The Acer Iconia A700 tablet was originally shown at CES way back in January, so it has taken some time for Acer to finally bring their latest Android tablet to market, but the wait is finally over. Acer just announced that the A700 is available for pre-order, in black or silver, for $449.99 at “national electronics retailers.” The A700 is only the second Android tablet, after the Asus Transformer Prime TF700T, to feature a 10.1″ 1080p screen (actually 1920×1200). It also runs Android 4.0 out-of-the-box, as any new Android device released today should.
The A700 with 32GB will retail for $449.99, and we got a chance to go hands-on with it a few weeks ago. You can check out the pictures from our time with it, and the full specs, after the jump.
The A700 we saw at CES looked a little different to the finally version of the A700 released today (you can see some pictures of the original version here), and now it looks physically identical to the recently released A510 tablet. In actual fact, other than the screen, the A700 and A510 are practically the same tablet. Both use a Tegra 3 CPU, have 1GB of RAM, 32GB of on-board storage, run Ice Cream Sandwich, and retail for $449.99.
At our meeting with Acer we pointed this out, and were told that because of this the A510 was basically being replaced in the market by the A700, even though it has only being available for a very short time. While this will probably irk quite a few A510 buyers, it only makes sense, since in order for Android tablets to compete with the iPad juggernaut they have to offer comparable or better specs at a lower price. While a 1080p screen can’t technically compare to the Retina display on the new iPad, it’s still pretty crisp, and for most people will be a great choice.
From the short time we spent with the A700 we came away impressed. While the materials it is made from certainly aren’t as premium as some of the other Android tablet offerings from Asus and Toshiba, it is still a well-made device, with a beautiful high-resolution IPS screen and excellent viewing angles. At $449.99 it is great value for money, and it is one of the best spec’d Android tablets currently available. Once we get a chance to look at one for a longer period of time, you’ll be able to read our full report. For now, you can check out more pictures of the A700 below.
Specs:
– Processor: NVIDIA Tegra™ 3 Quad Core Mobile Processor (1.3GHz)
– Display: 10.1″ Full HD multitouch 1080p display, 1920 x 1200 resolution
– Memory: 1024MB DDR2 memory
– Storage: 32GB internal storage
– Audio: Dolby Mobile 3
– Media Card Reader: MicroSD memory slot up to 32GB
– Communications: 802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
– Camera: 5MP rear-facing camera with auto focus, Front-facing HD camera
– Battery: 9800mAh, up to 13 hours for video playback on system
– Interfaces: Micro USB 2.0 port, Micro-HDMI, 3.5mm combo jack
– Dimensions: 10.2″ L x 6.9″ D x 0.43″ H | 291mm L x 56mm W x 202mm H
– Weight: 1.47 lbs. | 0.665kg
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