Acer’s new Iconia Tab A700, officially unveiled last week, is bound to be one of the iPad’s biggest challengers, thanks to an impressive array of specifications, a screen resolution comparable to Apple’s Retina display, and a 25 percent lower price tag compared to the iPad. The new tablet is already available for pre-orders and will be shipping later this month, either directly from Acer or through retail partners. Available colors include black or silver.
Acer's new 10.1-inch tablet offering brings a "new level of clarity and realism" with its 1,920 x 1,200 high-resolution display, Acer touted. The Iconia Tab's pixel density is 55 percent higher than most tablet PCs' 1,280 x 800 displays, supposedly making everything look crisper and sharper. In addition to the impressive resolution, Acer's new tablet also comes with 32GB of storage and a $450 price tag, way below Apple's same-capacity iPad.
Acer unveiled its high-resolution, "Full HD" 1,920 x 1,200-pixel display tablet back in January at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2012. Meanwhile, Apple launched its third-generation iPad with a whopping Retina display, boasting a 2,048 x 1,536-pixel resolution and a pixel density of 264 pixels per inch (ppi), casting a huge shadow on Android tablets.
Three months later, Acer's A700 finally enters the stage to challenge Apple's dominance. While the Iconia's pixel resolution doesn't really equal the iPad's impressive pixel depth, it does offer an arguably better viewing experience compared to existing tablet offerings. According to Acer, the 10-point touch capacitive screen sports a 16:10 aspect ratio and a wide 178-degree viewing angle, which should favor sharing videos and images with others gathered around you.
Specs & Features
One aspect in which Acer's tablet clearly has an edge over Apple's iPad is storage. Acer offers 32GB of built-in storage and compared to Apple's baseline 16GB iPad, it costs $50 less and $150 less than Apple's 32GB model. Acer also included a microSD card slot for additional memory of up to 64GB, which should be more than enough for music, videos, media files, and other content stored on the tablet.
Other specs include an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, a micro-USB port for charging and data transfers, as well as a micro-HDMI port, allowing users to stream content to larger displays. The Dolby Mobile 3 Surround Sound should allow for a high-quality experience when streaming on your home theater system. Features also include integrated GPS, e-compass, 802.11 b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, a 5-megapixell rear-camera (no flash though) and a 1-megapixel front camera. According to Acer, the 9800mAh battery should be good enough for 10.5 hours of video playback.
When it comes to productivity software, Acer throws in Polaris Office 3.5 for document reading and editing, along with Evernote, the Acer Print app and Acer Ring navigation interface, which come preinstalled.
All in all, Acer's new Iconia A700 seems quite a charmer, and definitely a true contender to Apple's iPad. Moreover, Acer also has an LTE version of the A700 on the way, so if you are interested in cellular connectivity as well as higher pixel density, you might want to wait a little longer.
