Acer held an event on Friday where they showed off a couple of new Windows computers and an Android tablet. Focusing on the tablet, for obvious reasons, it’s called the Iconia A1. It’s very much positioned as an iPad mini competitor given the fact that it has the same 7.9 inch 4:3 aspect ratio 1024 x 768 LCD panel. Under the hood there’s a quad core ARM Cortex A9 chip inside from MediaTek called the MT8125, 1 GB of RAM, a 5 megapixel camera, and it runs Android 4.2.2.
The best thing about this device is the price: $199. Now I’m not really sure what you get for $199, because different sites are saying things, but you should know that there will be three versions of the A1. One will have 8 GB of storage, another will have 16 GB, and another will have an unknown amount of storage (likely 16 GB) with both WiFi and 3G connectivity.
According to Notebook Italia, Acer also silently announced a newer version of the Iconia B1. For those who don’t know, it’s an insanely cheap 7 inch tablet that’s taking the emerging markets by storm. This refreshed B1 is called the B1-710. It has the same guts as the old B1, but it’s been redesigned to look like the A1. It’ll cost 129 EUR for the 8 GB model and there’s going to be a 3G version released later for 179 EUR.
Expect to hear more about the refreshed B1 at Computex Taiwan next month.
