Laptop Thoughts: First Impressions: Acer Iconia Tab A500

"Acer’s Honeycomb Android tablet, the Iconia Tab A500, just blew into our labs and we’re already putting it through (sic) it’s paces for the full review. However, we thought we’d offer some first impressions of the design and features."

A quick peek at another Honeycomb tablet, this time from Acer, who have had some success at small netbook computers and laptops. But does this success translate to tablets? At first glance I'd say yes. Well constructed, the Iconia has a full complement of ports, including USB, and the Honeycomb software performs well on the included apps. Even the speakers sound good on the video, and getting content to the tablet seems pretty easy using clear.fi. I wasn't impressed with their "cubby holes" metaphor to group apps, but this could be comfortable for new users. Acer has done a little UI customization, so the system is a little less "bare bones" than the Motorola Xoom. Information of pricing and availability wasn't provided. If you have a choice between a Xoom and an Iconia, what would you buy?