Acer’s 10.1-Inch Iconia Tab A510 Available for Pre-Order

Acer’s Iconia Tab A510, the company’s first tablet featuring Nvidia’s quad-core Tegra 3 processor, is now available for pre-order. The 10.1-inch device features Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and follows up on the company’s Iconia Tab A500 by promising faster graphics and responsiveness than its predecessor. The 32GB tablet is available for pre-order from national retailers at a suggested retail price of $450. It is available in silver or black.

Acer’s new quad-core tablet is going up against a crowded filed of powerful new touch slates such as Apple’s new iPad, which offers a higher resolution screen but costs $150 more for a 32GB model. The A510 will also be see competition from Android tablets such as Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Tab 2 Series and Asus’ Eee Pad Transformer Prime. Later this year, the A510 may also face-off against a number of Windows 8 tablets featuring Microsoft’s new Metro-style interface.

A510 Specs

The new Acer tablet features a 10.1-inch WXGA display with 1280-by-800 resolution, Nvidia’s quad-core Tegra 3 processor including the 12-core GeForce GPU, 1 GB RAM, 32GB onboard flash storage, a microSD card slot supporting up to 32GB for 64GB of maximum storage, micro HDMI and micro USB 2.0 ports. The A510 also has a 1 megapixel front-facing camera, 5MP rear-facing camera, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, and Blu-ray 2.1 + EDR. Acer claims the A510’s battery can play video for up to 12 hours on a single charge, but as usual don’t bank on manufacturer battery claims until third-party tests have verified them.

Acer has also preloaded the A510 with some free software including Polaris Office 3.5, Kindle, Netflix, and the TegraZone Android app that shows you available games optimized for NVIDIA Tegra tablets. Thanks to Acer’s clear.fi feature, the A510 is also DLNA compatible.

To celebrate Acer’s sponsorship of the upcoming Summer Olympic Games in London, the A510 features the Olympic rings engraved into the back of the device.

PCWorld gave the A500 3 stars out of 5, complaining about the device’s visible touchscreen grid as well as the tablet’s 1.7-pound heft. It’s not clear whether Acer has improved its touchscreen with the A510, but weight issues have improved with the new tablet coming in at 1.5 pounds. The latest Wi-Fi only version of the iPad, by comparison, is a little bit lighter at 1.44 pounds.

Acer did not announce when the A510 would start shipping.

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