Customer Reviews

Acer Iconia A1 7.9-inch Tablet PC (MTK Cortex A9 1.2GHz Processor, 1GB RAM, 16GB eMMC, WLAN, BT, 2x camera, Android 4.2)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Firstly, I didn't buy the tablet from Amazon, as it wasn't available at the time from them, but I have exactly the same model as the one advertised here.

I've now been using this for over a month, and have had no regrets at all. As always, you need to do your own research to find a tablet that will meet your own needs, as this tablet will not meet everyone's expectations. I have read many reviews that try to compare this Acer to an iPad Mini, which considering the price difference is not really looking at like for like.

My main needs for a tablet are web browsing, email, FB, the odd game such as Candy Crush, playing music and viewing photos. For all these things I have found this tablet works very well. The Quad Core CPU allows the tablet to switch quickly between screens and applications with no discernible lag. Loading up any applications from the main screen is achieved quickly, taking a matter of seconds to open up (depending a bit on the app you are using, some are quicker than others). The odd game I play works well, with again no lag in performance. I'm not sure that the graphics are top notch, but for games such as Candy Crush or Angry Birds, I'm not really too worried. I do like the 7.9" screen, the (almost) extra inch makes web browsing that much easier as you can fit more text on the screen even when zoomed in.

Web browsing is fast (I tend to use Opera Mobile), some websites take a bit longer to load than others (Techradar for one is notoriously bad on any tablet that I've tested), taking normally a few seconds to load up a page. Possibly an iPad may be even quicker, but I'm happy to wait 1 or 2 seconds longer and not spend the additional �100 or more. Accessing the tablet from sleep, it wakes up quickly and is instantly locked onto my wifi signal, downloading emails. Sometimes the widgets on the main screen take a bit longer to update, but I suspect that is more to do with Android than the tablet. I have full access to Google Play, so all apps are available.

I've added a 32GB Micro SD Card to the tablet and copied all my music and photos to this. Music plays back fine through the headphones, although the single speaker on the back is very tinny. When viewing photo's the quality is reasonable, the screen is not a particularly high resolution but for casual viewing is fine.

So the Pro's are:

Fast response from Quad Core CPU
Fast internet browsing
Full Google Play access
7.9" screen allows better browsing
Battery life on full charge lasts me a good 3 days, with 1 to 2 hours a day of web browsing\FB\games, and using sleep mode in between.
Reasonable quality screen
Construction of tablet is solid, if a bit plasticky, however, I have bought a case as well so I don't really see this
Rear Camera is reasonable quality
Has a MicroSD slot (this was a major deciding factor for going for this tablet)
Can be charged from a USB port

Con's
Slightly heavier\thicker than some tablets, it's nothing major (I have a case that acts slightly as a stand so I can rest this against my knees when required)
Front camera is not very high quality, but really only designed as a webcam
Screen is lower resolution than some tablets, so if this is high on your list then look elsewhere
Single rear speaker is very tinny, although 3.5" headphone jack is included

I had been waiting for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 tablet to be released, but now that I've seen both the spec's of this and the price, I'm very glad I didn't wait. So far, I personally have to say this one of the best 8" tablets out there, considering specification you get for the price and I would highly recommend this.