Budget Friendly Acer Tablet Nears US Launch

Acer America has confirmed that it will launch its budget-friendly Iconia Tab A200 tablet, which runs Android 3.2 (Honeycomb), into the United States from 15 January.

Prices for the tablet start at the $329.99 (£212) mark.

Tab Specs

At a time when 10.1-inch premium tablets such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab weigh in at around 1.3 pounds, the titanium-gray A200 tablet totals 1.5 pounds. The screen is an HD multitouch display with 1280-by-800 resolution, powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 2 dual-core mobile processor and GeForce GPU.

With the screen, processing power and graphics processor, Acer is touting the A200 as a major gaming tablet.

The slate comes with the Tegra Zone Android app, which allows users to find and download Android games optimised for tablets powered by Tegra, as well as Netflix for streaming TV and movies and the Kindle app for electronic reading.

The A200 comes with Acer’s Ring interface, which allows users to mix and match their favourite apps. Users tap the double circle  in the system bar, opening apps, settings, bookmarks or contextual menu options. The tablet also includes a screenshot feature to let users capture images of Web images, articles or any app on the tablet.

Acer also promises 8 hours of battery life for the machine, which sports a USB 2.0 port for connecting with other devices, a MicroSD slot and micro-USB port.

The 10.1-inch, WiFi tablet will come in an 8GB version, starting at $329.99 (£212), though for $30 (£19) more consumers can grab a 16GB version for $349.99 (£225).

Other Models

The A200, which follows the A500, will include the same customisable app widgets other Honeycomb tablets offer, but Acer said the slate will get a free upgrade to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich in mid-February.

Acer’s A200 tablet will likely be on display at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show next week, where Velocity Micro, MIPS Technologies and other tablet makers will show off low-cost tablets based on Ice Cream Sandwich.