Acer Iconia Tab A500

As a mid-level tablet in terms of price, the Acer Iconia Tab A500 does an admirably good job in duplicating the power and speed of more expensive machines while running on the Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system.

And differences in the Acer Iconia A500 are readily apparent directly from the go. The brushed aluminum exterior case gives this tablet a distinct look and nice feel, while the 1.5 pound (0.75 kg) weight and 0.5” (13.3 mm) thickness make this device right about average in bulkiness. More uniqueness is added to the Iconia A500 in a pair of switches at the top which allow the user to lock the orientation and the volume level. The latter makes adjusts to the sound based on the position of the tablet relative to the user.

In terms of other Acer Iconia A500 specs, the most notable is of course the 10.1”, 1280x800 touchscreen, an LCD screen that delivers top-notch quality in video playback. There’s also a micro SD card port, a mini-HDMI port, two USB ports, a webcam and an imaging camera. The Iconia A500 carries a powerful Tegra 2 microprocessor with 1 GB of RAM.

The major disadvantage in the A500 is the battery. Battery life with moderate use is about ten hours at best, but for the everyday user – particularly one planning on doing a lot with video play – the Acer Iconia A500 is a decent buy for the mid-range price.