Nexus 7? Acer Iconia Tab A110 says “Challenge accepted”

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True to the purpose of the Nexus name, the Nexus 7 has set the bar for any upcoming 7-inch Jelly Bean tablets in the pipeline. If the sales and demand of the Nexus 7 is anything to go by, it is pretty obvious that the formula just works, and works real well for the consumers.

For just $200, the consumer has access to a very powerful device. It provides the best bang for your buck at the moment, and it rocks the Nexus name, which means all updates are direct from Google, and they will be the first devices to receive the updates. It is also the first and only device to ship out with Android’s latest dessert named version, 4.1 Jelly Bean.

Despite the device’s popularity, it doesn’t go unscathed, as criticisms are also widespread about the Jelly Bean device. Not only it does not have an SD card slot, but it also works only with Wi-Fi as a source of data, which means taking it along with you to zero Wi-Fi zones means that you will lose pretty much half the purpose of the device, which centers around social media, cloud storage, and browsing ease.

In comes the Acer Iconia Tab A110, which is quite the mouthful by the way. It sets its sights on a post Nexus 7 world, but will it ma ke the cut?

The Acer Iconia Tab A110 sports pretty much every feature that the Nexus 7 sports. We have a quad core Tegra 3 SOC, a 7 inch screen albeit with a lower 1024 x 600 pixel resolution, the same basic connectivity options such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth with all the usual sensors, minus the Magnetometer as well as no mention of an NFC capability. The Acer Iconia Tab A110 beats the Nexus 7 front camera with a 2.0 megapixel one, but suffers a loss to the Nexus 7’s battery capacity.

What makes the Acer Iconia Tab A110 a viable opponent to the Google branded Nexus 7, is the fact that it has an option for mobile data connectivity, as well as a micro SD expansion slot, which are the main weaknesses of the popular tablet. Not to mention that if the rumors are to be believed, the Acer Iconia Tab A110 will sport a $200 price tag, which places the new tablet at a competitive price range.

It was originally announced to have Ice Cream Sandwich, but a recent press shot shows that it will possibly come with Jelly Bean right off the box. This puts the count of native Jelly Bean tablets to 2, which is an awesome development, especially if this will be ported to the rest of the Acer Iconia devices.

It looks like the Nexus 7 has fulfilled its purpose of setting the bar, and forcing manufacturers to rise to the challenge and put out their own low priced, high spec devices.

Image sources: engadget.com, computerworld.com, android.com