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Next in our series of Honeycomb tablet reviews is the Acer Iconia Tab A500. The A500 was the second Honeycomb tablet to go on sale, and is one of four on the market at present, all of which are very similar. They share basic specs—10.1” 1280×800 displays, NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 underhood, 1GB LPDDR2 RAM, 16-64GB onboard NAND, front and rear facing cameras with HD video capture, basic wireless connectivity options, and stock versions of Android 3.0/3.1 Honeycomb (albeit with different preloaded software packages). The hardware similarities makes things like design and price that much more important, and the latter is where Acer seemed to have an edge.

Long a sales leader in the budget notebook market, Acer jumped into the tablet game with a price advantage—the Iconia A500 came in at 9, in comparison to 9 for the iPad and 9 for the WiFi-edition Motorola Xoom (though it is worth mentioning that the Xoom comes with twice as much onboard storage as the Iconia and iPad). ASUS released the 9 Eee Slate Transformer soon afterwards, but supply issues meant that the Acer was the cheapest readily available Honeycomb tablet for some time. More recently, some retailers have dropped the prices of the Iconia, with MacMall selling it on their eBay store at one point for just 9. On paper, that’s a screaming deal, but it's decent even at MSRP. How does the Acer hold up in real life? Read on to find out.

TAIWANESE HARDWARE OUTFIT Acer has announced a 60 per cent cut to its target for tablet shipments this year.

According to a report at Reuters, Chairman JT Wang told reporters after a shareholders meeting that the new target for tablet shipments is 2.5 to 3 million instead of the 5 to 7 million set at the beginning of the year.

Acer is expected to sell 800,000 tablets in both the third and fourth quarters of this year. This number seems pretty insignificant when you consider that the Ipad 2 sold one million units over its first weekend.

“The third quarter will be considerably more stable. It will be similar to the second quarter or better,” Wang said at the meeting. “The fourth quarter will be even better.”

Acer is engaged in what’s proving to be a busy and difficult battle for tablet market share. Its range of devices includes tablets running both Windows and the Android operating system.

The Iconia Tab W500 seems to have had the biggest advertising push and is a hybrid between a tablet and a netbook. Whilst this might be a clever idea and appeal to consumers torn between the two it has some stiff competition.

Apart from the fact that every tablet is being compared to the Ipad 2, its main rival is the Asus Eee Pad Transformer, which is another hybrid that runs Google’s Android operating system. The Transformer has had much better reviews – we gave it 10 out of 10 at The INQUIRER – and is cheaper, so it’s a no brainer to choose between the two unless you can’t live without Windows.

Other than tablets Acer has a number of new laptops coming out including the Ethos and Timelinex series. It also has one of the first Chromebooks that will come to the market in the UK, but we’ll have to wait and see how popular these will prove to be. µ

Acer's popular TimelineX line of notebooks has undergone a refresh to Sandy Bridge and brought a healthy number of upgrades to the hardware with them, including a major (and much appreciated) change to the keyboard. With models topping out at just 1.15" thick and 5.6 pounds in the case of the 15.6" model, these notebooks are made for performance in a thin-and-light form factor. So what is Acer bringing to the table today?

Acer's popular TimelineX line of notebooks has undergone a refresh to Sandy Bridge and brought a healthy number of upgrades to the hardware with them, including a major (and much appreciated) change to the keyboard. With models topping out at just 1.15" thick and 5.6 pounds in the case of the 15.6" model, these notebooks are made for performance in a thin-and-light form factor. So what is Acer bringing to the table today?

LAPTOP MAKER Acer has announced its line of Aspire Timelinex laptops with updated design and specifications.

Acer has announced two series of laptops in as many days with the Timelinex range following hot on the heals of the Aspire Ethos series that we saw yesterday. The line-up consists of three different sizes that Acer has said will be available from 1 August.

The three options are a 13.3in 3830T model, a 14in 4830T model and a larger 15.6in 5830T model. They will all have Cinecrystal LED displays with 1366×768 resolution.

These laptops span from 22.2mm up to 31mm in thickness. Weight-wise the smallest weighs 1.87kg and the largest weighs 2.49kg.

Much like the Aspire Ethos models, the Timelinex laptops are equipped with Intel’s range of Sandy Bridge Core i processors. There is the option of Nvidia Geforce discrete graphics and up to 750GB of internal storage. You can also opt for a solid state drive for improved performance.

Connectivity includes HDMI and USB 3.0 ports as well as WiFi, Bluetooth and a 1.3MP webcam.

Acer said the Timelinex laptops will have 25 per cent more power than last year’s series. This apparently equals to up to 10 hours of battery life on a single charge. As with the Ethos series Acer claims that the battery will last over 1,000 charge cycles, which supposedly means a total lifespan of up to 4 years.

Acer’s Timelinex series seems to be quite similar to its Ethos range except with more of a focus on portability and less on multimedia features. µ

LAPTOP MAKER Acer has announced two Aspire Ethos laptops for the multimedia enthusiast, which include detachable touchpads that double as remotes.

The Aspire Ethos series laptops will be available later this month starting at £999. There are two different sizes including a standard 15.6in model and a beastly 18.4in version.

The screens are Cinecrystal LED backlit units that offer full HD 1920×1080 resolution on the 18.4in model and 1366×768 on the smaller 15.6in model.

