Detailed insight into Acer's Iconia Tab A501

Iconia Tab A501 is an Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet from Acer, one of key Taiwan-based technology players. It is a nice tablet with several features including a large 10.1-inch display, wonderful web browsing experience and microHDMI port. Acer unveiled Iconia Tab A501 in April 2011, of course, as part of a flurry of 10.1-inch Honeycomb tablets.

Acer Iconia Tab A501

What is it?

Acer Iconia Tab A501 is a powerful tablet equipped with a dual core 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 CPU, a GeForce GPU, and 1GB of RAM. The 10.1-inch display of the tablet offers a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels at 149 ppi (pixel per inch). Acer has rolled out two memory versions of Iconia Tab A500 – a 16GB and a 32GB. The device is also with a microSD card slot that can support an extra memory of 32GB.

Key features

Android 3.0 Honeycomb: Honeycomb is the tablet customized version of Google Honeycomb. To run on Honeycomb means, your tablet is a member of a strong platform with special customizations, widgets and apps for tablet PCs.

Large display: Acer Iconia Tab A501 is indeed one among the recent outbreak of 10.1-inch tablets. You can enjoy better web browsing, video and image viewing on Iconia Tab A501 thanks to its large display. It is an LCD capacitive touchscreen supporting 256 colors.

Cheap Honeycomb tablet: With a pricing starting at $329 with AT&T, Acer Iconia Tab A501 is the cheapest Honeycomb tablet in the market. Acer has realized the Honeycomb tablet with an affordable price and all key features for average customers.

Micro HDMI and other ports: Acer has designed its Honeycomb tablet PC with all prominent ports. The device is up with a full USB port and microHDMI port. You will be able to transfer and stream contents on the tablet quite easily.

Excellent browsing experience: Acer cites outstanding browsing experience as one of main traits of its tablet PC. Thanks to the large display and Honeycomb, browsing will be smoother, indeed.

What’s innovative

Acer Iconia Tab A501 is a full-fledged Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet. The device highlights all important features and capabilities that a tablet should have. From a 10.1-inch large display to microHDMI port, you can see all essential features on the device. Better storage options, microSD slot, and an affordable price make it Iconia Tab A501 a leading product in the tablet market.

Price and availability

AT&T sells Acer Iconia Tab A501 for $329 with two year data contract. You can obtain a contract-free version for $479 from AT&T, however.

Accessories

Acer Iconia Tab A501 comes with the customary accessories like headphones, AC charger and user manuals.

The up side

Iconia Tab A501 is a smart tablet PC. Running on Android Honeycomb, and with a 10.1-inch capacitive display and a reasonable price, Iconia Tab A501 will be a great choice for average customers. Web browsing, film watching and music listening can be better enjoyed on the gadget. The tablet also mounts a 5-megapixel camera with 2592 x 1944 pixels, autofocus and LED flash.

There is a 2-megapixel camera in the front panel for video chatting. GPRS, EDGE, HSUPA at 5.76 Mbps, HSDPA at 7.2 Mbps, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, WLAN, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP, microSD slot, microUSB and microHDMI port are other plus points of the tablet.

The down side

The Acer tablet is heavy and bulky. And some issues with HD video playback have been noted by customers. According to CNet review, Acer Iconia Tab A501 has a limited video compatibility and a narrow viewing angle.

Our experience

Even if a bit bulkier, Acer Iconia Tab A501 works superb. Thanks to Honeycomb OS and a large display, web browsing smoothly goes on the tablet.

The bottomline

Tablets PCs are ruling the technology world. All leading technology makers are emerging up with tablets not to be left behind by the rivals. Acer is one of first firms to appear with a tablet on Android. The company also introduced a tablet on Windows. Acer Iconia Tab A501 is one of frontline tablets with many cutting edge key features and capabilities.