Last Updated on March 29, 2020
Design
This tablet is white plastic, with a contoured back that makes it a little bit grippy at 8.27 by 4.96 by 0.37 inches (HWD). With its 12-ounce weight, it is quite light. There’s a wide bezel around the monitor and the headphone jack, MicroSD and micro USB ports are at the top of the screen. The Iconia Tab 8 follows Acer’s elegant, affordable tablet model. The 8-incher dresses an aluminum rear cover that curves on the front of the tablet towards the white bezels. The surface is smooth and cool against my fingertips and its corners as I rest in my hands.
The 8-inch screen, 1.280-by-800, unlike many cheaper Android tablets from less reliable suppliers, is decent and not too weak. It is also larger than the 1,024-by-600 screens that you can see at this price point. Nevertheless, it is coated in cheap plastic which can be uncomfortable to touch when smeared with smudges or waste, which happens rapidly. In some cases the coating on Amazon tablets can better withstand everyday use. Reflectivity makes it difficult to use outside as well.
Display and Audio
Another Acer screen innovation is “zero air gap” technology. It sounds like a promotional match, but what it really means is that everything is a little bit more legible and less likely to replicate–it was really an Iconia W4 innovation. According to its predecessors, the One 8 comes with a series of colorful options-10 to be exact-and with the option of certain fun cases. If you look at other tablets, you will notice that the One 8 also features a left-hand microSD slot to accept cards up to 32 GB. Originally, the tablet has 16 GB of internal storage.
As for the sound, the single, backported speaker is much louder than those of other similar tablets in this range. On a complicated track drums vanish essentially under overly heavy synthesizers. The voices hit far in front of any instrument on more vocal-heavy songs. That is also valid for headphones, where you probably won’t sense a lot of quality.
Performance and battery life
The device runs Android 5.1, which makes it quite pleasant to use thanks to its smooth operation.Approximately 11 GB of the 16 GB internal storage is free; you can insert a 256-GB microSD card into a slot in the top and transfer software onto the card. Since this tablet was released for one year and hasn’t been upgraded to Android 6.0 (let alone Android 7.0), it’s probably safe to say it’ll never be, but you should not take this as a final verdict; you never know.
The main benefit is the fact that you will have access to the Google Play Store. You can use all the features lacking from Amazon tablets such as Google Maps and Google Docs, and a wider range of games. And note, here you can also download Amazon’s app store. You can safely ignore Acer’s own cloud music and images software. The battery life is deeply disappointing. We only have a total of 4 hours, 20 minutes of video streaming— half the lifespan of other similar tablets in the same price range. However, if you can get past that and don’t see it as a disadvantage, this is a pretty nice tab to have.
There is a 5MP rear camera and also a 0.3MP front. We still think that the front-facing camera of a tablet should be the best of both since you are likely to use it for something such as video calls rather than taking photos in nature. Nonetheless, 0.3MP is pretty poor today, so that this dimension is quite a letdown. Neither is video recording perfect. The front-facing camera provided 17 frames per second of VGA footage, with indoor lighting dropping to 10 fps. With 30 images per second, the main camera produced 720p video and fell to 20 in poor light conditions.
Should you buy the Acer Iconia One 8?
The Iconia One 8 feels like the right tablet at low cost but mainly because of Acer’s Precision Plus technology. It is the kind of slate that would be ideal for a classroom or for any young artist who wants to draw something good.
Acer has done a lot to leave Lollipop behind and while the excitement here may not be too strong, the superior touchscreen accuracy offered will differentiate it from other budget competitors when it comes to it in the next few months.
The Acer Iconia One 8 is better than other competitor tablets with a capacity of 16 GB that you need on an Android tablet. The Amazon Fire HD 8 is great for multimedia play and playback because of its screen coverage and much better speakers, but Iconia 8 can get you there if you want the rich range of third-party apps available in Google’s store.
To conclude, poor performance hits most business tablets and the shortcomings of the Iconia Tab 8 should be expected by default. Although it is competitively priced, it is not inexpensive enough if what you are looking for is a top notch tablet with impeccable performance. You will find a tablet with a sharper screen, improved quality and better gaming features if you don’t mind spending a little extra.