Acer Iconia Tab A501 Android Tablet to Debut

AT&T, making good on its promise to support more Android-running devices, will offer Acer’s first 4G tablet, the Iconia Tab A501.

Pricing and an exact release date were left off a March 22 news release, but the 4G tablet will launch in the second quarter, according to AT&T—which could mean just weeks.

The Iconia Tab features a high-resolution, 10-inch display with a wide viewing angle and Google’s tablet-optimized Android 3.0 operating system, known as "Honeycomb." A 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 250 dual-core processor with integrated graphics is also on board—hello, gamers!—along with a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera and a high-definition front-facing camera for making video calls. Acer has also included an HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) port for playing 1080p-quality video on an HDTV.

"This tablet is packed with features that will enable HD gaming and exceptional video playback," David Haight, vice president of business development for AT&T’s Emerging Devices unit, said in a statement. "It offers a first-class on-the-go entertainment experience."

Then, there’s the Iconia Tab’s 4G connectivity, a feature that the Apple iPad 2 still does without. The iPad is by far still the tablet to beat, despite the growing-by-leaps-and-bounds tablet marketplace. (Though on March 22, Samsung out-skinnied Apple, with the introduction of its 8.6mm-thin Galaxy Tab 8.9.)

For more, read the eWEEK article: Acer Iconia Tab A501 Android Tablet to Debut on AT&T