Race Zone: Acer Iconia Tab A200 review

Saturday, 17 March 2012

Acer Iconia Tab A200 review

It's a tired promise for too many gadgets: Ice Cream Sandwich, just like the Gingerbread man before it, is coming... soon. You have to hand it to Acer, then, for bypassing those vague release schedules and actually pushing out a software update to the A200 on schedule. And though its specs are fairly run-of-the-mill (a 10.1-inch, 1280 x 800 display and 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 SoC), it could nonetheless be a tempting deal -- after all, you don't see too many $330 10-inchers running Android 4.0.

The problem is, better things are around the corner, and the price wars rage on in the meantime. As it is, the A200 went relatively unnoticed at CES as Acer unveiled the Tegra 3-toting A700. The existence of that next-gen tab alone should raise a few red flags for consumers thinking of hopping aboard the Android tablet train. What's more, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang has already promised sub-$300 Tegra 3 tablets are on the way (ASUS even confirmed one!). So is this just a case of bad timing for what is an otherwise respectable tablet? Should you hold onto those hard-earned greenbacks until the market becomes flush with affordable quad-core slates? Or will its immediate availability and reasonable price make for an irresistible purchase now? Join us after the break as we tackle those very questions and give this tablet the fair shake it deserves.

Gallery: Acer Iconia Tab A200 review