jrobb's blog

\Acer Iconia Tab A500 Android Tablet (mini-review)

My birthday is coming up, and since I have had this whole week off of work my wife went ahead and got my present for me-- an Android tablet!
I didn't want an iPad/2, and after doing a bit of research on tablets in general I was tied in between the A500 Acer and the Asus EeePad. Spec-wise, they were virtually the same except the Acer has a real USB port and a bit of a nicer screen...but it was also $50 more.

In the end the nicer screen prevailed, and the usb port was a nice plus.

Overall I have been pretty happy with it, but of course I also went in knowing that this is a niche device and it cannot do all things or be a computer replacement.
Some people don't really get that. Oh, and I say "this device" because I am actually typing this firt part of this blog post ON my a500, ssh'ed into my webserver via ConnectBot and typing it up in nano (aka the best text editor ever).

Ok, that worked well for a while, but after I saved and tried to come back to it, I could not figure out how to move the cursor around for editing/apending to an existing document.
But hey, it's a tablet, it's pretty awesome I can ssh to begin with from Android. Now I am typing on my AspireOne netbook, which is also an Acer. Aside from this, I also have an aspireOne Revo (nettop), and I have been very satisfied with the quality on all of these boxes.
I have a pair of Asus EeePCs as well (900A, I think), and although they were very inexpensive I have not been nearly as impressed with the quality. I actually use one as my ssh server.

Anyway, as far as reading web pages and checking email and maybe watching videos on youtube and such, that is where the tablet excels--its "niche." The a500 is no exception, and it does this very well.
I have installed Firefox to try out alongside the included Android browser. I use Mustard for Identi.ca. ConnectBot for SSH, obviously.
Google docs. IMDB app. A few other things and some games, but primarily I use Firefox/browser and the gmail client. It is also worth mentioning that there is no Facebook client on HoneyComb at this time for this device.

Using these apps in normal type ways and everything, I get an unexpected number of crashes--at least one per day. Sometimes this is from Mustard, which I kind of expect since I am not sure if Macno had honeycomb in mind.
A lot of crashes come from Firefox, though. And not only that, but some web pages display in an unexpected way--most notably my corporate exchange email for work (outlook web something). The Android browser has not crashed, and likewise had no display issues.

I guess the crashes and things are a further result of fragmentation--with all of these different target devices that run Android OS, it is difficult for everything to be compatible everywhere. This is definitely one spot where Apple and its iPad/iPad2 have a leg up: they control the hardware and all of the software from start to finish to help ensure that the final product is very clean and crash-free (mostly). My wife wants one, actually, because she said the iPad2 just feels more quality and "smoother" on the screen.
Of course, I am trying to talk her out of that into some kind of Android device since I still prefer Android to the iOS. Well, that and I don't want to be forced into using iTunes :-)

The things I like about the Acer A500:

• The USB port. it's a real USB port, so a USB stick, keyboard, whatever could be plugged in
• The screen. It's a smooth quality screen, and the colors are very bright and clear
• The feel of the thing. It feels solid in my hands. I believe the back is some kind of brushed metal
• Convenient to carry around
• The keyboard works well for typing
• there is an available dock and such from Acer to turn it into a netbook

The things I do NOT like about the Acer A500:

• It's a little bulkier than I would like. It is thicker than both the iPad and the Asus EeePad
• The crashes! But I think this is some HoneyComb Android issue mostly... Not sure.
• They keyboard is a bit hard to type on like a normal keyboard. But it isn't a normal keyboard, and the angle is weird/it is hard to type while holding it
• Not a standard Linux/Gnu ... maybe could get something better rooted?

That's about it. Some of those pros/cons apply to netbooks in general. Like I said though, overall I am pleased with this device. You just have to remember what it is and what it can (or cannot) do.

Here are some more links:

• Engadget review
• Acer website
• Google search link for the truly lazy

Click here to see/comment on the identi.ca conversation for this topic.

Tags: #tablet #review #android #acer #a500 #iconia #asus #eeepad #ipad