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Another Acer tablet on show here at Mobile World Congress was the Acer Iconia A500 – the 10 inch version of the A100, essentially. This one’s a bit different: inputs and slots and all those gizmos have been moved around a bit, and it’s bigger obviously.
It also has no capacitive buttons, but in its Android 2.3 form, you can bring up Android’s controls to navigate through the OS. We’re told Android 3.0 will be ready in time for launch. This also looks an awful lot like that Verizon prototype we saw earlier, but I’m not confirming that.
It has NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 processor, as you’d surely expect, and an HD resolution to feed all of your favorite content to you in full HD. HDMI-out is present just as in the A100, and the A500 has an extra USB port – it’s standard in size.
It also has a front-facing camera and a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera. Speaker grills sit at the bottom of the device on the back. All of its components are housed inside of an aluminum unibody structure, so it looks and feels great all around.
Once this thing is fully ready for launch and has the software acer intends for it to have, it’ll be just as hot of an item as the XOOM, Galaxy Tab 2, and the LG Optimus Pad are. Be on the lookout for it sometime this quarter or next. Video is above.
Man more and more Honeycomb tablets with Tegra2, it looks like Google lied about Tegra2 not being required for Honeycomb. Unless they were talking about when it eventually comes to phones it won’t have requirements.
Can you add an external disc drive to
any of these tabs?
Price? Looks great, but if it costs $800 – no thanks.
Yep, its all down to price.
I am not going to get a carrier based tab. Wifi is all I need please. And no one is saying anything about an SD card slot like Toshiba.
If that video is about a 10″ tablet that man has the hugest hands in the world.
@jdog25, I think it may be more a spec battle thing. If you come out with a honeycomb tablet, but with only a single core processor, lots of people will dismiss you simply because of that. Tegra is probably the most widely available dual core processor.
The only upcoming tablet that i know for sure has a usb host, so that you can plug external hard drive to, is the Toshiba tablet.
A dual core cpu is not required. Nook color is running Honeycomb without any issues.
I agree with treefq …I’m waiting on a price for toshibas tab.
No carrier BS, full size HDMI, USB, and SD card slot.
Makes things easier to integrate into the other stuff I already have.
I’m with treefq and right there with danbutter. Totally excited about the Toshiba tab.
Wow, Motorola kinda screwed it for every other manufacturer. The $800.00 price tag IS their price tag. Nothing about Android 3.0 or the hardware requires it. And if people don’t like the price then they need to buy what they can afford. Just because new shiny comes out doesn’t mean it’s a Constitutional right that everyone can afford it. It is what it is.
@Zaggs Then why didn’t Samsung use their dual core Orion?
@Zaggs Also aren’t there a few other phones with dual cores that are not Tegra2? I am not sure about this.
@jdog They didn’t lie. Honeycomb was uilt with support for Tegra 2, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be taken by a manufacturer and optimize it for a single core or another dual core chip. It would probably run pretty well on a single core, too, but I think it was faster for all manufacturers to just go with Tegra 2.
Holy crap. Did I really embed the picture of the Metal? Argh! Updated.
Still liquid metal
Yes, needs a good price point ($499 like iPad) and please remove the logos from the front of these tablets. Maybe a simple logo on the back, but why do you need this on the front? Can you imagine the iPad with “Apple” across the front or even the logo on the front? No way; it messes up the whole look.
Yes, needs a good price point ($499 like iPad)
Does it only have 16G/Wifi only?
iPad with Wi-FiConnect to the Internet wherever you can access a Wi-Fi hotspot.
16GB1
* Available: In Stock
* Free Shipping
* $549.00
Price is going to determine the big winner in the Android Tablet wars. Right now everyone wants to be the Ferrari, high mark up, high end. But the iPad has set our expectations. We expect the apple $499.00 to be higher then an equal Android device. But no one seems to want to make an equal device, instead electing to make these duel-core $800.00 beasts.
I want one, but I can not afford one, I can afford $500.00.. if these are the Ferrari’s, why do we not have any Fords? A 1gzh single core 10 inch wifi tablet with honeycomb for under 500 would be just great!
In my opinion since all these new tablets are released after the iPad, their price points should be lower or at least in a competitive range. The iPad is first to market and is already a robust product. These new tablets may have the best hardware, but what good is the hardware if the software is buggy or unreliable. Don’t get me wrong, I love Android, but I would not pay a premium for a niche product or unnecessary toy. I just don’t understand why Motorola thinks that consumers will flock to buy their over priced Xoom.
@ #2 good news everyone. I can r/w to my external drive with my Notion ink Adam. Im sure if any of these have USB 2.0 or higher with a standard size port they should be able to.
Voting doesn’t work on my g2…
Curious as to the starting price point. I have no want or need for any carrier contracts. Wifi only please.
Right now Im waiting for the ASUS Transformer to release in March starting @399.99 and the Slide in April/May starting @499.99 both are 10″ Tegra 2 Honeycomb Tabs. The 7″ ASUS Memo drops in June.
All these announcements about google honeycomb pads but no clue when their coming out! This is getting old already…just release the dam things and make them affordable!
usually acer is a low budget manufacturer and their liquid phones where really cheap compared to the hardware, hope it will be same with their A500.
It’s available for pre order in sweden for about 700 dollars. We have 25% VAT
Or €450, I think LG and Motorola will have problems selling their Tabs when this is released(Preorder, calculated arival date Mars 2 2011) :)
This one is soooo mine!
Love my acer Liquid and I hope this is as good!