Acer Iconia A500 Tab Aluminum Wi-Fi-Only Model On Sale Now for $450

[dgstorm]

The Acer Iconia A500 Android Tablet, aluminum-shell Wi-Fi only model, is now available for $450 bucks at Best Buy. This Tegra 2 and Honeycomb powered tablet is the 16GB Storage version, and is a pretty sleek looking device. That's a decent price, but with the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer coming out tomorrow for $50 dollars less, I think we should see a price-drop on this baby very soon. What do you guys think?

Source: AndroidTablets.net via Engadget and Best Buy

 

[LoneWolfArcher]

I like Acer's laptops and would lean toward this tablet over the ASUS. But $50 is $50 so I'll wait and see if Acer matches.

Also, I'd like to see Motorola come out with a 16 GB version and also to start making price cuts on the Xoom to get it in line with these tablets.

So far, I think all 3 3.0 Android tablets are very nice units.

 

[gadgetrants]

Wow, really don't like the bezel on the Acer (yeah, call me an Asus fan). Maybe they look better in person?

-Matt

 

[LoneWolfArcher]

Just got my hands on this over at the local Best Buy. The overall construction is very high quality, much higher quality than the Xoom. I can't wait to get my hands on a Asus EEE Transformer to compare the two. As of now I am leaning towards the Acer. (I will be purchasing in the next 2-4 weeks.)

 

[azieser]

Picked up one last night

I love the build quality of the device, it feels really solid when you are holding it. I installed a number of apps most worked but some do not currently. I like the games that are preloaded onto the device having played a couple of them before I really enjoyed the control that this device has.

The factory installed video player does not seem to work with anything other than videos that are created on the device. I installed Moboplayer video player and the recommended codec and it worked flawlessly with several files I loaded onto the device from a USB Flash drive.

The camera is surprisingly nice for a 5MP camera. It does a better job than my 8MP camera on my Incredible. I put Adobe Photoshop online onto the A500 and it worked well.

The screen has a viewing angle limit but not a bad one and it would serve as a security feature from people next to you in a coffee shop, so no complaints from me.

Overall the ability to load data and files from a USB drive without needing a computer is a definite plus for the unit. The battery life seems on-track for 8 - 10 hours depending on usage, definitely on par with the battery life of the dreaded iPad. With flash built into the device the need for the news apps is gone, now you just goto the site directly. The only drawback is that some sites still think you are on a phone and will direct you to their mobile sites which are a bit tedious to use.

Overall I like the device after playing with it for a few hours, the ability to have multiple screens and apps running is a definite plus for this unit. Acer also has the device drivers for Windows 7 for download on their site, plus their navigation software, so I am assuming that you can boot the device and install Windows if you desire to have it run a bit slower. I would be interested in seeing the Windows version to see how well it compares. But for me this device is an excellent buy.