40 
Acer isn’t exactly the first name that pops into your head when it comes to top-tier tablets, but the company’s trying to change that with the Iconia A510. But does it hit the sweet spot between performance and price?
The Iconia A510 is an 10.1-inch tablet that sports Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) with a little extra bit of skinning from Acer, with Nvidia’s 1.3GHz quad-core Tegra 3 processor providing the muscle.
People who want a high-performance Android tablet for less money.
From the front, the A510 looks like every other Android tablet. We get it: 16 x 9 display, good. From the side, though, you can see that it’s thicker than the Transformer Prime or the iPad. It has a micro HDMI out, micro USB out, and nice pair of Dolby speakers. The back is rubberised and emblasoned with the Olympic logo, which will be super relevant this summer but could seem weird after the Olympics are over.
In general it’s very fast, but there are some bugs here and there that you don’t see in top-tire tablets. The audio sounds solid. Its guts are built for gaming, but the bulkier frame does get heavy after a little while.
The 9800 mAh Li-polymer battery gives the A510 tonnes of life. I was able to watch two full-length movies; do a good amount of gaming, and lots of internet meandering all on a single charge—with juice to spare.
The screen is very much ho-hum. It’s the same screen that’s been on most Android tablets for over a year now, and at this point that’s just not good enough. Not as bright as the Transformer Prime, and not as high-res as the new iPad.
Acer put a little bit of its own twist on Ice Cream Sandwich by adding the Acer Ring (pictured). It’s basically a customisable shortcut launcher that you can pop up from anywhere in the UI. It’s pretty, but you’ll almost certainly never use it.
- Battery life is the bee’s knees. Got over 10 hours with medium usage.
- Most apps worked flawlessly, and then there would suddenly be a buggy one (like in Shadowgun THD). Maybe that was Shadowgun‘s fault, but it happened too often for the Iconia not to share some of the blame.
- The optional protective case is actually very nice. It won’t automatically turn the screen off like the iPad’s does, but it’s thin and grippy.
- At 1.54 pounds, this thing is ain’t light. The Tranformer Prime is 1.29 pounds and the new iPad is 1.44. What makes it feel heavier, though, is the thickness—it’s .43 inches. It just makes it feel blockier and it’s less fun to hold on the subway.
- It comes with a little micro USB-to-USB female adaptor so you can plug in a jump drive or even a USB keyboard or mouse. Maybe handy?
- The sound it produces is pretty good. Definitely better than the Transformer Prime. At least the speakers are on different sides.
Eh, it’s a pretty good tablet, but at £370, it’s not good enough. Acer put a great processor in here, but the screen is extremely underwhelming, and the bulk just makes it feel older than it is. Bring it down to £250 or £300, and yeah, it’d be a pretty good buy, but you can get the Transformer Prime for just £30 more. It’s worth the difference.
Acer Iconia A510 Specs
• Network: Wi-Fi only
• OS: Android 4.0
• CPU: 1.3-GHz quad-core Tegra 3 processor
• Screen: 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 pixel TFT LCD
• RAM: 1GB
• Storage: 32GB + up to 32GB microSD
• Price: £370
• Giz Rank: 3 stars
Small correction,”top-tire tablets” Probably means to say top tier.
And there isn’t an image of the Asus ring shortcut that you said was there.
“The Transformer Prime’s Chubby Cousin” – The Transformer is made by a different company (Asus) and this Acer tablet doesn’t have a keyboard dock, so I’m sure why this tablet is being compared as if it’s a different product from the same company.
If it was the same company it would be “The Transformer Prime’s Chubby Sibling”. As it is they are both part of the Android family, so cousin is a reasonable simile.
Isn’t Acer making the (around) £200 Nexus tablet? Seems like a bad idea to pop this out when thats only 2 months away.
No, that’s (allegedly) Asus.