By Michelle Callanta-Toledo
I may not be big on tablets, but I do like things that keep me
preoccupied, informed, and entertained. The Acer Iconia Tab A500 does
just that. Measuring at 260 x 177 x 13.3 mm and weighing at 730g, this
machine—with its 10.1-inch, 1280 x 800 TFT LCD screen—sports an
incredibly sleek brushed aluminum design that has very little frills.
The power button, headphone jack and a mini HDMI port are on the
left, while the charging micro USB and USB port are on right. The power
button glows white when the tablet is on and orange when charging with
the display off. At the top you’ll find the volume rocker and
orientation lock and a small flap that protects a microSD slot while a
docking connector is on the bottom. The 5-megapixel camera and
impressive speakers are located at the back and a smaller 2-megapixel
front-facing camera on the front.
Now if you’re not all too familiar with tablets, you may find the
A500 a bit on the heavy side. And for someone with really small hands, I
didn’t feel all that secure holding it with one hand while the other
poked and prodded lest I want to throw Php 21,900 down the drain. And
for its seemingly sturdy build, there were obvious creaks which just
made you want to be even more careful man-handling it.
The Acer A500 is powered by Android Honeycomb and has a dual-core
Nvdia Tegra 1Ghz processor which makes the tablet relatively fast
especially when you want to surf the net or just go from one app to the
next as my overzealous fingers did. Even my 4-year old had an easy time
with it and enjoyed playing Angry Birds since the screen was larger than
my mobile phone’s and the colors were much more vivid. Software
included LumiRead, an e-book reader; SocialJogger, which is a Twitter
and Facebook status update browse; NemoPlayer, a photo, video and music
navigator; Clear.Fi multimedia browser; and Photo Browser 3D, which
allows you to flip through digital scrapbooks of your camera images.
Game Zone links to the included versions of the games Need for Speed:
Shift and Let’s Golf. Whatever it is you’re doing, be mindful. The
screen can get a little dirty with all the fingerprints and smudges so
it’s good to have one of those display cleaner cloths handy.
What I personally liked about the A500 is its battery life. I’m not a
heavy user generally but the tablet lasted a whole weekend without
needing to make a run for the charger (which I deliberately left in the
office). I guess it can go about 7 hours for the average user.
Specification:
Display: 10.1-inch, 1280 x 800 TFT LCD
OS: Android Honeycomb, 3.1
Processor: 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 Dual Core processor, Tegra 2 chipset
Dimensions: 260mm x 177mm x
13.3 mm
Weight: 730g
Display: 10.1-inch, 1280 x 800 TFT LCD
OS: Android Honeycomb, 3.1
Processor: 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 Dual Core processor, Tegra 2 chipset
Dimensions: 260mm x 177mm x
13.3 mm
Weight: 730g
What’s Hot:
• Sleek design
• Impressive sound and screen
• Battery life
• Sleek design
• Impressive sound and screen
• Battery life
What’s Not:
• A bit on the heavy side
• Slight creaks and smudges easily
• A bit on the heavy side
• Slight creaks and smudges easily
Bottomline:
It may take a strong arm to wield this tablet but for its price, you get considerably more for your money.
It may take a strong arm to wield this tablet but for its price, you get considerably more for your money.
