Got Myself an Acer Iconia A500 Tablet PC

I have finally made the jump to a Tablet PC. After having a good look around I ended up going with the Acer Iconia A500 Tablet PC which runs the Android operating system.

My main reasons for picking the Iconia over the others (there are so many out there now) were:

• It takes SD memory cards so I can use the memory card from my camera, or my Motorola Defy phone, or any other SD memory card in it. This means I can download a movie via my main PC (using the Torrents) onto an SD card and then watch it on the Iconia off the card.
• It has a full-size USB 2.0 slot so I can connect my phone directly to it to either view pictures from the phone or move pictures from the Iconia onto the phone (or vice versa). Or, as above, I can put movies or music onto a USB thumb drive and then use them on the Iconia.
• Should it be needed the USB port supports a standard PC keyboard.
• It has a mini-USB slot so I can connect it directly to my PC as an external device.
• It has HDMI out so I can connect it to the TV and use the TV either as a duplicate screen, or to playback pictures or videos.
• I has excellent stereo sound output (although the two speakers are on the back at the bottom at the left and right sides; I would have preferred them on the front).
• At the time I checked the reviews it rated the highest of all the Tablet PCs with a 9 rating (the iPad 2 was rated 8).
• It is priced right at $527 (from Harvey Norman in Midland).
• The Iconia has higher performance than most of the Tablet PCs currently available including the iPad2.
• The rear facing camera is of higher quality than most other Tablet PCs—not that I am likely to ever use it as a camera.

The Iconia only comes as a wireless network device so it does not need a plan with a telco or a SIM card. Everything happens over a wireless network. For me I consider this a plus. I specifically did not want a device that connects via a data plan through the phone network. Who needs to be stuck with yet another monthly charge coming in?

The Iconia comes in a Windows 7 version, and I was very tempted to get the Windows 7 version, but it is about $230 more expensive so I went with Android.

One of the main reasons I got a Tablet PC was to use it as a remote screen (or, to use the correct terminology, a ‘remote desktop’) to my main computer. Doing this allows me to sit in the TV room, half watching TV and being social, while I actually ‘work’ on my main computer which is in my study. The following picture shows the Iconia being used in this way.

As you can see from the above it is showing my Windows 7 desktop on my main PC but I am using it from the Iconia Tablet PC.

Following is another example.

In this case I am using Microsoft OneNote 2010 on my main PC via the Iconia Tablet PC.

While the Iconia might be the superior overall Tablet PC this month there is a whole new range of Table PCs due out over the next six months, including possibly the iPad 3 which is being rumoured for release before Xmas this year. Rumours about the iPad 3 include:

• A better screen so it can catch up to the higher resolutions offered by other Tablet PCs now on the market—possibly even Apple’s Retina grade screen (as used on the iPhone). There are also rumours that the iPad 3 might have the awesome Samsung AMOLED3 screen.
• A significantly improved rear facing camera because the rear facing (main) camera in the iPad 2 is about 2005 quality; the same as the one installed in the iPod.
• The much faster dual-core A6 processor.
• The new iOS 5 operating system.

If Apple also include a USB port and an SD memory card slot then, depending on the price, it might become interesting even to hardened IT types like me.