to jump into the tablet game, things are likely to get more interesting as more major manufacturers including HP, HTC, Samsung, Sony, and others release tablets in the coming months.

The Acer Iconia A500 Android tablet offers many benefits: a sturdy and well constructed design, USB and HDMI-out ports and the attractions of Android Honeycomb 3.0. It's a little chunky and heavy, and the screen is difficult to see in sunlight, but overall we were impressed by this tablet PC.

In all, our impressions of the Iconia A500 are mixed. It feels a little slicker than the Motorola Xoom in use, and there are some useful bits of software included. It’s nicely designed too, with cameras that do a passable job of shooting the odd picture and video clip.

Battery life, however, isn’t quite up there with the Xoom’s, and the screen isn’t as attractive as the Transformer’s. And at £447 for the Wi-Fi only version, it's hardly any cheaper than the iPad 2. As with the other Android 3 tablets we've seen so far, it’s almost there, but it still doesn't feel quite like the finished article.