Back in June, Acer announced its Iconia Tab A110, a successor to the A100 which, I myself owned the A100 before it and enjoyed it. The A1xx series from Acer is their 7″ line of Android tablets, typically sticking to the midrange whilst putting out some okay specs. The A100 was a typical Tegra 2 fare and now the A110 is set to launch with the Tegra 3 – the same in the Nexus 7 and, this is where the similarities start to begin because, now it’s been revealed that the A110 will be launching with Jelly Bean. The UK online retailer eBuyer has the tablet up for pre-order and has bought with it a few more images as well “Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.1” listed in the items spec sheet. I think by now we all know that 4.1 is indeed, Jelly Bean as is the launcher layout in the screenshots that the site has put up.
Price wise, this is going to cost £179.99 for the 16GB model – less than the £199.99 Nexus 7 16GB but, with the Acer’s low resolution of 1024×600 the Nexus still seems to be the clear winner. Not to mention the guaranteed updates that come with having any Nexus device. Whilst Acer were okay at bringing ICS to the A100, it’s doubtful that it’ll see an official Jelly Bean release and it’s more than certain that the Nexus 7 will live on long after Acer discontinue the A110.
It is, however, encouraging to see that another tablet manufacturer can get their act together to produce a cheap tablet relatively in line with what Google are offering. Whether or not we see other manufacturers follow suit is up to time to tell. You can look for the A110, in the UK at least, come this October.