Acer Iconia B1-721

Like Samsung, the Acer philosophy on tablet design is simple: Meet market-leading Apple’s monolithic iPad offering with a barrage of tablets in a number of styles, with various functionality, different operating systems across the price range. Ticking the boxes on the Acer Iconia B1-721, then: This one’s a budget-priced 7” tablet with the Android 4.2 OS upon release.

Acer's B1-721 tablet is a new update within their budget series, and sibling to the B1-720. Cutting right to the chase, this latest model provides 16 GB of internal memory, compared to just 8 GB in the B1-720. Furthermore, the B1-721's storage can be expanded up to 64 GB via a microSD card. The B1-721 also comes equipped with a SIM card slot for 3G functionality.

While the B1-721 provides a boost to internal storage capacity and wireless functionality, it's low-resolution 1024 x 600-pixel screen remains a disappointment. And don’t even get us started about including this sort of Atari 2600-level hardware in a 2014 release; suffice to say that packaging up this sort of “technology” in a kinda sorta Nexus-looking way won’t fool anyone after the slightest experience with viewing. “Adding” to the experience is the MediaTek MT8312 1.30 GHz dual-core SoC processor and an integrated Mali MP400 graphics card.

Unfortunately, the B1-721 tablet does not feature a main rear-camera, rather just a simple VGA webcam. Pictures taken with the device are generally of poor quality with a high level of noise and blurriness. At best, the front camera only seems useful for video chats.

Though the B1-721 has its weaknesses, it still remains a decent tablet within its budget class. As far as we’re concerned, the biggest mystery about this tablet (and really the only matter requiring consideration) is why exactly Acer insisted on marking this device as an Iconia; this device could weigh on the reputation of what is otherwise a pretty fair line. More serious tablet users will perhaps want to check out some of those other models instead.