Last Updated on January 5, 2013 by Dave Farquhar
So I was tempted when I saw a refurbished Acer Iconia 7-inch tablet for $151. Its specs are outmoded but respectable–dual core 1 GHz, 1 GB RAM, 8 GB of storage, and a microSD slot. And Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is available for it.
But there’s something better around the corner. I say few-compromises, because I haven’t seen a no-compromises 7-inch tablet yet. The 7-inch sector is all about value.
Acer’s follow-on, the Iconia Tab A110, is available for UK pre-order now. It doesn’t have the Nexus 7’s screen resolution, but otherwise does a decent job of keeping pace with the Nexus 7, and has that precious microSD slot and the ability to connect to a television via HDMI. Both run Android 4.1 Jellybean and have 4-core CPUs.
If you’re keeping score, here’s the tradeoff between the two:
The Nexus 7 boasts a higher screen resolution of 1280×800 and a heftier 4325mAh battery.
The A110 has a 1024×600 screen and a 3420mAh battery, but adds HDMI output, microSD card slot, and front and rear cameras.
At this price point, there are always compromises. I don’t care about the cameras, but desperately want the microSD card slot, and while I haven’t really thought of it before, I can think of reasons I would want to connect it to a television. Then I could use it to stream video to the TV, in addition to it being a replacement for a portable DVD player for my boys. That’s worth trading some screen resolution to get.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.