Acer’s tablets have all shown a great combination of hardware features, performance, build quality and price, making them one of the best choices for anyone wanting a well-built, affordable tablet that can run anything you can throw at it.
Although the company’s Iconia Tabs aren’t as popular as the iPad or even Samsung’s Galaxy Tabs, they’re still working on keeping and expanding their share of the market, and their latest releases will help them get a bigger portion of the lower end niches: the Iconia Tab 210 and 110 are a pair of affordable, high performance tablets that can fit anyone’s needs.
Design
The Iconia Tabs A110 and A210 are both very similar on the outside – both of them have the same overall design and build quality. While they’re mostly made of plastic, with the obligatory scratch-proof glass covering the front, they feel very sturdy and it’s unlikely that you’ll break them, even if you intend to use them in the field. The only major difference between the A110 and A210 is the size, of course. There’s really nothing special about the tablets’ design – they’re just about the most bland looking slates (not in a bad way, though) you can find on the market.
Hardware features and performance
The hardware features of both the Iconia Tab A110 and A210 are very respectable, although Acer did have to make some trade-offs in order to keep the price low while still using the latest processor available. The biggest drawback is the display: the 7 inch LCD unit on the A110 has a 1024×600 resolution, while the 10.1 incher on the A220 uses the standard 1280×800 resolution, and both of them have a very bad daylight visibility and pretty abysmal viewing angles. If you look at them from the front, the colors and picture are OK, but it degrades significantly when viewed from an angle.
The other specs are decent, though. Not only are both Iconias fast thanks to the quad core Tegra 3 processor and a full 1024 MB of RAM, but they also have all the other features you’d expect to find on a tablet, including a micro SD card slot (as well as 8 GB of onboard memory), Wifi N, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, all the usual sensors and HDMI out. The A220 even has a second, full-sized USB port, making it easy to use any accessories. Both tablets lack a camera on the back, but there is a 2 Megapixel front-facing camera with support for 720p HD video.
Technical specs
| Acer Iconia Tab A110 | Acer Iconia Tab A210 | |
|---|---|---|
| Display | 7 inches, 1024×600 pixels, TFT LCD, 170 DPI | 10.1 inches, 1280×800 pixels, TFT LCD, 149 DPI |
| Processor | NVidia Tegra 3, 1.2 GHz, Quad Core | NVidia Tegra 3, 1.2 GHz, Quad Core |
| RAM | 1024 MB | 1024 MB |
| Graphics Adapter | GeForce ULV, 12-core | GeForce ULV, 12-core |
| Storage Space | 8 GB built-in, micro SD card slot (up to 32 GB cards supported) | 8/16 GB built-in, micro SD card slot (up to 32 GB cards supported) |
| Camera(s) | Front facing 2 MP with 720p video recording | Front facing 2 MP with 720p video recording |
| Connectivity Options | Wifi N, Bluetooth 3.0, HDMI, GPS, Glonass, micro-USB | Wifi N, Bluetooth 3.0, HDMI, GPS, Glonass, micro-USB, USB 2.0 port |
| Sensors | Accelerometer, magnetometer, light sensor, gyroscopic sensor | Accelerometer, magnetometer, light sensor, gyroscopic sensor |
| Battery | Li-Ion, 3420 mAh | Li-Ion, 3620 mAh |
| Dimensions and weight | 196 x 126.5 x 11.4 mm, 370 grams | 260 x 175 x 12.4 mm, 712 grams |
| Operating System and Software | Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich | Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich |
Software features
Being new upcoming tablets, the Iconia Tab A110 and A220 will of course ship with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich pre-installed. Acer will leave the interface and default apps of ICS alone, which means that users will get the true Android experience as intended by the original developers. Of course, there will most likely be no locked boot loader, so custom ROMs will make the tablets even better and faster – always a good thing.
Price and availability
There is still no official confirmation of the release date of either tablet, but we know that the A110 will cost under $200 – a great price for a quad core tablet that can rival the Transformer Infinity. The A220 will be more expensive, although not by much – it’s expected to cost under $300. This will make the Iconia Tab A110 and A220 two of the best choices for budget conscious buyers.
