Can be Acer Iconia Beat Motorola Xoom ?

If you’ve got your mind set on purchasing a new tablet and need some help deciding which one would be the best choice, here’s a side by side comparison of two of the latest Honeycomb slates: the Motorola Xoom vs. the Acer Iconia Tab A500. 

When we first look at the two tablets, we see that they feature a very similar design and form-factor. They both feature a 10.1-inch display, so their dimensions are also very similar, as the Iconia Tab A500 has the following size: 260 x 177 x 13.3 mm, and the Motorola Xoom: 249 x 167.8 x 12.9 mm. They both share the same weight: 730 grams. So it appears that the Motorola Xoom is a little bit more portable than its Acer competitor.

Going on to the display, we see that both devices have a 10.1-inch capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, which means that there is no difference between the two, in this regard.

Now let’s see what the two slates have in store when it comes to cameras. Here we have yet another tie, since both tablets come with a rear-facing 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and auto-focus, and an additional 2-megapixel camera in the front, great for video calling.

What about the processor? Not a big difference here either, because the Motorola Xoom comes equipped with a 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core chip, while the Acer Iconia Tab A500 features a 1GHz Tegra 250 Dual cortex A9 processor. In terms of storage space, the Iconia Tab is available in two versions: 16GB and 32GB, while the Motorola Xoom comes in a 32GB version, and both devices include a microSD card slot, for additional storage options.

Reaching the software section, it’s another tie, since both tablets come installed with the same version of Android – the Honeycomb version developed especially for tablets.

And finally, let’s take a brief look at what the two tablets offer in terms of connectivity. Both devices are compatible with Bluetooth, WiFi, and feature HDMI ports. If you’ve made up your mind and want to purchase one of these slates as soon as possible, here are the pricing and availability details. The Motorola Xoom is selling now for $600 with a 2-year contract on Verizon, or for the same price you can get the WiFi-only version. The 16GB Acer Iconia Tab A500 is priced at $450 and is currently available on Best Buy.

Wrap-up

Since there are no major differences as far as specs are concerned, these two slates only differ in terms of price. And considering that the Acer Iconia Tab A500 is cheaper and comes with practically the same features as the Motorola Xoom, it would be safe to say that it’s quite a competitor for the Motorola tablet and it could create quite a stir.