Acer Iconia Tab A100 – A simple tablet

The Iconia brand launched by Acer at the end of 2010 has become richer permanently at the beginning of this year through a series of tablets or laptops with 2 touch surfaces.

In the last article we presented the Iconia Tab W500, a tablet with an attached keyboard that runs on Windows 7. This time we will tell you about the Iconia Tab A10, a more conventional tablet (if there is such a thing as a conventional tablet).

Here are the main characteristics of the Iconia Tab A100:

• 7” touchscreen display with a resolution of 1024×600 pixels
• Nvidia Tegra 2 dual core processor with a frequency of 1 GHz
• 512 MB of RAM memory
• 8 GB of internal memory
• Connectivity: 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1
• 5 MP camera and secondary 2MP web camera
• Google Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system

Build and design characteristics

Due to its small 7 inch screen Iconia Tab A100 has a compact design. This means it is maneuverable and extremely portable. The design is also interesting. Acer chose to use 2 color nuances: white and black. Most of the case is black, but the edges are white and apparently from metal. On the sides you will find a HDMI port, a microUSB port and 2 speakers, while on the back there is a 5 MP camera.

Iconia Tab A100, 7 inch tablet with no claims

Technical specs

Acer did not present all the technical specs of their upcoming product. Even if the main characteristics are known, the producer did not reveal some details.

The 7 inch display of the tablet offers a standard resolution of 1024×600 pixels, which means that HD movies cannot be viewed. The hardware platform is made out of the 1 GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 processor helped by 512 MB of RAM memory, and no more than 8 GB of internal storage space. However, considering the limited applicability the device has to multimedia use the storage space may just be sufficient.

Iconia Tab A100 will be available in several versions: one will have the Wi-Fi module, while the other will have the possibility of internet connection through 3G. Currently it is unsure if a version that will include both the 3G and the Wi-Fi module will be available.

At this chapter its worth mentioning that the device has 2 cameras: a 5 MP camera on the back and a 2 MP front camera dedicated for video chat.

The presence of a HDMI port is at least surprising since the display does not allow HD resolutions and the storage of movies is unlikely due to the limited capacity of 8 GB. However those who are interested in this option can connect the tablet to a compatible TV with this technology and the native application called clear.fi.

Operating system

The tablet runs on the Google Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system but Acer has also introduced its own application called Zones. As its name suggests it groups applications on categories such as Games, Reading, Multimedia and Social.

Hands-on preview of Acer Iconia A100: