Well, I've had my Iconia for around 2 weeks, long enough to post my impressions about this tablet.
First off, this is a really nice piece of equipment. It's hard to find any real faults with the physical build of this tablet. I like the way it feels when held, albeit a bit heavy, it's not really an issue for me. The brushed aluminum back is a nice touch, and gives it a more substantial feel.
The only drawback to the Iconia is Android. Now I know that I'm going to get blasted by coming into what is first and foremost an Android forum, so let me clarify myself and let you know where I'm coming from.
I like Honeycomb, but I find myself disappointed in its execution. It's like having a child that you know is capable of getting straight A?s, bringing home a report card full of C's. It's buggy at best. Applications crash way to often. I know that this is not a hardware issue, because you see this complaint from a lot of users on different tablets. As annoying as this is, once again it's not really a problem for me as I use this tablet for light, non-essential tasks. Hopefully as updates are released, some of these problems will be resolved. But I feel as users, we are in a constant state of beta testing the OS.
Now here's where I'm going to do the standard comparison to the iPad 2. It's been easy to do a side-by-side comparison, as my wife got the iPad at the same time as I got the Acer. The iPad was not a new experience for me, as I have an iPhone 4. It's pretty much just a larger, more powerful iPhone without the phone part. Now if you've played with the iPad, you know how smooth the OS operates. Moving from page to page and opening apps is silky smooth. I have yet to have an app crash on the iPad. I know this is due much in part to Apple controlling the hardware as well as the software. Android does not have the luxury of being written for one set of hardware specifications.
If I were to have someone ask me what tablet should they buy, I would have to take into account a lot of variables before I could honestly make a recommendation. Are they tech savvy? Do they mind waiting for developers to catch up on writing apps for the Android tablets? If they want a really smooth out of the box tablet experience, then I would point them to the iPad. If they want a tablet that has a whole bunch more potential, expandable memory, USB ports, and more of a 'hands on' feel; then the Iconia is definitely the right choice for them.
I'm happy with the A500. I don't have any regrets getting it and keeping it in spite of the quirks of Honeycomb. It's nice having a flash enabled device, and the storage options.
Now if we could get a Netflix streaming app, I'd be even happier.
First off, this is a really nice piece of equipment. It's hard to find any real faults with the physical build of this tablet. I like the way it feels when held, albeit a bit heavy, it's not really an issue for me. The brushed aluminum back is a nice touch, and gives it a more substantial feel.
The only drawback to the Iconia is Android. Now I know that I'm going to get blasted by coming into what is first and foremost an Android forum, so let me clarify myself and let you know where I'm coming from.
I like Honeycomb, but I find myself disappointed in its execution. It's like having a child that you know is capable of getting straight A?s, bringing home a report card full of C's. It's buggy at best. Applications crash way to often. I know that this is not a hardware issue, because you see this complaint from a lot of users on different tablets. As annoying as this is, once again it's not really a problem for me as I use this tablet for light, non-essential tasks. Hopefully as updates are released, some of these problems will be resolved. But I feel as users, we are in a constant state of beta testing the OS.
Now here's where I'm going to do the standard comparison to the iPad 2. It's been easy to do a side-by-side comparison, as my wife got the iPad at the same time as I got the Acer. The iPad was not a new experience for me, as I have an iPhone 4. It's pretty much just a larger, more powerful iPhone without the phone part. Now if you've played with the iPad, you know how smooth the OS operates. Moving from page to page and opening apps is silky smooth. I have yet to have an app crash on the iPad. I know this is due much in part to Apple controlling the hardware as well as the software. Android does not have the luxury of being written for one set of hardware specifications.
If I were to have someone ask me what tablet should they buy, I would have to take into account a lot of variables before I could honestly make a recommendation. Are they tech savvy? Do they mind waiting for developers to catch up on writing apps for the Android tablets? If they want a really smooth out of the box tablet experience, then I would point them to the iPad. If they want a tablet that has a whole bunch more potential, expandable memory, USB ports, and more of a 'hands on' feel; then the Iconia is definitely the right choice for them.
I'm happy with the A500. I don't have any regrets getting it and keeping it in spite of the quirks of Honeycomb. It's nice having a flash enabled device, and the storage options.
Now if we could get a Netflix streaming app, I'd be even happier.
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