Acer takes fight to Nexus 7 with seven-inch Iconia tablet

Acer has announced its take on the Asus-made Google Nexus 7: the Iconia Tab A110. The debt it owes to the Nexus is clear. The A110 has an almost identical spec, from its Tegra 3 core to its OS, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, but Acer has addressed the Google slate's limitations by adding a Micro SD slot, a micro HDMI port and upping …

[thesykes]

hmm

Price is important, but, also important is how much manufacturer bloat ware will they dump on it? The reason I'm eyeing up a Nexus is that it's clean Android. The phone I'm typing this on is riddled with crap I can't get rid of.

HDMI is not important and the nexus can be tweaked to read USB drives so those don't matter either.

[miknik]

Re: hmm

Once you root it then bloatware is no longer an issue for any device. I don't know why anyone wouldn't root their android device, it opens up so many more apps/features.

That said I am firmly in the Nexus camp with my phone and tablet, and the regular OS updates mean I doubt I'll change. Waiting for a manufacturer to port their skin to an OS update sucks, especially when a newer OS update arrives before they get around to updating you. Vanilla android is polished enough now to not need a skin.

[DrXym]

Re: hmm

I rooted my HTC desire at last and it's running Cyanogenmod but while it's free from crapware it has to be said that the UI of the 2.x Android is pretty workman like. I miss some things from Sense although I'm getting by without them.

[thesykes]

Re: hmm

I'd root my phone in an instant if the bootloader wasn't locked by the network... several attempts to get any sense out of the customer services retards and I'm losing the will to live!

As for the tablet, was walking past Currys (Yes, I know.. the shame) and had a play with a Nexus and a Samsung 7 incher. The Nexus just felt so much nicer with the textured back than the smooth shiny case on the Samsung.

[miknik]

Re: hmm

>I'd root my phone in an instant if the bootloader wasn't locked by the network... several attempts to get any sense >out of the customer services retards and I'm losing the will to live!

I've always had to unlock the bootloader first. I'm willing to bet 30 minutes searching on xda-developers.com will get you more sense than spending the rest of your life talking to a customer service department.

[thesykes]

Re: hmm

been there, done that, answer seems to be... tough... can't hurt taking another look I guess, been a while since I last wandered over there.

[ukgnome]

Re: hmm

XDA isn't the easiest place to search - depending on your phone Modaco is a great place to search. It's slightly friendlier too.

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like it contains nift

..but I just can't get past "Acer". Too many hours of my life wasted digging dust bunnies out of horribly-built beige PCs with that badge on the front..

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Looks like it contains nift

Be thankful you didn't have to deal with one of their laptops

[Big_Ted]

Looking at the picture

Its either no so long or more likely has much wider side bezels in portrait mode.

As said above the Nexus 7 has to be the one to go for as its pure Google Android and you will get fast updates for much longer than I would expect with this.

[leon clarke]

£179 at ebuyer

http://www.ebuyer.com/394008-acer-iconia-a110-tablet-pc-ht-hapek-001

(On pre order of course)

I reckon that's a good deal!

[McBeese]

1024 x 600 Screen resolution - fail.

This is a last-gen tablet. Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD have beautiful 1280x800 screens and both sell for $199. This thing will have to sell for $149 (or less) to begin to attract an audience.

[fero]

I want HDMI and microSD so I started to get excited until I saw the screen resolution.

[Christopher Rogers]

Acer gear is simply "ample." Its hard to get excited about what they pump out, but its is fairly stable and run of the mill. I just get the feeling the Nexus and the Kindle have a tad more cool about them. This from the owner of an Acer laptop and tablet....

I may need to look at my life....

[Kevin Pollock]

I agree with McBeese - 1200x800 is a very nice resolution on a 7 inch tablet.

At least Asus understand a tablet has to have a card slot! The Nexus is nice, but with no SD card slot it's useless to me. If I wanted a closed tablet where everything had to go to and from it by WiFi I'd use my iPad!

I recently purchased an Ainol Novo7 Fire, and it's a thing of beauty - especially for 109 quid (plus five quid for recorded delivery)! The days of cheap Chinese tablets being badly made seem to be over. Build quality is excellent, and it's just about perfect for watching films on a plane. The one feature everyone misses is an integrated stand. Didn't Archos have that feature?

The other thing that I suppose I'll never have is a properly fitting case. That's the good thing about buying a "branded" tablet - you'll get some custom after-market accessories.

Never realized before how good 7" of Ainol could be.