Android Central

All the talk over at Computex 2012 in Taipai has surrounded the army of new Windows 8 and Windows RT devices, and Acer is one of the OEM's showcasing their efforts. However, snuck in between the Windows devices, is the new Iconia Tab A110. 

The A110 is a 7-inch Android tablet, running Android 4.0 over an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary there then. An Acer representative at the show though, said that the company will be pushing the A110 as their main low-end device in Q3 this year. Price -- less than $200. If true, this is a quad-core, fully featured Android tablet for Kindle Fire money. 

We've previously heard about the Nvidia Kai programme to bring low priced Tegra devices to market. While no-one would confirm this is to be one of those devices, it sure sounds possible. 

Ice Cream Sandwich is barely touched on the A110, though it sounds like it suffers from the same poor viewing angles as its predecessor, the A100. 

Also on display at the Acer booth, another new Ice Cream Sandwich tablet, the A210. Packing similar specs to the A110, the A210 comes with a 10.1-inch 1280x800 display. Additionally, both tablets pack 1GB of RAM, a microSD card slot and a solitary camera on the front face. The A110 will come with a HDMI out port with dual-display support, and the A210 has a full sized USB port along with the possibility of 3G data connectivity. 

Source: The Verge

There are 23 comments

bsharitt says:

Will they be improving over the terrible battery life and horrible screen of the original A100?

Andro X says:

That battery was horrible. The screen was really bad too. I couldn't even use it in portrait. The software on that tab though was so damn smooth minus a few bugs. I probably would've kept it if the screen wasn't so bad.

This topples anything else in the price range but I'm going to see what Google has up its sleeve at I/O in a few weeks.

emaddox84 says:

This is what happens when you don't have carriers limiting competition via contracts and indirectly inflating the prices of mobile devices. I think if phones were never subsidized, you'd see them at similar prices. Think about it, how does a top of the line tablet (like say a Asus Transformer Prime) cost less than a new cell phone off contract. I guarantee the parts cost more to make the tablets.

hmmm says:

I would assume it is easier to fit larger parts in a tablet which are generally cheaper and you don't have to worry about all the phone/3G/LTE radios.

briankurtz79 says:

but tablets are generally thinner than phones and the larger screens cost quite a bit more.

Suntan says:

These 7" tegra 3 tablets at low price points are very interesting to me. However they can not be low cost at the expense of having a poor screen.

I'd rather have a $250 price and a great screen than a $200 price with a poor screen.


hmmm says:

Wonder what makes it low end? 800x480 screen or something? Only 512mb ram? Those are about the only two things I could see wrong with it. Storage could be an issue I suppose but not with an sd card slot.

Magnus#AC says:

Yes, even with the SD card the low storage will be an issue, there are many apps that will install at all to SD and you'll run out of space very quickly. You can root or use ADB to change default location of installed apps to SD, but that will cause all kinds of issues as a lot of those apps will not work at all or will randomly have serious issues. And I'm talking from experience.
In this day and age, not phone should come with anything less than 16GB of storage plus SD support and no tablet should have anything less than 32GB of storage with SD support.
Without SD support they on board storage should be much greater otherwise you'll run out of space very quickly.

Magnus#AC says:

POS tablet! Wouldn't even take this to hang it on the wall if I was given for free.
1. Horrible screen resolution
2. Horrible screen brightness (Looks like another Motorola xoom disaster screen)
3. Only 8GB on on board storage (is this a freaking Kindle or a tablet)
4. So morbidly obese. Why? Would it kill them to make the stinkin thing thinner?
5. No back facing camera. Deal breaker!

So the only partially Good thing about this POS is that it comes with ICS and Tegra 3 (which really isn't that impressive)

Also will the battery life continue to be so terrible?

You can shove your so called tablet down your throat.

Samsung has also been a catastrophic failure this year as far as releasing a tablet that's worth buying.

Let's hope Google will come up with something stellar quickly.
Getting really tired of sub par Android tablets. The best so far are the Asus transformer prime, but then it has a freaking crippled GPS that only works if you slap on a dongle that looks like a cancerous growth. Also not impressed with the screen of the prime and the software is not optimized, it still stutters. Lame OEM's.

Now I feel a little better after venting.

U mad, bro?

CeluGeek says:

You obviously are not part of the target market for this kind of tablet. Many people can't afford an advanced tablet or don't want the extra complications of advanced features they never intend to use. That's why the Kindle Fire has been so successful. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 and the Acer Iconia A110 are tablets for this kind of audience and I definitely welcome more options for these users to have a full Android experience instead of the walled gardens of Amazon and B&N.

bdroc says:

You should feel worse after venting because that was a very foolish post. For one, you got way too mad. Second, you expect a $199 tablet to be as good as, if not better, than a flagship device. Budget tablet for budget-minded people.

Elliott6920 says:

Thank you to all the manufacturers who don't put rear facing cameras on their tablets. You are saving a lot of people from looking very ridiculous taking pictures/videos with their tablet.

Magnus#AC says:

Sometimes you're on a video call and you need to show things the person on the other end on a higher resolution camera, the back camera comes in handy then, also your tablet should't weigh a ton and that's why it's a freaking tablet not a desktop so you it comes in handy to take pictures in certain situations.
OAN, if you don't want your back facing camera you can put a tape over it or just gouge it out with a knife.

briankurtz79 says:

back cameras on tablets arent for taking pictures. they are for video calling(showing surroundings) and for scanning documents or barcodes and creating pdf's. alot of functionality is sacrificed with no rear camera. just because all you do is read blogs and play angry birds doesnt mean you need to be ignorant.

i1der says:

thanx for pointing out possibilities, not just "deal breaker argument"

n0obpr0 says:

Whenever I see a person taking a picture of themself with a tablet/iPad, I just want to slap them with it...real hard.

Elliott6920 says:

I'm with you. We should form a group. You're either with us or against us. Choose correctly...or get slapped.

CeluGeek says:

There are practical uses for the high-res rear-facing camera. In addition to the ones mentioned by the other posters, I also use it as magnifier helping me read product labels of everything from cooking directions and ingredients to dosing directions and side effects on medicines.

There are plenty of uses for a rear--facing camera on a tablet. Picture taking isn't one of them.

But yes, using tablets for self portraits needs to be outlawed! :)

Elliott6920 says:

Geez, the nerve of this guy. He obviously doesn't take this kind of information seriously enough. I should inform him of his lack of rear facing camera knowledge and humor.

Hand_O_Death says:

I was reading this thinking "oh this may be a great tablet if I don't hear anything about the ASUS 370t as long as the screen is..." Then I read the last two paragraphs, bummer.

and I think getting rid of the rear camera on a tablet I'd a great idea. I think a tablet is to big to be taking normal photos anyway, rather use my phone.

Rrennick says:

Now we're just waiting for the Nokia pad to come out.