Disclosure: I was given an Acer
Iconia A1 Tablet to write this review
The nice people at Acer gave me one of their A1 tablets to
try out, and I thought it might be good to use while doing some restaurant
reviews. The 16GB version retails from
around £130, making it quite a bit more affordable than the iPad mini 2 which
starts at £320. It's compact and nifty, with an 8 inch display, and weighs only 410g,
making it easy to carry around or hold in one hand when reading.
I liked the intuitive system that guides the user through
the set up. It has a front camera for selfies and video chat, and 5 megapixel
rear camera, as well as a rear-mounted speaker for audio applications. I found the sound rather tinny, and I'm sure
movies would sound better with a pair of headphones.
It comes with AcerCloud, which lets you save content to the
cloud rather than clogging up the memory, and it is possible to add a wide
selection of apps from Google Play Store. It has Wifi connectivity, and 3G is
available at extra cost. I found the battery life reasonably good at 8 hours, which
would be enough to keep me occupied for most of the foodie travel flights I
take, and the screen is clear enough to make it a good option for catching up
on a novel or two via the Kindle app.
Overall, this seems a good budget Android tablet. The
main drawback for me however is the camera quality.
It has reasonable resolution in daylight, but in the kind of low light
settings I regularly meet when reviewing restaurants, it is no better than other comparable tablets on the market. I found the images grainy and lacking in focus taken under low light so I am still reliant on my SLR Canon on these occasions.
Still, with Xmas coming up, if you fancy a tablet that looks
impressive but doesn't break the bank, and is easy to use for wifi-based web surfing
or reading a Kindle book, this is definitely a good option.
Other Acer Iconia A1 Reviews here.
The Acer Iconia A1 Tablet can be purchase at Tesco Online for £159 here.
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