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Hands on:

Acer Iconia A500 Tablet

Kompas.com - 18/04/2011, 11:13 WIB

Adam Turner

KOMPAS.com - If you've been waiting for Android tablets to catch up with Apple's iPad, the wait might be over.

I wasn’t overly impressed with the first batch of Android tablets. They reminded me of the early Android smartphones like the HTC Dream - brimming with potential but not quite ready for the big time.

After spending some time with the sleek new Acer Iconia Tab A500 running Android 3.0 “Honeycomb”, I feel it’s safe to say Android tablets have come of age.

For now Acer is selling the 16GB wifi-only A500 for $579 and the 32GB wifi-only for $678 - impressive pricing compared to the first-gen Android tablets. The A501 wifi/3G models should be available in May.

The 10.1-inch A500 is a thing of beauty and makes a striking first impression. It’s just as slender as the original iPad and is only a tad heavier at 765 gm compared to the iPad’s 680 gm. The A500’s tapered edges help emphasise the feeling of slenderness and the extra weight isn’t really noticeable at first.

After a while I found myself resting the A500 on my lap more than I would with the iPad, so I guess you start to feel the weight after a while. That doesn’t bother me too much because I’d say the A500 is designed more for using on the couch than the train.

If you’re looking for a smaller and lighter travel companion, keep in mind Acer will also offer a 7-inch A100 - unlike Apple’s one-size-fits-all approach to tablets. The A100 features a pretty meagre 8GB of storage, but the other specs are good and it will most likely be the cheapest entry-level Honeycomb tablet.

Getting back to the A500, it utilises an aluminium shell with your standard tablet design but hiding a few surprises. Holding it in portrait mode you’ve got the power button and headphone jack across the top right, with volume buttons and a rotate lock switch down the right side. Below this is a plastic cover which comes away to reveal the microSD card slot and a gap which will take a SIM in the 3G-capable models.

Across the top left you’ve got a micro-HDMI slot - the first indication that the A500 has a few impressive tricks up its sleeve. Half way down the left side you’ll discover a docking port, which works with the optional charge cradle.

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