Acer has already announced the Liquid S2, a smartphone/tablet hybrid with 4K video recording, and has now followed it up with a new Android tablet. The device is the Acer Iconia A3, and it’s all set to go on sale in October. The company has been busy with tablet and tablet hybrid releases this year, and they’ve been quite interesting, from the Iconia W3 which runs the full version of Windows 8, to the twisty Aspire R7.
This time though, it’s not quite as innovative as those just mentioned. The Iconia A3 is a regular Android tablet with a decent 10-inch screen size, and a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution. It’s far from terrible, but it’s not up to hardware such as the Nexus 7. Inside is a quad-core, 1.2GHz processor from an unnamed manufacturer, along with a choice of either 16GB or 23GB of storage.
There is one unusual feature though. Acer has built in something called IntelliSpin in the Iconia A3, which sounds like an upgraded accelerometer, as the tablet understands which way up the screen should be even when the tablet is lying flat on a table. Exactly how this works isn’t stated, so we’ll look forward to giving it a try in the future.
Android 4.2 Jelly Bean is the operating system, and some of the other features include a 5-megapixel rear camera, a microSD card slot, a micro HDMI port, Bluetooth 4.0, and buyers can pick a simple Wi-Fi version of one with a 3G radio built-in. The tablet weighs 600 grams and is 10.1mm thick.
Acer will be launching the Wi-Fi Iconia A3 for 250 euros, or around $330, in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa in October, while the 300 euro ($395) 3G model will follow in November. Like the Liquid S2 phone, there’s no release schedule for America yet.
