Comparison - Acer Iconia Tab A500 versus Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

20 June 2011 – We are comparing two powerful new Android tablets, Acer's debutant 10.1-inch tablet – the Acer Iconia Tab A500 against Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1. Both tablets are not capable of GSM calls or text, which marks a new direction for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, as it original predecessor supported voice calls.  

As its namesake, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a 10.1-inch device, and its screen displays at 800 x 1280 pixels similar to the Acer Iconia Tab A500’s 10.1-inch display. The displays on both devices trumps even the Apple iPad 2.  

Despite their similar screen sizes, the Acer Iconia Tab A500 is much heavier and thicker than the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. At 730 grams, the Acer Iconia Tab A500 is 165 grams heavier than the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. The Acer Iconia Tab A500 is 13.3mm thick, which is almost 5mm thicker than the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. 

The tablets are Android powered devices, and come with the Android 3.0 OS (Honeycomb) which is optimised for tablets. Samsung has confirmed that it will only use the base Android 3.0 for launch, and the TouchWiz UX customisation will only be made available after the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1’s release.  

The Acer Iconia Tab A500 comes with WiFi connectivity only, and we will be comparing it to the upcoming WiFi only Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. A few other features both tablets share are Bluetooth 2.1, and A-GPS. 

Dual-core processors are all the rage these days, and both devices come equipped with them. The Acer Iconia Tab A500 comes with 1GB DDR2 RAM against Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1's 1GB RAM.  

Internal storage wise, the Acer Iconia A500 comes with a standard 32GB internal storage with a microSD slot capable of supporting 32GB. There are two variants of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 - one comes with 16GB, the other 32GB.  

There are rear and front cameras on both devices - the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 has a powerful 8-megapixel and a 2-megapixel front facing camera, in comparison to the Acer Iconia Tab A100’s 5-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front facing one.  

Android tablets are constantly pushing its hardware limits, and these two certainly are on the high-end spectrum of Android tablets. While there is not much to differentiate them via the Android Honeycomb OS, we are looking forward to the Samsung Touch UX to separate the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 from the rest.  

Acer's Iconia Tab is no slouch, it comes with plenty of high-end features, plus it comes with Android 3.0. But at the end of the day, we would hand the win over to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 – it is thinner, sleeker and comes equipped with a better camera. Its physical attributes make it a good tablet, simply because it is easier to operate with one hand.  

For more comparisons: click here 

Acer Iconia Tab A500 (RRP RM 1599) 

10.1-inch touchscreen + WiFi 802.11 b/g/n + 32GB internal storage + MicroSD storage up to 32GB + Android 3.0  

The Acer Iconia Tab A500 was announced together with Acer Iconia A100 at MWC 2011. The 10.1-inch tablet supports up to 1280 x 800 resolution pixels. It is powered by a 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM. For photo and video, the tablet has a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash. In addition, it also comes with a front-facing 2-megapixel front facing camera for video calling purposes. The Acer Iconia Tab A500 is running on Google Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) with Acer customised user interface. Storage-wise, the Acer Iconia Tab A500 tablet comes with 32GB internal storage and a 32GB microSD slot. Acer launched the Acer Iconia Tab A500 in Malaysia on May 10th, and has a retail price of RM1599. 

• Acer Iconia Tab A500 Specification
• Acer Iconia Tab A500 User Comments
• Acer Iconia Tab A500 Video
• Acer Iconia Tab A500 Latest Price

 

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (starting $499 approx. RM 1500) 

10.1-inch touchscreen + WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n + 16/32GB internal storage + 8-megapixel + Android 3.0  

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 was reintroduced during CTIA after Samsung made some improvements to make it more competitive with Apple iPad 2. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is the biggest among its other siblings, featuring a 10.1-inch display with 1280 x 800 resolution, 1GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM and Android 3.0. Similar to Samsung Galaxy 8.9, the Samsung Galaxy 10.1 also has a dual-camera, with an 8-megapixel rear camera and 2-megapixel front-facing camera for video calls. Plus, it features a dual-antenna WiFi for better reception. The WiFi version of the Samsung Galaxy 10.1 will be available on June 8th in the US - the 16GB version is set at $499 and the 32GB at $599.  

• Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Specification
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Latest Prices
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Photo
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Video
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 User Comments

 

For more comparisons: click here