Acer Iconia 7 inch Tablet

We got our hands on a new Acer Iconia 7 inch Tablet. It ships with Android 3.2 honey comb, has front and rear Cameras, GPS, a microSD car slot for extra storage, 8 gigs of internal memory, blue tooth, wifi, HDMI and mini USB 2 port. The display is a 7-inch Multi-Touch capacitive screen, with 1024 x 600 resolution. The processor is a Nvidia® Tegra 2 Dual Core, running at 1 GHZ. Battery life is about 4 and a half hours.

What we liked: 

The tablet seems very speedy, the small form factor is nice, and the multi-touch display is very responsive and clear. The built in rear-facing camera is 5 megapixels with an LED flash that comes on in dim light (photos are fine but don't expect DSLR quality). Taking photos with the tablet does not seem as awkward or as ridiculous as with the bigger screen ones. The built-in microphone is very responsive when calling up your favorite websites (hands free, no typing!). The built in GPS is useful for car, walking or bike travel. Overall we found the tablet very easy to use. The fit and finish is very high quality, typical Acer. The included microSD card slot allows cards up to 32 gigs, making it a very versatile content player (you can load up with eBooks, PDF documents, movies, music and videos; as well as Apps). The front facing camera is a 2 megapixel, perfect for Skype video calling. We did not get a chance to test the mini USB 2 port, but apparently, it can take thumb drives and USB media readers.

What we didn't liked: 

At a retail price of about $259-$280, it cost more than our favorite cheapie tablet, the iview 760TPC (see our review on the site), and also more than the Kindle Fire. It is about $100 dollars cheaper than the ipad2 as of this writing; making it a little hard to choose if you are torn between size, capability, functionality and price. Battery life is somewhat meager, averaging about 4 and a half hours per charge. Daily charging is probably a must, sometimes you might have to charge at home and at work for your commute return. For it's size the tablet is a bit on the heavy side.

Conclusion: 

Overall, we loved the speediness of the tablet, the fit and finish is excellent, it's a quality made product. The tablet feels responsive and quick for most tasks. Most games and apps run without issues. The built in GPS works great. And the built in 2 cameras work terrifically well. This tablet is perfect for those who do not want a big full size tablet and want something with more flexibility than the Kindle Fire. The tablet works right out of the box without any tech requirements or updates. Our favorite function is the ability to recall web searches by speaking into the built in microphone, it basically eliminates the need to type your searches.

Full specs are as follows:

• Android 3.2 Honeycomb OS

· Size and weight: 0.5" deep x 4.6" w x 7" high, 14.7 oz.

· Processor: NVIDIA Tegra 2, 1 GHz

· Battery: 2-cell Lithium Polymer (Li-Polymer)

• Screen: 7 inch, TFT-LCD 1024x600 high-definition multitouch, auto rotate, capacitive screen

• Memory: 1G Ram, DDR2

· Internal Storage: 8GB

· Front Facing Webcam Pixels: 2.0MP

· Digital Camera Pixels: 5.0MP

· Wi-Fi Built In

· Bluetooth

· Speakers

· 1 USB 2.0 Port

· HDMI port