Acer Iconia Tab A501 is Acer Iconia Tab A500 with 4G, powered by a dual-core 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 processor. A501 is A500 with AT&T HSPA+21 modem. With the tablet market getting highly competitive, manufacturers are trying to make their product different from rivals but then it is not so easy considering that they face direct competition from established players like iPad. Check out our exclusive Acer Iconia Tab A501 review to know whether this tablet from Acer is worth purchasing or not.
Acer Iconia Tab A501 Case/ Design and Looks
A501 is one the thickest tablet you will find in the market. It is almost twice as thick as Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G which makes it a bit difficult to hold. But the build quality of the tablet is quite sturdy. Acer has used metal while constructing the tablet which adds to its weight. The tablet weighs 777 grams which makes it one of the heaviest tablets in the market. Hence users may find it a bit difficult to carry it around. But if you happen to be one who does not mind weight then you will not mind the weight of Iconia A501. In fact A501 follows the same footsteps as that of Iconia A500 and hence the build quality of this tablet is very much the same as that of A500.
Acer Iconia Tab A501 Features
Screen
The tablet sports a 10.1 LED-backlit screen which displays pictures of resolution measuring 1280×800 pixels. The display has mirror-like finish which makes the tablet look pretty stylish. However, the screen easily attracts fingerprints and there is a lot of glare when it is kept under direct light. But nevertheless, the colors on the screen looked very crisp and the viewing angles are also very wide. But as the tablet uses a Twisted Nematic (TN) panel, viewing angles from the bottom become very narrow as compared to tablets such as Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G. However, the texts appeared to be very sharp and reading them on the screen was a great pleasure.
Keyboard
The keyboard of Iconia A501 is the default one which comes with Honeycomb. The keys are quite spacious and are quite large which facilitates typing. But sometimes users may find them a bit too bit to manage. We found typing on portrait mode to be much easier than in landscape mode. There is also an additional XT9 keyboard provided by Acer. But if you want, you can download another keyboard from the Android market.
Apps
There are some pre-installed applications such as MusicA, NemoPlayer etc which have been designed to make A501 a powerful media tablet. Messaging is another application which is pre-installed in A501. With the help of this application one can send text messages from A501. This application assigns a phone number to A501 from which you can use to send text to any other cell phone. There are some native apps such as Chrome Browser, Gmail, Google Talk, Calendar, Google Maps, Youtube and many more. On the top right hand corner of the Honeycomb page you will find the apps menu which opens the full-page menu which you can scroll from left to right.
Acer Iconia Tab 501 Connectivity
Ports and HDMI
On the left edge of the tablet, there is a 3.6mm headphone jack along with the lone micro-HDMI port. Around the right hand side you have a full sized USB port along with micro-USB and a power port. The tablet is one of the few tablets in the market which has full sized USB and HDMI port. With the presence of HDMI port, you can view movies and videos on a television having an HDMI port. Finally there is 4G which provides quick browsing speeds. The web browser responded quite well to our touches and it played flash videos quite well and it handled web pages quite smoothly.
Multimedia
On the whole multimedia performance is quite incoherent with Iconia Tab 501. Though the audio playback was good, yet the volume on earphones is quite low. However, through the stereo speakers the volume was loud. We were quite disappointed to note that the tablet lacks an FM receiver.
Acer Iconia Tab A501 Camera Quality
On the rear side of Iconia A501 there is a 5MP camera with an integrated LED flash. The camera captured decent snaps and the flash helped us to click nice photos in dim lighting conditions. There is another camera which is located in the front which uses 2MP sensor. This camera is meant for video chats.
Acer Iconia Tab A501 Camera Quality
On the rear side of Iconia A501 there is a 5MP camera with an integrated LED flash. The camera captured decent snaps and the flash helped us to click nice photos in dim lighting conditions. There is another camera which is located in the front which uses 2MP sensor. This camera is meant for video chats.
Acer Iconia Tab A501 Videos
Video playback is also a bit of a problem with Iconia A501. We had problems while playing 720p and 1080p videos. However, DVD quality, DivX/XviD videos played quite well.
Acer Iconia Tab A501 Battery Life
Battery life of Iconia Tab A501 is quite disappointing. While the battery life of other Honeycomb tablets such as Motorola Xoom and Galaxy Tab 750 lasted for well over 8 hours, Iconia tab struggled to survive even for 6 hours. The notebook is equipped with a 3260mAh battery and we wished the battery life could have been better.
Acer Iconia Tab A501 Price
Price In USA
Iconia Tab A501 is available for $ 480 (approx) without a contract while on contract the price of the tablet is $ 330 (approx).
Price In India
In India, the 3G version is available for Rs 32,990 while the Wi-Fi counterpart is available for Rs 26,660. One can also purchase from several online stores.
Acer Iconia Tab A501 Verdict
Overall Iconia Tab A501 is a good device which has lot to be liked about it. However, Acer needs to work upon the battery life of the machine which is quite disappointing. But surly you will not be disappointed with Iconia Tab A501 and the tablet is a decent purchase.
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