Acer Iconia A1-810: The Android tab longing for eight-inch Apple action The Iconia A1-810 is, of course, an iPad Mini clone. How else could Acer, after years of offering slates with 16:9 widescreen panels, have suddenly hit on the idea that punters want a 4:3 tablet - “the right aspect ratio”, an Acer exec eagerly told me - without being inspired by Cupertino’s latest? Acer Iconia A1-810 Mini me …
no way in hell are Acer getting 220 big ones out of me for this. Even if they offered it to me for free, I'd say no. I know it's at the lower end of the market, but a complete rubbish effort nonetheless.
The other guys are doing much better devices (Asus, Samsung etc.) for the same price point.
"Who says this and actually means it?"
Lots of people, I imagine. Possessions own you to a certain extent. With tablets, you have to keep them charged up; you need to clean up a premium space in your house (ie, near a power socket) for them to nest while doing so and you should devote the time to customising and security if it's going to be a useful tool. I probably would take this machine if offered for free (I have teenagers and spares of easily breakable kit are always welcome); but I wouldn't buy one...it's heavy, has crap cameras and I already am adequately tabletted up.
That said, I wouldn't take an iPad or iPhone for free because I don't like the ecosystem. I'd take 10 iThings for free because eBay, but I couldn't be arsed with just one.
@Mark .: you may be right about the Samsung alternatives but as Tony points out in the review the (Asus) Nexus 7 whips this tab's butt - as it has been doing most wannabe tabs since its launch.
And the more new 7-8" tabs are launched the more I think that Google shipped the Nexus 7 at little more than cost - smart move as Android tabs are now outselling iPhads and I still feel like I have the best one on the market seven months on.
</smug>
Yes, I'm wondering if the iphone 5 is a Nokia clone then, since Apple were doing 3:2 for years before switching to 16:9 that everyone else was already doing... Or perhaps we can stop calling everything an Apple clone.
As for the article saying:
"My rejection of the "one size fits all" approach doesn’t suit everyone, of course, as the success of the iPad Mini would seem to suggest. "
I think that actually adds weight to he author's argument that choice is good - if there was only one true size as Jobs claimed, then all the people wanting an IOS device would have bought a normal ipad.
I'm pretty sure my Archos 80 G9 was designed and produced quite a bit before the iPad Mini and that's 4:3 ratio.
There have also been dozens of models cheap Chinese Android tablets with 4:3 ratio screens knocking around for years.
However I'm sure the author of this article would be quick to tell us that these are all also iPad Mini clones, perhaps as a result of the manufacturers travelling to the future to see what Apple were going to do?
The screen is dim, it's heavier than the competition, and thicker too...
The screen resolution is poor (1024x768? please, my 1.5 year old phone has higher resolution), the touchscreen responsiveness is below par...
It's processor performance barely matches that of the Tegra 3, even though the former has been in shipping devices for nearly a year...
Oh, and it's made by Acer, which has a less than sterling reputation for build quality and power management.
This tablet seems to have nothing to recommend it.
Looking at all those tablets I think I would like one with 6-8" and hardly any bezel. Yes, the bezel is useful for putting your thumb on it, but with my Nexus 7 I rarely put my thumb there anyway.
But it just looks so like wasted space. It's a purely subjective feeling, but these things are large enough and having a fat, wide bezel around the only thing you really care for (the display) just fells so incredibly silly.
And please: Include stereo speakers at the front (or at least the sides) and a kickstand. These things are great for viewing video and to abuse them as a video phone on WiFi at home, so having a poot mono speaker on the back and no way to prop it up on the table is just like "we have no idea why anyone would buy this thing, but please just buy it, it's cheap!".
No. Why are these things all so similar? And so poorly conceived? What's so hard about some decent speakers and a kickstand and a back camera that is good enough to snap a photo of a whiteboard or a letter if you want to "digitize" analog stuff for using it later? Why is there nobody putting some thought into these things? I bet that basically the same hardware in a thoughtful design and with some cheap useful features added would make this thing truly useful.
And yes, my Nexus 7 also has a really poor speaker on the back (useless for Skype) and no kickstand and no back camera. God!
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