Comments on: Acer Announces A700 Tablet With Full 1080 Display, Available for Pre-Order Now

By: Ted Pavlic

Ted Pavlic — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 14:22:00 +0000

No one is saying it has a native resolution of 1080p; the ability to show HD content is being highlighted for those who are not clear about the definition of 1080p. The aspect ratio of this device (of any tablet, actually) makes that impossible. It sounds like you are advocating for tablets that are longer and thinner. I don’t think many people feel that tablet sizes should be strictly driven by HDTV, especially those people who rarely watch video on their device. In other words, unless you are installing a tablet at a kiosk showing loops of HDTV content, the extra lines will get used very often for other applications (or overlays of video controls).

I didn’t realize your comment was just being snarky. I thought you were genuinely confused, and I figured hearing that the device can play full HD content albeit with a very tiny section of unused lines (which can be used for video controls) would be a relief to you. Given that you were apparently not genuinely confused, I have no idea what your complaint is nor what an adequate resolution is. Do you want funny shaped tablets? Do you want to strip all references to 1080p from information posted about this tablet? Do you really think it’s not a notable feature that this tablet can show full 1080p content?

By: Cory Simpson

Cory Simpson — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 13:23:00 +0000

By that logic if a car can travel 200 miles an hour, it can be referred to having a top speed of 150, because if it can travel 200mph it can certainly travel 150. While it can obviously display 1080 content, it isn’t a native resolution of 1080.

By: michael arazan

michael arazan — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 08:54:00 +0000

me too, i want to see what google will do, they won’;t just release the tablet, but will probably tell everyone the direction in which they want to take tablets too. I hope they announce a 10 inch tablet for 350 or 400 range. But 450 for a700 doesn’t sound too bad, unless a keyboard for it is still going to be 1-150 for it.

By: David

David — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 04:50:00 +0000

Something to keep in mind, This is android not apple. Apple will purposfully stop supporting old products even if it CAN handle the new OS upgrade just to force you to buy new devices. Apple will also be all “oh hey here’s your last update to the device” and the update its self is purposfully left buggy so you get frustrated and buy a new product, because your’s isn’t running “quite as smooth as it used to”

I do understand the desire to be future proof, but you have to remember some phone’s aren’t getting it not because they don’t have enough ram to run ICS but because they don’t have enough ram to run ICS WITH a skin. Not to mention other reason’s. It comes down to more then just “they don’t have enough ram” Thus, no update will be pushed because they are not willing to forgo the skin. According to this article > http://technoplant.blogspot.com/2012/02/minimum-system-requirements-for-ice.html the minmum ram requirements are 256 ram. Half a gig is just recommended. Besides, Not only is ics efficient with ram but do you think google is really going to increase the requirement’s of their next OS release beyond what the majority of the devices on the market are able to run? Why make an update to an OS if less then 2% (assumption, I don’t know what percentage of devices have 1.5-2gb of ram) of active devices cant ever meet the requirements?

By: Steve Wojciechowski

Steve Wojciechowski — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 20:45:00 +0000

I also have the A500 tab and I love it. I just threw ICS on it, and it’s like a new tablet all over again.

By: Diablo81588

Diablo81588 — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 19:53:00 +0000

My girlfriend has an Acer A500 tablet. I can say without a doubt that it certainly does not feel cheap. ASUS may have good tablets as well, but Acer tablets are not “bootleg” by any means.

By: Diablo81588

Diablo81588 — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 19:51:00 +0000

1920×1200 has a 16×10 aspect ratio. A typical television is 1920×1080, which is 16.9. It is considered “Full HD’ because it can display at least 1080p resolution.

By: adam

adam — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 19:26:00 +0000

play with an asus tablet. then play with an acer one. tell me the acer does not feel like some cheap, bootleg tablet.

By: Ted Pavlic

Ted Pavlic — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 19:23:00 +0000

The Galaxy Tab 2 also uses a proprietary connector, but they have a dongle you can plug into it to convert it to USB (normal USB, IIRC, not micro-USB). I don’t know if you can charge it via the dongle (i.e., it might just be for data), but I assume so. I don’t know why Asus couldn’t make such a dongle for their Transformers.

(of course, the Transformer docks give you more battery. Do they also give you more charging options?)

By: Ted Pavlic

Ted Pavlic — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 19:21:00 +0000

“1080p” means “1920×1080.” This device has 1200 horizontal lines of resolution, and so it certainly can play back a video that has 1080 horizontal lines of resolution. There will just be a few lines of black at the top and bottom.

By: Cory Simpson

Cory Simpson — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 18:56:00 +0000

Title says 1080, body says 1920 x 1200…which is it?

By: DaveTea

DaveTea — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 18:44:00 +0000

I think that anyone considering a sub $500 tablet would be well advised to wait and see what Google releases in the next month or two. That is what I am doing…but I have a KF to hold me over…

By: hkklife

hkklife — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 18:20:00 +0000

Look how iPad 1 owners who paid big bucks to be early adopters just got burned by not getting iOS 6 due to insufficient (supposedly) RAM. I’d rather take my chances and be safe rather than sorry. I also would be kinda disappointed if my next smartphone (GS3) has more RAM than my next tablet would.
It’s also no coincidence that on VZW the HTC Thunderbolt, Rhyme and Inc2 are all getting ICS due to having 768Mb RAM, whereas the newer, more powerful Moto Droid X2 and Droid 3 only have 512Mb RAM and are not getting ICS.
That said, I think 2Gb is probably overkill, especially on phones. 1.5Gb might be the sweet spot for RAM right now from the cost/performance standpoint.

By: Jackson

Jackson — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 18:15:00 +0000

I am happy with my xoom 4g last all day its got an HD screen super smooth but I only got it cause it was $200 cyber Monday.

By: hkklife

hkklife — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 18:15:00 +0000

Don’t forget that the Acer also uses a microUSB port for syncing and charging. Definitely a big advantage for those who wanna travel light with one charger. Asus’ proprietary Apple-style crap connector makes it overpriced and hard to find accessories for. I know Asus has to use it for the TF keyboard dock but there’s no reason they couldn’t squeeze in a standard microUSB port for secondary sync/charge duties