Acer Iconia Tab A110

Acer’s Iconia A110 7in Android tablet is the first real competition that Google's Nexus 7 has faced. It’s similarly sized, similarly priced and uses the same quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 underpinnings. It also runs the same Jelly Bean version of Android.

Still, the A110 comes with a few appealing features not found on the Nexus 7 and some other entry-level slates, such as an HDMI port for connecting it to HDTVs and other HD monitors. The A110 also has a MicroSD slot for expanding the onboard storage, which some competitors do not.

>Inside, the A110 has a 1.2GHz quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor and 1GB RAM. Performance between this and the Nexus 7, which has a similar processor, was comparable. The A110 actually has a slight edge in gaming, but only because it's pushing fewer pixels than the Nexus 7... Fire up the display, and—meh. The 1,024-by-600-pixel TFT LCD display really disappoints. It's not only that it lacks the sharpness of 1,280-by-800-pixel displays found on the Nexus 7 and Fire HD, but colors look muted and the viewing angle is too narrow. The screen's surface is also a fingerprint and grease magnet, which only exacerbates its high reflectivity.

It’s no surprise there isn’t a rear camera – most other tablets at this price sacrifice that feature – with only a front-facing 2-megapixel unit capable of 720p video. It’s better than the Nexus 7’s 1.2-megapixel camera, though, and although the battery is smaller at 3,420mAh, the A110’s stamina is still acceptable.