Bought my first tablet - Acer Iconia Tab A500 (Android)

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
John Canfield

John Canfield

Site Team
Joined
Aug 8, 2006
Posts
14,121
Location
Texas Hill Country
Yesterday was major shopping day at Costco in San Antonio and I always browse the computers and electronics.  I like to see what's out there in laptops, netbooks, desktops, GPS nav, TVs, etc.

They had this tablet on special for 349 or something like that and that sucked me right in.  I haven't done any research on tablets so there I stood for about 20 minutes reading reviews and comments about the little Acer Iconia on my iPhone.  This one was nicely equipped with 32GB of memory, WiFi and Bluetooth.  It is not a 3G or 4G model so I need WiFi for Internet access.

The reviews were generally pretty good.  Two of the major complaints with the Iconia are the weight and relatively shorter battery life (six hours is plenty okay for me.)  It is a tad on the heavy side, but it feels solidly built and nicely finished.  The weight is a non-issue for me.

Google recently released Android 3.1 which apparently has made the tablet significantly better - they addressed some prior issues and added some features.

The tablet was really easy to set up.  I'm impressed with the LED display and even the sound (Dolby mobile) is really good.  My big challenge is learning the nuances of Android.  Apple's iOS is more polished than Android but I think that gap will change in the future.  One reason I never considered an iPad is Apple's lack of support for Flash.

Now I can retire my old Asus Eee 9" netbook (running Linux.)
 
topdownman said:
Apple and Adobe need to get together on this Flash issue, that's a big deal to me.
Click to expand...

Don't hold your breath.  That won't happen until someone takes Jobs iron glove away.  HTML5 can do just about anything that Flash can, and it's cross platform as well.  Flash has seen its day and will, slowly, disappear, but it will take a few years.

If you really need Flash support, get an Android device :)
 
Couch surfing primarily.  I've been thinking of other uses for it.  CoPilot has an Android version of their nav program, but we use a laptop for navigating in the coach. 

I'm thinking of using it instead of a paper bible when we go to church - jumping around to different books is so much faster with the app (I have that app on my iPhone) plus you can make notes, search, look at different translations, etc.

I play a lot of Sudoku on the iPhone but I'll start using the tablet for that.  It should make a good book reader.  I don't have a Kindle (Jane does and likes it) so this will negate the need to buy a separate reader.  And we can't forget Angry Birds!
 
John Canfield said:
I'm impressed with the LED display and even the sound (Dolby mobile) is really good.  My big challenge is learning the nuances of Android.  Apple's iOS is more polished than Android but I think that gap will change in the future.  One reason I never considered an iPad is Apple's lack of support for Flash.
Click to expand...

A side by side with an iPad would make it hard to pay the difference in any features the iPad might have over your new device. Once you get used to Android, I feel you will really like it. I was hesitant to go from WinMobile on my MotoQ phone a few years back - but now would never go back.

But the pricing gets to the heart of the issue, and the P.T. Barnum philosophy Steve Jobs advocates.

I looked at the Acer device at Target just last night. It appears you have 32gb internal storage and "you" can add another 32gb via SDHC. You can get a 32gb card at Fry's for about 30 to $50. I watch for sales and got a 32gb CF card for my camera for $29.95.

Compare that to the iPad pricing (see attached taken at Target). You would pay $630 for 16gb at a bargain store, or $830 for a 64gb device. But whichever one, you are stuck with it. No user upgrades.

And, of course there is the battery thing. You don't have quite the staying power of the iPad, but yours is user upgradable. And as I mentioned in other posts -- batteries have only so many cycles, which makes the iPad "designed for eventual failure" and need to either send back to Apple, or buy a new one.

IMO, John -- you made a good choice. If I move from my Acer netbook to a Pad, I will probably go the same direction.
 

Attachments

  • iPadPricing.jpg
    iPadPricing.jpg
    41.7 KB · Views: 22
Thanks Bob. 

There is no way in he*l I would pay 600-800 bucks for an iPad even if Steve Jobs personally delivered it to me while he was treating us to dinner  :D.  I do think it's a fine product and I love my iPhone and all that though.  I could have bought a nice Acer netbook with an 11.1" screen (and Win 7 home premium) at Costco for 329, but I really wanted to try a tablet and so far I like it a bunch!