Windows 7 is the operating system pre-loaded in 64-bit versions of either Home Premium or Ultimate. Also pre-loaded is Acer’s media sharing software called Clearfi.

Under the black brushed aluminium chassis is a Sandy Bridge Intel processor ranging from a Core i3 up to a Core i7. There is 4GB of DDR3 RAM and either 1GB Nvidia Geforce GT 540M or 2GB Geforce GT 555M graphics.

Multimedia nuts will be pleased to hear that the 18.6in Ethos 8951G comes with 5.1 channel surround sound whilst the smaller 15.6in Ethos 5951G comes with stereo speakers and Acer’s Tuba Cinebass booster.

The laptops also have a unique feature where the touchpad on the laptop can be removed and used as a remote control. Acer said, “An orientation sensor allows the touchpad to be used either horizontally or vertically.”

An Instant on Arcade key allows for fast booting and Acer said that the battery life is 5.5 hours. It also claimed that the battery has a longer life span of over 1,000 charge cycles, which is apparently more than three times that of a traditional notebook battery. µ

ANDROID TABLETS running Android 3.0 Honeycomb are ten a penny these days. Acer’s Iconia Tab A500 is the latest that we’ve got our hands on though, and we do like it. That’s not to say that it’s perfect. We think it’s too expensive at around £450 and it weighs more than most tablets.

But the biggest problem Acer has is differentiating itself in a crowded market, and as much as we like this tablet, it doesn’t stand out as a remarkable device, as we show in the video above. µ

GOOGLE’S THIN-CLIENT operating system Chrome will debut on laptops from Samsung and Acer.

At its I/O event yesterday, Google teased the world with a few details revealing that its untested Chrome operating system will appear on Samsung and Acer laptops this Summer. Now Samsung has chipped in with a confirmed release date and hardware details.

The Samsung laptop will be called the Series 5 Chromebook and it will sit on a 12.1in chassis and have a 1280×800 WXGA resolution Superbright 300 nit display.

For punters’ money, Samsung is going to bundle in 2GB of RAM, 16GB of SSD storage and Intel’s dual-core N570 Atom chip running at 1.66Ghz. It will weigh only 3.2 pounds and Samsung claimed you will get 8.5 hours of battery life for standard use but up to five hours on video playback without the need to recharge.

Ports are relatively minimal with 2 USB, a SIM card slot, a multi-format card reader and a VGA dongle. Samsung will release only two flavours in June, a 3G WiFi model at £399 and WiFi only model for £349.

Acer has been less forthcoming with information but The INQUIRER has spotted a WiFi and 3G Chrome model on Amazon’s US store. Basic specifications of the Acer Chromebook are exactly the same as Samsung’s Series 5 but it’s on a smaller 11.6in chassis and has a slightly lower screen resolution at 1366×768. Acer will also bundle in an HDMI port and a 6-cell lithium battery but hasn’t listed any prices.

How will Chrome do with big vendors? It obviously helps having top tier vendors backing your product but its an untested market for Google. Chromebooks also have Jailbreak as a standard feature so tinkerers can install whatever they want on them. That means Google has at least stuck to its open rhetoric and it will please the modders, but straight-laced vendors and mobile carriers might not be so happy. µ

STORAGE, SOFTWARE AND SEARCH firm Google has announced hardware backing for its Chrome Notebook OS.

At its I/O event today firm revealed that notebooks, which so far have been limited to a trial subset of users, would be released to anyone that wanted one on June 15.

On that date retailers in the US, the UK, Germany and others, will be offering a choice of two Chrome notebooks, one by Samsung and one by Acer.

Hardware details are light, for now, but Google has released enough information to keep us ticking over.

The Samsung Chromebook, Google’s name, has a 12.1in screen, an eight second bootup time and eight hour battery. In the US a WiFi version will cost 9, and a version with 3G more.

Acer’s entry is slightly smaller and has an 11.6in screen, the same boot up time, but battery life of just 6.5 hours. Although it has a full size keyboard, its slightly lower spec leads to a 9 price tag.

Google is still in discussions with carriers outside of the US, there Chrome users must turn to Verizon, but expects to announce local deals soon.

One thing those carriers may not like is the fact that the Chromebooks have Jailbreak as standard, users however, may disagree.

Oh, and guess what. Everyone in attendance gets a free Chomebook. µ

TAIWANESE HARDWARE OUTFIT Acer has announced that its Web Surf Station monitor capable of web surfing without a PC will be available next month for £299.

The Web Surf Station, or DX241H, is a PC monitor that allows users to surf the Internet and access multimedia content without the need to be connected to your PC, all by using an integrated network interface and its own embedded operating system and web browser.

The monitor has a 24-inch TFT display with full HD 1920×1080 resolution, an aspect ratio of 16:9 and an 80,000:1 contrast ratio. Acer says that the display response time of the DX241H is 2ms.

The monitor has abundant connectivity and will offer VGA and HDMI ports, Audio In/Out ports, a USB port, a card reader, an Ethernet port and WiFi. The monitor also has integrated speakers, which could be a handy feature for watching video.

We’ve contacted Acer to find out what powers the monitor, network interfaces and web browser as nothing in the specifications mention a processor or an operating system, and we’ll let you know how it works when we find out.

What we do know is that the monitor runs Acer’s Clearfi media sharing system that allows users to share content like photos and videos between devices over a home network. µ