The red pill.
Sturdy build; 10.1" screen; Multitasking; Flash-enabled browser; HDMI port; USB OTG; Reasonably priced
Highly reflective screen; Buggy UI; Quite bulky; Video player lacks Divx \ Xvid support
INTRODUCTION , DESIGN
Acer Iconia Tab A500
MRP: Rs 31,515
In the computing world, Acer is known for its good value-for-money laptops. This is what I had in my mind when I first got hold of this Android-based tablet from the Taiwanese manufacturer. The Iconia Tab A500 is a proud member of the elite 10 screen tablets club in India. It also holds the edge of being the first Honeycomb tablet currently available in our country.
MRP: Rs 31,515
In the computing world, Acer is known for its good value-for-money laptops. This is what I had in my mind when I first got hold of this Android-based tablet from the Taiwanese manufacturer. The Iconia Tab A500 is a proud member of the elite 10 screen tablets club in India. It also holds the edge of being the first Honeycomb tablet currently available in our country.
Since we're talking about tablets, a comparison with the iPad 2 is inevitable. So, is it better than the latter? Well, there is no obvious answer. It s all about choices; we'll talk about that later. However, one thing is for sure - the A500 is not here to create a problem of plenty for the Android; it's an alternative to Apple s offering.
Unboxing, Design, And Specs
The retail bundle contains a charger and a USB cord. That s it, no extra accessories. The first thing you ll notice after unboxing is a 10.1 screen. The bezel is relatively large, which is good because it prevents unintentional clicks, while giving you a better grip on the device. The gadget looks and feels bulky, weighing in at 730 grammes and having a thickness of 1.3 centimetres. On the bright side, it does have a rugged feel to it.
The entire back is made up of aluminium sporting a brushed-metal finish, which looks stunning and provides additional sturdiness. However, the bezels are all plastic, and the device has a few visible seams where the aluminium and plastic meet.
The power switch is on the left side of the tablet, along with a 3.5 mm jack and a Micro-HDMI port. Acer should have included a Micro-HDMI adaptor in the retail package, but sadly did not. The right side has a power adapter and a normal USB port that can take a pen drive or even a keyboard. A Micro-USB port is present to turn the device into a slave when connected to a PC. Also present is the reset , which can only be triggered by using a pin.
On the top, a volume rocker adapts itself to the gadget's orientation. Another thoughtful addition is an auto-rotate switch, which saves the trouble of hunting for that setting in the menu. There is also a plastic flap, under which is a MicroSD slot. At the bottom is a useless charging dock, which doubles up as an eyesore. Finally, a 5 megapixel snapper with an LED flash and a nicely designed pair of speaker grilles round out the back.
Under the hood is a dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor and 1 GB of DDR3 RAM. I ve already mentioned the HDMI port, and other features include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, GPS, and a digital compass.
Display
The A500 s LED backlit TFT screen can display up to 1280x800 pixels. The screen is reasonably bright and reproduces colours quite nicely. This makes it ideal for watching movies. Additionally, the device offers an extensive viewing angle. However, the screen is extremely reflective, and even in normal lighting conditions, manages to reflect your face. Needless to say, it almost turns into a mirror in broad daylight, making it useless outdoors. Moreover, the display glass is a fingerprint magnet and gets smudged very easily. I also noticed a large number of dots uniformly placed across the display, forming a grid pattern. I guess these are touch receptors, but Acer should have hidden them well.
The screen is slightly bigger than that of the iPad 2, but in all fairness, the latter is way thinner.
APPLICATION ANA USABILITY
A500 runs on the much-awaited Honeycomb platform, coming from Google s family of Android operating systems. Although the familiar navigation keys from the Android OS aren t carried over to the tablet version, it will take no time for Android phone users to master this tab. The home screen has three side-scrolling panels that offer great customisation options. You can add any widget, icon, or bookmark to these panes for quick access. The on-screen virtual Back, Home, and Multitasking keys are placed at the lower left corner, while a top right corner icon lets you access the app menu. Finally, Live Wallpapers make the home screen come alive.
T6Multitasking has always been the strength of the Android OS, and in the tablet game, it scores over iOS. The A500 handles multitasking with ease, and this could well be a decisive factor in the tablet showdown.
The Android Market is full of great applications, but only a few are optimized for Honeycomb. Most of the other apps either crash or look pixellated on the tablet s screen. On the other hand, the iPad 2 has a truckload of apps in its catalogue. Android app developers aren t showing much interest in Honeycomb, but things might get going in the future.
The GPS lockdown time from a cold start is more than 10 minutes, but is quick on subsequent starts, as long as you stay around the same location. It works well with Google Maps, and it's fun to explore maps on a big screen. However, it requires a continuous internet connection; rendering it useless in remote locations.
The browser has full Flash support, and is capable of rendering pages in no time. It also has options such as tabbed browsing, bookmarks, and a download manager. The browser is actually very similar to the desktop version ofChrome, and yes, this one also crashes once in a while. Still, it is miles ahead of the iPad 2 s crippled browser. Oh, and the Wi-Fi radio is pretty good, picking up signals in no time.
Surprisingly, the tablet sometimes struggles to display smooth transition effects. A dual-core 1 GHz Tegra 2 should be capable of pulling it off, but it s the Honeycomb that lets it down. This goes to show that Android, even with all its greatness, is still not well optimised. Let's hope that an update will soon address these issues.
MULTIMEDIA AND BATTERY LIFE
The default music player has a good interface. It is somewhat like Apple s Cover Flow, but thankfully not an exact clone. For some reason, there is no option to access equalisers and Dolby settings within the player. The only way to alter these settings is through the device's menu. On the positive side, the sound quality is excellent, and the Dolby effect makes it even better. Not just the earphones, but the speakers are also loud enough to please your ears.
The video player has a clean interface, and it plays MP4 HD videos without any problems. However, it didn t play any of the DivX and XviD files we loaded in it. A third-party player such as RockPlayer does make up for the lack of features, but it tends to crash often as it is designed for mobile phones. You can add your collection of music and movies with a simple copy-paste, which is way more convenient than Apple s sync process.
The Iconia has a 5 megapixel camera, but the size of the lens is ridiculously small. The snapper fails to capture any details. It also produces a considerable amount of noise in low- light situations. Looks like Acer has included a camera just for the sake of it. They aren t really expecting anyone to click photographs with this 10 brick. Technically, it is capable of 720p video recording; practically it is useless due to its very poor video quality.
Under the aluminium back lie a couple of 3260 mAh batteries. With heavy usage, including a few sessions of Angry Birds, internet browsing, HD video playback, and a lot of multitasking, the battery managed to keep the device up for around 8 hours. This is quite good by Android standards, but it's no match for the iPad 2 s battery life, which clocks in at 10 hours or so.
Conclusion
Priced at Rs 31,515, the A500 has a list of impressive features. It also has the bragging rights of openness promised by Google s OS. It handles multitasking with ease, but becomes jerky during menu transitions. Honeycomb has some rough edges, but it still beats iOS when it comes down to multitasking.
In this case, there is no obvious winner. It s all about giving more options to the buyer. This situation reminds me of the memorable scene in The Matrix, where Morpheus asks Neo to choose between a red and a blue pill. Here, the red pill offers freedom, at the cost of facing harsh realities; whereas the blue pill offers the "paradise" of the Matrix, but controlled by Steve s agents. The obvious choice is freedom, but don't we actually love the Matrix more than the "real world"? Well, the options are open - now it s your call.
Rating
Features: 4/5
Design & Build Quality: 3/5
Performance: 4/5
Value For Money: 4/5
Mojo: 3/5
Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5
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