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Last Updated on March 29, 2020
Acer recently released an upgrade to their A500 series of tablets with the new Iconia Tab A700. But is the A700 a big leap forward when compared with its A500 predecessor?
The Look and Feel
The A700 comes in two colors, black and silver. The slate tablet is 10.2-by-6.9-inches, 0.43-inches thick and weighs 1.47-lbs. The rounded edges, the tough feeling material on the back and the extra thickness makes the tablet easy to grasp in your hands. However, the overall boxy look of the tablet makes it appear a little dated compared to some of the sexier tablets out there.
The left edge holds the power button and the headphone jack. On the right side, you’ll find the micro-HDMI port and the microSD slot. The stereo speakers and the micro-USB port are on the bottom, the volume rocker and rotation lock is on the top. There are two cameras, a 1-megapixel for the front and a 5-megapixel on the back.
The Display
The display is the most remarkable aspect of this tablet. The 10.1-inch, 1920-by-1200 TFT LCD is one of the most spectacular displays you will find on any Android tablet so far. Although it’s not an IPS display as many hoped, it is still a gorgeous screen.
What’s Inside
The A700 uses an Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset running a 1.3 GHz quad-core processor. That, coupled with its 1GB of RAM is enough to power any application smoothly. It comes with 32GB of internal storage, which is expandable by its SD card slot. All of that with built-in GPS and Wi-Fi makes this a solid tablet.
Software
The A700 comes with Android’s Ice Scream Sandwich 4.04 out of the box. The tablet uses an Acer designed UI and not the normal Android one. It makes use of the Acer Ring, which is a customizable ring of app icons you can use to load your favorite or most used apps.
Comparing the A700
In comparison to the earlier Iconia Tab A510 there is not that big of a difference. If you could do without the A700’s gorgeous resolution, you could save some money by holding on to your old A510 or getting a new one. The A510’s native 720p resolution of 1280-by-800 is good enough for many casual users.
A similar case can be made comparing the A700 to the Toshiba Excite 10. In many cases, the Excite 10 is the superior machine, but just like the A510, it lacks the awesome resolution of the A700. The Excite is thinner, has a longer battery life and sports a full-sized SD card reader.
The Excite even beats out the A700 in benchmark tests.
The better comparison, if you still want to include the screen resolution, would be with the ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity (TF700). The Infinity makes use of the same resolution as the A700, however, it uses an IPS display that allows for a better viewing angle and better viewing in sunlight.
This particular tablet is the A700’s most direct competitor and is probably the superior of the two. However, that superior look and performance comes with a higher price tag.
What Others are Saying
The main complaints of A700 users include the battery life and the tablet’s propensity for getting hot. The battery life of the A700, rated around 8.3 hours, is not stellar. It’s also not the worse. However, you can compare it to the A510, which rates a little over 10 hours or the TF700, which rates over 9.
But that large resolution screen needs power. For many, that hasn’t been a deal breaker.
The other issue is the overheating. This problem also existed with the A510. Unlike the battery life, this problem is a deal breaker for some. The device gets warm with light use, but once you start doing something CPU intensive like playing a game, it can start getting really hot.
It’s not the overheating causes issues with the device; it’s just that many find it almost unbearably uncomfortable.
On the plus side, people like the performance of the device and consider it pretty solid. One thing that surprised users and reviewers alike was the usability of the 5-megapixel camera. This contrasts with most other tablets that skip putting any work into making the camera decent.
The Bottom Line
As far as tablets go, the A700 is a solid performer, and you will not find a higher resolution screen outside a new iPad or the ASUS TF700. Although the Acer Iconia A700 costs the least of those devices, it has its share of problems.
But they have not made a tablet yet that doesn’t have an issue or two. Despite those few issues, users of the tablet like it a lot, so there’s a chance that you might too.