Acer Outs Iconia A1 Tablet, Updates Aspire V5, V7 Ultrabooks
During a press event in New York City, Acer introduced the Iconia A1 tablet, an updated Aspire V5 line of notebooks, and a new Aspire V7 Ultrabook line.
During a press event in New York City, Acer introduced a number of new products spanning mainstream notebooks to convertible Ultrabooks to tablets. The company's new Android tablet assault launched during the event seems focused on Amazon's Kindle Fire HD, sporting a 7.9-inch LED-backlit IPS display, 16 GB of storage and a $199.99 USD pricetag. Called the Iconia A1, it's slated to arrive in June.
The specs show that the tablet is only 0.90 pounds and measures just 0.44-inches thin. The screen has a default resolution of 1024 x 768, an aspect ratio of 4:3, and a 170-degree viewing angle. There's also a 5MP camera mounted on the back capable of capturing 1080p video at 30fps, and a front-facing camera for video calls.
On a connectivity front, the tablet features built-in GPS, Wireless N, Bluetooth 4.0, microUSB 2.0 and microHDMI output. The tablet will also be offered in both 16 GB and 8 GB option, complimented by a microSD card slot allowing for up to 32 GBG of additional space. All of this is backed by a quad-core SoC from MediaTek clocked at 1.2 GHz.
"Acer's new Touch WakeApp gesture gives customers one-touch express access to their favorite apps directly upon waking from sleep," the company said. "The Iconia A1 delivers the Google experience with services like Google Now, Google Search, Gmail, YouTube, and great content such as magazines, movies, games, books and more than 700,000 apps from the Google Play Store."
The Iconia A1-810 with 16 GB capacity will be available in June for $199.99 USD.
In addition to the new Android tablet, Acer introduced the updated Aspire V5 series of notebooks, and the new Aspire V7 series of Ultrabooks. Between the two, consumers can choose models featuring large 15.6-inch displays, more portable 14-inch displays, or highly transportable models with 11.6-inch displays. They can also choose between touch and non-touch screens, Acer said.
On the V5 front, the updated premium models will include 15.6-inch or 14-inch displays, and resolutions of 1366 x 768 or 1920 x 1080 with IPS. These models will also feature four speakers backed by Dolby Home Theatre, next generation AMD dual core or quad core processors, or the latest Intel CPUs. Select configurations will be equipped with Nvidia GeForce GT7XXM series or AMD Radeon HD8750 discrete graphics.
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Acer will also offer V5 notebooks with an 11.6-inch touch screen locked at a 1366 x 768 resolution. The notebooks will weigh just 3 pounds and measure less than an inch thick, packing next generation AMD dual core or quad core CPUs, or the latest Intel CPUs. They will also feature a full size keyboard, while backlit keyboards will also be available in some regions.
"For maximum convenience, all V5 models include an Acer Converter Port, making it easy to connect to an external display, hard drive, router, etc," the company said. "Some models include a converter cable, which supports VGA, USB and RJ45 connections."
As for the new V7 Series of Ultrabooks, the company said they will have the same stylish and thin design found on the V5 models, but adds a "silky touch" finish on the bottom. They'll also feature a variety of the latest Intel processors, solid state drives, Acer Theft Shield, the new Acer converter port and WiDi, Intel's Wireless Display technology.
The Aspire V Series will be available at the end of May with a starting price of $499 USD.
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Andy Starr One other Android tablet which launches this week is the Novo 8 Discovery - which compares closely to the Acer Iconia A1, but with a few key advantages: a more powerful battery (5000 mAh) compared to the 3250 mAh on the Acer; twice the DRAM (2GB DDR3); and an 8 Core GPU (Power VR SGX544MP2). The Discovery is made by Ainol Electronics which won runner-up for Best Tablet of the Year at CES 2012, for the first Novo series tablet - - one of the first sites this new tablet is available through is called TabletSprint and is priced at $155.Reply
The Discovery matches most other features of the Acer, including an 7.85" mini-iPad size screen, 16GB Memory, a Quad Core processor (Actions ATM7029/1.5 GHz), Android 4.2 O/S, Bluetooth, MicroSD, Front and Rear Cameras, and HDMI 1080p... however, the Novo 8 Discovery also has one the latest technology innovations which launched in 2013... Miracast HD Wireless technology, that with an Adapter ($25) provides wireless connection to any HDTV - ideal for streaming movies (Netflix) and for video games as well as any other web content... essentially turning any HDTV into a computer device. The site TabletSprint also offers a promotion with $25 in Bonus Apps that includes several popular 3D games and an Office Suite with Word, Excel & PowerPoint. -
Finally, more laptops using AMD processors. Seriously, good graphics combined with decent CPU power in a fairly low power envelope. I don't understand how that doesn't sound like a no-brainer.Reply
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Cryio It's not that AMD CPUs are underpowerd, it's that Intel CPUs are more power efficient, thus better battery. Now ... I don't know how many people prefer 20 minutes more battery vs a smoother experience overall, but I digress.Reply -
greghome From what I've seen.....the V5 series are pretty pointless.Reply
They're thin, but that's about as far as they go with being an ultrabook.
They still weigh as much as or even more than a Lenovo G480 which is about 50% thicker.