Acer’s colourful Iconia One 7 tablet is a colourful and basic affordable device that’s geared towards the simple things in life.
Acer launched two portable 7-inch tablets yesterday in New York, the metallic Iconia Tab 7 that runs Android 4.4 KitKat, and this more basic colourful model, the Iconia One 7. The Iconia One 7 features more stripped-back specs, but should handle the basics without trouble, making it one to watch for your kids or as a secondary device – especially given the affordable 139 Euro price tag.
The Iconia One 7 immediately strikes you as a fun little tablet, coming in a bright range of colours (ten in all apparently, including the ones you can see above). It’s just about possible to clutch around the back with one hand despite those wide bezels, and the tablet is light as you’d expect – just 330g in all. Even younger kids should have no problem holding it with both hands, with extra help from the textured rear.
At 8.9mm thick, the Iconia One 7 is quite a slim beast too. There’s a basic range of ports on the edge, but most importantly a microSD memory card slot for expanding the 8GB or 16GB of built-in storage. That should give you plenty of space for apps, movies and photos.
The rear is made of plastic and sports a swirly pattern, and while we don’t think it’s quite as attractive or nice-feeling as the Google Nexus 7 or Tesco Hudl, with their soft-touch backs, we have to applaud Acer for its use of colour. We particularly liked the light blue and red models, which stand out against the usual ranges of black tabs.
The 7-inch screen is an IPS display again, same as the Iconia Tab 7, and uses the same 1280 x 800 pixel resolution. It seems to be decent for a budget panel, although you obviously won’t get super-sharp visuals when watching high-def videos.
Android 4.2 Jelly Bean is the OS of choice, stripped back from full Android 4.4 KitKat found on the Iconia Tab 7. It’s a shame not to see KitKat on board, but the basic dual-core Intel Atom processor seems to cope well, streaming media smoothly and launching apps with only a slight pause.
In fact, the only time we saw a drop in performance was when we used the basic 2-megapixel rear-facing camera. When moving the Iconia One 7 around, the image on screen updated in a laggy manner. Our shots also looked dark and grainy, a definite step down from the pics we shot on the Iconia Tab 7’s 5-megapixel camera. So, if you’re serious about taking shots with your tab, we’d recommend Acer’s slightly more expensive baby.
We’ll bring you a full review of the Acer Iconia One 7 tablet soon, and check out our hands-on review of the Acer Iconia Tab 7, a more premium metallic 7-inch tablet.
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