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Acer Iconia Tab A200 review: Acer Iconia Tab A200

Acer Iconia Tab A200

Headshot of Eric Franklin
Headshot of Eric Franklin
Eric Franklin Former Editorial Director
Eric Franklin led the CNET Tech team as Editorial Director. A 20-plus-year industry veteran, Eric began his tech journey testing computers in the CNET Labs. When not at work he can usually be found at the gym, chauffeuring his kids around town, or absorbing every motivational book he can get his hands on.
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  • Once wrote 50 articles in one month.
Eric Franklin
8 min read

There's really nothing special about the Acer Iconia Tab A200. Sure, it's ICS-upgradable, but both the Motorola Xoom and Asus Transformer Prime have already beat it to that particular punch.

6.3

Acer Iconia Tab A200

The Good

The <b>Acer Iconia Tab A200</b> has the lowest price yet of any post-Honeycomb 10-inch tablet. It also has expandable memory options, a full USB port, and a well-designed, grippy back, and is upgradable to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). While running Honeycomb we saw poor Wi-Fi performance, but performance greatly improved when we upgraded to ICS.

The Bad

Other than Android 4.0 upgradability, there's really nothing particularly special about the A200. There's only one, low-quality front-facing camera and no back camera. There's also no HDMI. Acer Ring, an app and bookmark hub, is slow to start and doesn't make launching apps more efficient.

The Bottom Line

The Acer Iconia Tab A200 delivers an appealingly low price, but makes some key sacrifices to get there.

Also, while it features the bare-minimum capabilities of all other post-Honeycomb Android tablets, it actually loses two features many Android tablet owners take for granted: a rear camera and an HDMI port.

Still, it can be yours for only $330 (for the 8GB model; $350 for 16GB), making it the cheapest noncontract buy-in to Honeycomb/ICS yet.

Whether that distinction actually makes it special enough to buy is up to you and your needs.

Design
The Iconia Tab A200 marks Acer's third major tablet design after the A500/A501 and A100 releases. Compared with the A500/A501, the A200 is slightly thinner and lighter, with a sleeker, less boxy look.

Video battery life (in hours)
Acer Iconia A200 7.7

Conclusion
If the A200 were one of the guys in "The Expendables," it would definitely be the Randy Couture character...eh, I can't even remember his name, and chances are you don't even remember him from the movie anyway. The point is, it's dull, boring, with no real "special" features.

Still, at its current price of $330 for 8GB and $350 for 16GB, it's the cheapest way to get ICS on a tablet, and while that's expected to change over the next few months, if you can live without a few missing features like a rear camera and an HDMI option, the A200 could be for you.

Editors' note: This review was updated with CNET Labs battery test results.

6.3

Acer Iconia Tab A200

Score Breakdown

Design 6Features 7Performance 6