Acer Iconia Tab A100 review

Acer’s new Iconia Tab A100 is the first 7in tablet we’ve seen that uses the latest version of Android’s tablet OS – we were expecting more by now, but there’s been some speculation that Google was having trouble getting Android version 3 and above to look right on 7in rather than 10in screens. With Android 3.2 the search giant seems to have fixed these problems, so expect a flurry of other 7in tablets to appear soon.

The A100 has the same Nvidia Tegra 2 chipset that powers most 10in tablets, including Acer’s own A500, and 16GB storage should provide plenty of room. The tablet itself is compact and light, and weighs just 450g. The screen’s 1,024×600 resolution is large in relation to its size, so you get a higher pixel density than on a desktop monitor, leading to sharp images. Graphics are bright and colourful, although the auto-brightness seemed to err too much on the dark side and viewing angles aren’t great.

The tablet feels well made, and although the plastic back case might seem a bit tacky, the edge-to-edge glass on the front is stylish. The ports are kept to the short ends of the tablet, with only a volume rocker and a handy screen orientation lock along the top edge. Actually, the placement of the touch-sensitive Home button indicates that the A100 is designed to be used more in portrait mode, and this is confirmed by the two speakers under the Home button.

Android 3.2 adds some specific updates for smaller tablets so that the user interface’s controls and status bar scale better, and Android feels at home on the device. We could do without Acer’s Hubs – eReading, Games, Multimedia and Social. These act as folders for other apps, and you can swipe between them, but they’re just another layer between you and your apps.

There are some useful additions, however: the Aupeo! internet radio, Docs To Go document viewer, Kobo ebook reader and nemoPlayer video player are all useful starter apps for users who aren’t familiar with the Android Market, but as they’re installed as system apps you can’t get rid of them once you find your favourite replacements.

Despite its Tegra 2 chipset, the A100 struggled to play 720p YouTube content, which was a surprise. It was snappy enough in everyday use though, and it scored a high 2202 in the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark, so browsing should be smooth.

Its convenient size and weight makes the A100 desirable as a portable web browsing platform, and its design, while not particularly classy, is still smart. We could do without Acer’s choice of pre-installed apps and the Hubs, but there’s plenty of storage space so they don’t eat into it too much. As the first 7in Android 3.2 tablet to market, the A100 has no real competition. It’s an impressive tablet with only a couple of niggles, such as the slightly tacky plastic back and odd speaker placement. It’s a good value tablet to buy now, but you may want to hold off until the competition release their own 7in tablets.