Acer Iconia A500 Tablet

I tried to get Zinio running on the A500 using this workaround but ran into a parsing error trying to install the final file. Overseas reports indicate the A500 comes with Zinio pre-installed and I’m waiting to hear back from Acer about Australian models.

The A500 utilises and LCD TFT display with an 80-degree wide viewing angle, and can certainly hold its head high alongside the iPad. The A500’s LCD screen doesn’t suffer the blue tinge that you find on many of the AMOLED displays, in fact I’d say if anything the whites are a little whiter on the A500 than on the iPad 1 and perhaps on par with the iPad 2.

The A500 does an impressive job of displaying the image of Peter Costello below, the stripes in his suit are clear and there’s plenty of detail in the shadows but the skin tones are still healthy. The A500 also has a wider viewing angles, tilting the tablet loses the stripes in the suit on the iPad but not the A500. Once again, the A500 makes the Samsung Galaxy Tab look pretty shabby.

Get the A500 outside and I’d say the screen glare is a little worse than the iPad, but not much. The A500’s slightly whiter whites help compensate.

At this point I have to say Acer’s A500 is by far the best Android-based tablet I’ve seen to date and the only one that I’d consider a serious competitor to the iPad.

It certainly sets the bar pretty high for its Android 3.0 competitors and gives me confidence that Android tablets can slug it out toe-to-toe with the iPad this year. On Wednesday I’ll take a closer look at some of the A500’s sweet new Honeycomb features.