Acer Iconia A1 (8" tablet)

[anon(5743667)]

Is it a good tablet? I haven't read many articles about it, but Acer has a good reputation with their laptops.

 

[B. Diddy]

I saw one recently at Fry's Electronics. Seemed to be a decent piece of hardware, but the squarish 4:3 proportions threw me off--I guess I'm too used to the more conventional 16:9. Acer tablets are generally good, although historically, they err on the side of cramming more stuff in their devices, making them heavier. For example, my old Acer A500 was a pretty solid tablet, with all of the usual features as well as a micro HDMI and a FULL sized USB port. Consequently, it felt like a brick. Another caveat is that cheaper Acer stuff can have significantly inferior components. I also have an A100, whose screen has one of the worst viewing angles of any tablet I've seen from a major manufacturers, and a battery that only lasts for about 4 hours of continuous use.

But maybe they've corrected a lot of those problems. See for yourself, if you can find one on display at a store.

 

[anon(5743667)]

So between Acer, Asus, and Samsung, which company generally makes the higher-quality devices?

 

[B. Diddy]

I'd say it's probably a tie between Asus and Samsung. Samsung makes high quality stuff, but in my view, they make so many different devices that there's a bit more chance of quality control issues. Asus makes a lot of good hardware (which is why Google had them make the Nexus 7, and possibly the next rumored Nexus 10), but they also make lower end devices (the MeMO Pads) which might not be as refined as the higher end devices.