I was afraid there wouldn't be very many apps for the Android tablet, but I have been pleasantly surprised.
 
We've had our Moto Xoom Android tablet for about 5 months now and still learning new things to do with it. The learning curve for Android was steep at first, but even my non-techie wife got the hang of it quickly. She does a lot of games, including interactive ones with our daughter. We found a local pizza shop with it the other night (Yelp) and have used it to supplement the GPS in the car a couple times when it had POIs the car GPS did not. We use it a lot to keep up on Facebook and now Google+. Also find it handy for perusing the latest news stories (Pulse, US News, etc) and I sometimes use it to read the iRV2 forum (they have a terrific app for Android and Ipad). And since I get to hang around cancer treatment centers a lot, I love being able read an ebook or get online while I'm waiting.
 
I think I've reached a point of frustration this evening with the tablet trying to surf and do email, but maybe I'm overreacting.  I found my iPhone incredibly intuitive and simple to use but don't have that feeling at this point with the Acer tablet.  Thinking seriously about returning it for the Acer netbook.  Probably need to give it a little more time though.
 
I had a similar frustration at first and I still don't find email or general surfing to be all that great on a tablet. The interfaces on the websites are geared toward a certain style of interaction that isn't ideal for touch & tablet style. On the other hand, Apps set up for a website, e.g. Facebook, are extremely easy.

It takes some getting used to - it is not a Windows computer and in some (many?) ways is not a substitute for one.  Good luck - it may be that a netbook suits your needs better.
 
Yeah, I'm going to give it a few more days.  I asked what the return policy on computers was at Costco and the guy said 90 days no questions asked.  So no worries about trying it for a week or two (or longer) with that kind of return policy.

What got frustrating last night was the simple issue of cursor placement when typing text.  With the iPhone, I can easily position the cursor by finger movement.  With this tablet I found it impossible in some cases to back the cursor up to a particular position.

I really want to make it work for light couch surfing and light email since it has so many other uses, but we'll see.
 
Today I (again) played with various tablets at a Best Buy store, and couldn't get excited enough to buy any of them.

John, one caveat re the netbook - I became somewhat disenchanted with the small keyboard and screen.

Costco has a great returns policy. Used to be one year on everything, even without a receipt. But they changed it to 90 days for cameras, PCs and other electronics.
 
I'm glad I'm currently in the East cause I paid $399 for my xoom at Best Buy bout 1 month ago. 32g. And 16g i pads are $499 at Wal Mart.

I'm still do'n comparisons between i somethings, and android. Since I already have a android phone, it was easier to pick up on using the xoom.

I still find that i somethings get new apps and updates first. And some apps are not available on the xoom yet, that are available for other android products. I finely found a cover at office max. (not a online shopper) But I still think i somethings are more user friendly.

I'm happy with the xoom. It's a little heavier to hold, but has a longer battery life. And I'm still finding new things that it does.

Now if I could figure out how to get my apps from my phone to the xoom, the scrabble app, and an angry birds update, I would be a happier camper.

 
Barb,
Just download the apps from the Google Android store - no need to move them from the phone. And no way of doing it that I am aware of.

I couldn't get Words with Friends to work right on the Xoom, so we use Wordfued instead.
 
Barb said:
I've got apps I've paid for. I don't want to buy them again.
Click to expand...

If you log into the market with the same account as your phone, whatever apps you paid for will be available on the tablet, too. I have a Nook that I converted to a tablet and it shares the same apps as my Samsung Captivate.
 
Here is an interesting off shoot of this conversation. I just read that HP is about to bail out of the PC market.  That will leave 2 major players.  Dell with PC's and Apple.  No money in PC's anymore.  The future is tablet's now.  At least for this week.........
 
Good.  No great loss in losing HP.  They have junk hardware and really poor support.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 1,202 (members: 35, guests: 1,167)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,968
Posts
1,388,417
Members
137,721
Latest member
Dmac3003
Back
Top Bottom