Acer Iconia Tab A700

Acer has been diligently releasing, improving, and iterating its Android tablets for a year now. The Iconia Tab A700 is its fifth major crack at tablets and its diligence is visible in almost every detail of the design. This time, to better compete with the new iPad, Acer has added a Full HD display and bumped up the processing power

The A700 is almost identical in design to previous Acer tablets, which is good and bad. Thanks to a rubberized, textured coating and good button placement, it’s easy enough to use it, but it’s still heavier (23.5oz) and thicker (11mm) than a lot of tablets. It’s also heavier and thicker than the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity. Still, its the lightest and thinnest Acer tablet yet.

As we always say, 10.1-inch Android tablets are not our favorite size. It’s a bit too large to type on comfortably or to hold in landscape mode due to Android’s reliance on a widescreen design. Apple’s solo choice to use a screen with an aspect ratio of 4:3 was a smart one. Our favorite Android tablets are a bit smaller, clocking in with screens between 8 and 9 inches.
We’re being nitpicky, but we’re sad that Acer has removed the full-size USB port from the A700. The Asus Transformer Pad Infinity still has one, as have previous Iconia Tabs. This one has a modified Micro USB port instead. You can connect it up to your computer, but it requires its own proprietary charger (boo). Stereo speakers on the bottom of the tablet sound okay, but cannot compete with the iPad’s single speaker, even after you turn on built-in Dolby audio enhancements.

Screen

To compete with the new wave of Full HD devices, Acer has upgraded its 10.1-inch LCD screen to 1920 x 1200 pixels, which is as high as any Android tablet and almost as much as the third iPad’s Retina display. The effect is the same: Text and visuals on the tablet look crisp and clear. You don’t notice the bump in resolution all the time, but if you try to go back to a 1280 x 800 screen after using the Iconia Tab, it won’t be an easy transition. This screen is quite nice. We have no complaints except its size. We recommend you try out a 10.1-inch Android tablet before committing.

Operating System

The Iconia Tab A700 runs on the almost newest version of Google’s OS: Android 4.0 (codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich). The interface is pretty straight-forward and sticks with the strengths of Google’s new OS, though Acer has made more changes than it has in the past, especially to the Android Status Bar, which expands out when you touch the clock in the lower right. The changes appear to be an improvement in design and functionality, allowing easier toggling of Bluetooth, GPS, Airplane mode, Sound, screen rotation, app syncing, Wi-Fi, notifications, and screen brightness, but they are a change nonetheless.