Acer's Android Response to the iPad Mini

It's $199 but has a crummy display. Buy Acer's excellent Chromebook instead.
By Anton Wahlman ,

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- This is a review of the Acer Iconia A1. No, this is not a steaksauce. It is an Android tablet that's trying to mimic the form factorof Apple's (AAPL) - Get Report iPad Mini. It's $199 and I don't recommend it for onereason: The crummy display.

The Acer Iconia A1 is very close to being a copy of the iPad Mini.It's got 7.9 inch display with 4x3 aspect ratio, and has a similar(low) screen resolution. On the plus side, the Iconia A1 has HDMIconnector and MicroSD slot.

On the downside, it is thicker, is a bit slippery and doesn't feellike a high-quality build. Most importantly, the display isterrible. The viewing angles are the worst I've seen and the displayis dim.

Comparing almost any web page, text, email, whatever with anothertablet is not a flattering comparison. The Iconia A1 simply looksworse.

On the upside, the Aconia A1 has decent Android 4.2.2 software thatfeels mostly like a Nexus device. This means that it's got theeasiest setup in the business, and has very little bloatware. Itdoesn't get much easier than this. Your need for tech support shouldbe zero at all levels of ownership.

Let me make a series of comparisons to illustrate how the $199 AcerIconia A1 matches up with some alternatives you may have had in mind:

1. Apple iPad Mini:

$199 vs. $329 for the iPad Mini is a bigpercentage gap, but I would argue the iPad Mini is a vastlybetter device. The quality of the screen is like night and day. Inaddition, the device has a different quality build, and it's thinnerand shaped better. You can also pay another $130 and get the iPadMini with embedded LTE for use on several of the major mobile networkoperators.

2. Asus Nexus 7:

This device is about to be replaced any day by aNexus 8 or whatever it will be called, but suffice it to say that the

Asus

Nexus 7 already blows the Acer Iconia A1 out of the water. Let'scount the ways:

A. The screen.

Comparing anything side by side, it's not a closecall. The Nexus 7 has a slightly smaller screen, but everythingappears sharper, brighter, and doesn't suffer from the narrowestviewing angle.

B. The build.

The Nexus 7 feels solid, and it's got a rubbery curvedback that makes it a delight to hold, including while reading in bed.Even with one hand, it feels more secure than some large phones suchas the

HTC

One.

It's true that the Iconia A1 has a few legs up on the Nexus 7: twocameras, MicroSD card slot, and HDMI. The price used to be the sameat $199, but the Nexus 7 is just now being discounted to $179.

3. Acer's own Iconia W3: Acer just launched the Iconia W3, whichruns full Windows 8. The version I tested cost $429, plus $80 for adecent keyboard -- except that it lacked a trackpad, making editing(copy/paste etc) into a nightmare.

Anyway, the Iconia W3 is the only major tablet priced above $179 I'veseen with a display equally terrible to the Iconia A1. Other thanthat, these devices aren't nicely comparable because of their verydifferent operating systems: Android is super-easy to set up and use,whereas Windows 8 is a pain on every administrative and usabilityfront imaginable.

4. Acer's own $199 Chromebook:

Same price, very different animal.In my opinion, the Acer Chromebook is a very good laptop and anexcellent bargain for $199. The screen is a bit dim but does notsuffer from poor viewing angles.

An Android tablet and a Chromebook complement each other almostperfectly. The Chromebook is for the best typing/productivityexperience, as well as for better web surfing. The Android tablet isbetter for apps, for using while in bed and where you have a verysmall space.

If you add a $199 Chromebook to a $199 Android tablet, you're stillonly at $400, which means you're at a price where the large Apple iPadstarts, and Windows 8 touch PCs start. This just goes to show what anunbeatable value

Google

(GOOG) - Get Report

offers through its OEMs such as Acer,

Samsung

and others.

Microsoft

(MSFT) - Get Report

has taken the approach to combine tablet and productivity PCinto one. So far, most users have panned the execution of Windows 8.Perhaps this will change with Windows 8.1 and beyond. Under anycircumstance, it is also an administrative nightmare. In addition,the touch points in the Desktop interface make it very difficult toclick in the right place on a small tablet.

Apple seems to agree with Google that so far it's better to keeptablet and laptop in two separate devices. The difference is thatwith Google, you get both for a combined $400. With Apple, the laptopalone is $1,000 and the small and large tablets start at $329 or $399.All in all, Google is less than one-third the price no matter how youlook at it.

The moral of this story? Acer makes a great Chromebook -- and forthat matter great Windows laptops priced above $500 and up to almost$2,000. Tablets? Not so much -- whether they're based on Android orWindows. It's all about screen quality. Perhaps Acer will fix thisin future revisions.

At the time of publication the author was long GOOG andAAPL, and short MSFT.

Follow @antonwahlman

This article was written by an independent contributor, separate from TheStreet's regular news coverage.

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