The Acer Iconia Tab A700 Brings 1920x1200 to $449
by Dustin Sklavos on June 13, 2012 1:00 PM ESTWe've been hearing about the impending ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity with its 1920x1200 display for some time now with no concrete word on when it's coming to market, but in the interim we can now look forward to the new Acer Iconia Tab A700. Acer may just beat ASUS to the punch, too: the Iconia Tab A700 should be available for presale now, and will be shipping by the end of the month at just $449.
Most of the other specs are pretty much bog standard for a modern Android tablet running Ice Cream Sandwich. The Acer A700 is a 10.1" tablet powered off of NVIDIA's 1.3GHz Tegra 3 T30, sporting 1GB of LP-DDR2, 32GB of internal storage, and a MicroSD slot compatible with both SDHC and SDXC. It features a Micro USB 2.0 port, Micro-HDMI out, and a 3.5mm combo mic/headphone jack, along with front and rear-facing cameras. The internal battery is also rated at a substantial 36.26Wh, and the unit as a whole weighs 1.47lbs (0.67kg).
Hopefully Acer can hit a homerun with the A700 and its high-resolution display and back it up with better support than we've seen in the past. While ASUS received the Ice Cream Sandwich update for their Tegra 2 tablets near the beginning of the year, Acer didn't roll out the update until April, and Acer has a tendency to EOL tablet support somewhat sooner than we'd like.
Then again, that's part of what you should expect with a low price and 1-year standard warranty. If you're willing to take the plunge, though, as we said the Acer Iconia Tab A700 should be available for presale now or in the immediate future, and will be available in retail for $449. That should be less than what the ASUS Transformer Infinity sells for with a similar configuration, though build quality and other elements are still up for discussion.
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Aqua1ung - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
This needs to be sold under $400 to make any waves. As is, and compared w/the new iPad, it just doesn't cut it (despite the bigger flash memory). It's thicker and heavier. No thanks.Confusador - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
My experience is that most people are pretty committed to Android or Ios, so this isn't really in competition with the iPad. The article's comparison with the Transformer Infinity is spot on.Personally, I've been looking forward to this since January, so it's nice to finally see a street date. Of course I've seen the rumors, but seeing it on AT makes it seem likely to be true!
JarredWalton - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
We got to handle an early version of the A700 at CES, and build quality was MUCH better than the A500. I'm not sure what the final product will be like, but don't count Acer out on this one.Impulses - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
Nice, they seem to be stepping up their game (based on this and some of their Win 8 products)... I've got a cheap first-gen Atom Acer netbook and I have no complaints w/that thing. I'm not really in the market for an upgrade to my Treansformer yet but I know lots of friends and family that are looking for new Android tablets, just waiting on $200 7" models or 1080p 10" models.damianrobertjones - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
I'm really, really, REALLY glad that the Android tablets have moved hardware along because that means the 'second' wave of WIndows 8 tablets will feature some really nice stuff. (The first gen featuring the minimum they can get away with for max profit)gatorproof - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
I notice lower guts inside compared to Asus Infinity .TF700. 1.3 to Asus 1.6ghtz, ram is DDR2 to Asus DDR 3, pixel density doesn't matter if the display quality is not the real deal. Asus brings it with their displays, especially their 600, Super IPS+ . Read Asus was coming at $499 wifi and saw, you tube, matching Asus 700 with Ipad 3. Asus took 3 out of 4 benchmarks and wiped the floor with the fruit basket. Except for the display and that was close enough to say, close enough, it's the Real Deal. That's a no for me, Howey, Acer can't go to Vegas.vision33r - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
It'll be another bargain bin item good for the daily deals in a few weeks or months.themossie - Saturday, June 16, 2012 - link
Huh? Their premium laptops are very good values. Of course, they're not premium laptops by the standards of other companies... but they have good build quality, really cheap pricing, and they offer several niche machines I've been unable to find elsewhere.I repeatedly end up recommending their TimelineX laptops to my friends, despite screens which are lousy even by laptop standards and CPU throttling issues. The 4830TG and 3830TG offer solid gaming performance, light weight (~4-4.5 lbs), and great battery life. The non-gaming series are also great deals.
Name a comparable laptop? I'd love to know.... I'm not actually an Acer fan. Asus is the only brand I can think of, but in lightweight non-ultrabooks they're both more expensive and poorly specced.
$450 is steep for an Acer premium tablet - or any non-iPad. How much will the ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity run? I'm hearing $600-700? Do you feel ASUS justify a $150 premium?
chas_martel - Saturday, July 7, 2012 - link
I've had one for about 5 days. Couple of issues.I can't log into the acer support site with any browser on my a700, other tablets work just fine there, for example my asus TF300. Odd, huh? Very very odd. I've cleared all caches, tried multiple browser etc etc etc.
WiFi Direct is not supported and acer support tells me it will not be supported on the a700. This is a BIG issue in my opinion. I just can't understand why this is left out.
Left side of the screen is "very slightly" darker than the rest of the screen.
It does get fairly hot on the right back side.
Sucks to not be able to find the "Best" android tablet. I guess I will continue the search.