Introduced along with Acer’s Liquid Z5 smartphone are the company’s new tablets, the Iconia A1-830 and Iconia B1-720. Both are upgrades to the company’s budget Android tablets released last year.
With Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean running out of the box, the Acer Iconia A1-830 (pictured above) is a 7.9-inch slate that sports a silver aluminium body with a smooth finish and rounded edges. The processor is now a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Clover Trail+ Z2560. The upgrade on specs pretty much stops there, as most of the other specs are still the same as last year’s Iconia A1-810. That said, the slate employs an IPS LED with 768-by-1024 resolution, which gives it a 4:3 aspect ratio a la the iPad, and 10-point touch input.
Available internal storage for the Iconia A1-830 is 16GB, with external expansion supported via microSD up to 32GB. Apps should run fine with the 1GB RAM. Acer promises the battery can last up to 7.5 hours. Though it provides an ample amount of connectivity options, this slate doesn’t support 4G LTE. The profile measures 8.15mm thick, whereas the overall weight is about 380g.
Meanwhile, the Acer Iconia B1-720 is a refresh to the B1-A71. Though still with the same 7-inch screen size with the same 600-by-1024 resolution, this reiteration comes in a slimmer body, partly because of its use of the company’s One Glass Solution (OGS) technology that also increases the display’s brightness. The other hardware specs aren’t also as impressive as other tablets within the B1-A71’s price range: 1.3GHz dual-core MediaTek MT8111 processor, 1GB of RAM, and the now outdated Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.
Some minor changes to the B1-720 are apparent, including the repositioning of the microphone and speakers for an enhanced experience when making video calls. Available color variants are red and gray, but these options only apply to the front bezel. The tablet’s back comes with a black textured pattern, no matter the model.
Both the Iconia A1-830 (est. $230) and Iconia B1-720 (est. $176) will go on sale in the US near the end of February.
[Source: Acer]