Acer Iconia Tab A700

The good news and bad news first. The good: The Acer Iconia Tab A700 boasts a nice 1920 x 1200 pixel touchscreen that looks great and represents a high-resolution picture available at significantly less than the Apple iPad – particularly with the markdowns in effect since its 2012 release. The bad: The A700’s processor is simply not up to the job for more involved tasks, and thus this tablet is limited in performance to say the least.

Those in the know will recognize immediately that the Iconia Tab A700 is similar in look to Acer’s A510 tablet to the point of cloning except for that denser screen. Unfortunately, the company has also kept identical technical specs for the device as well in what is touted as an upgrade; this simply means that all the same can be expected in the A700, and that would-be customers are paying for a screen that teases with its inefficiency.

The 1.3 GHz quad-core processor is here again and what had made for a speedy inclusion in the A510 disappoints here. At 1.48 pounds, the Tab A700 weighs as much as its predecessor and remains heavier than the latest iPad. And as in the A510, included is a Micro-HDMI port, Micro-USB port and micro SD card slot, the last of which can add 32 GB to the 32 GB extant internal storage. Two cameras plus WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1 support, gyroscope and GPS complete the package.

Again, making the choice to get the Acer Iconia Tab A510 depends on how one feels about that screen. For eBooks and simple surfing, one can hardly tell the difference from a high-performing, high-resolution tablet. For “heavy” videos and games, though, this tablet is far from the top.