Acer Iconia A110 Guns For Nexus 7
by Jason Inofuentes on October 18, 2012 8:00 AM ESTEveryone's getting into the small tablet market, and with the success of Google's own Nexus 7, and Amazon's Kindle Fire, it's no surprise. The Iconia A110 fills that segment for Acer, but does it have what it takes to compete with the Nexus 7? At a high-level it matches up well. The venerable NVIDIA Tegra 3 SoC makes an appearance, as does Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). The A110 has an edge in connectivity and expandability with microUSB sitting alongside microSD and microHDMI. From there, though, things drop off a bit.
With just 8GB of NAND storage on-board, the out of the box value is a little diminished. Then there's the display, which might be stellar in person, but with just the specs to look at, the 1024x600 resolution is a let down. And then we have pricing. At $229.99 MSRP, the Iconia A110 is somewhat more expensive than the Nexus 7, and if rumors of a 32GB Nexus 7 SKU slotting in at the $249 price point are true, the 8GB A110 will face stiff competition. We'll find out how it fares on October 30th.
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bupkus - Thursday, October 18, 2012 - link
Mama MiaWill there be an upgrade program?
I'm using my 8gb N7 Right now.
amdwilliam1985 - Thursday, October 18, 2012 - link
I'm also running my 8GB N7 with about 2GB free, with most of the stuff coming from the cloud.I'm interest in the upgrade program too, $50 more for the 32GB, haha.
johndoe74 - Thursday, October 18, 2012 - link
u can absolutely count on acer to shoot themselves in the foot. every.single.time.i would have bought this over the N7 this Christmas season if only for the included microsd, not a chance now.
Bubbacub - Thursday, October 18, 2012 - link
not stock androidcrap screen
crap resolution
costs a load more
this will tank more than winrt
wickman - Thursday, October 18, 2012 - link
I really wish Anandtech would put up a poll regarding tablet screen size as it would be quite interesting to see which way people sway and why.Is it just the cost of the smaller tablets that draw you in, or is it the portability factor? Or is there some other reason why you would prefer a 7" screen over a 10"?
Personally I don't think I could live with a screen smaller than I have on my iPad3, and I may even consider a 13" screen provided battery life, performance, quality, and usability scales upwards with the screen size.
Sprchkn - Thursday, October 18, 2012 - link
I have a Nexus 7 and for me were a few factors:1) portability
2) the price made it worth taking the risk on a smaller screen
3) Google device, so I know it will get regular OS updates
Cons are of course the lack of HDMI output (not a huge deal because my phone is capable) and removable storage. My usage scenario probably isn't typical though in that I purchased it to watch movies and look up recipes when in my kitchen and also when working out. If I want to type a lot, say when responding to an email which requires a long answer, 9 out of 10 times I'll fire up my computer and compose it from there.
Paulman - Friday, October 19, 2012 - link
I was thinking about this and do you think this could actually "save" the tablet in a lot of use cases/scenarios?Keep a bluetooth keyboard around. And when you want to do something input/typing heavy, you turn on the BT keyboard and away you go.
Would this be as practical as I envision it to be?
Peroxyde - Sunday, October 21, 2012 - link
This "Acer Iconia A110 Guns For Nexus 7" ?!?! Even at half of its price ($115 instead of $230) I am not interested.The upcoming Nexus 7 32GB @ $250 is so much better as many commenters have pointed out (screen, resolution, more storage, quality build). In particular, the Nexus7 has stock Android and it is very easy to root and customize ROM.
ZekeD - Saturday, November 10, 2012 - link
I think Anandtech could do the tablet industry a service by publishing complete specs. Even beyond what the manufacturer releases to the consumer. Such as what chips and modules, down to the component datasheets.This information may be meaningless to the majority, but specs drive my purchase as much as price. The lack of information on sensor types and GPS is very poor across the industry. Resellers often don't include information found on the manufacturer datasheet, e.g. does it even have GPS, Samsung?
Everyone seems infatuated with the pixels and nits, which suits them fine. I want to know resolution of the inclinometer, which camera sensor, GPS sensitivity and vendor of WiFi module/chipset, what antenna type and what magnetic compass sensor is used.
I'm not an average consumer, so make of it what you will. When, over time, I find prefered components, it makes for a better informed purchase.
http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model-datashee...