Today we’ll be reviewing the Acer Iconia Tab A511. The Acer Iconia Tab A511 is a very powerful Android Tablet with a hardware configuration that puts many PCs to shame. What you will find in this review are, as my sources claim, the “Official Preliminary Specifications”. However, apparently nothing has changed since some people actually own this tablet and they say that it has everything this review says it has. However, due to my sources being somewhat inconclusive with this device, I may be unable to provide information about certain things from the only reason that I have nothing to tell me those specific facts. However, be this as it may, those things that I can’t really say too much about are things which aren’t actually all that important. What is important about this tablet is already known. So without further ado, let us commence with this little review.
SUMMARY
I promised a while back that I will start my reviews with a brief summary of the device. The Acer Iconia Tab A511 is a most powerful tablet. It isn’t all that big, even though the information about its size is hidden from me. I guess you can classify this tablet as a medium one. Its screen is a really great one, its hardware is the same. Sound on it is extremely clear and powerful. The battery life of this device is great and it also has a relatively decent camera. All and all it will be, or is ( for some countries ) a really good tablet. However, everything with lots of power comes at a price, so If I were you I wouldn’t expect to get this tablet for too cheap. Still, keeping in mind that you are purchasing a device which can be used for anything and is not a bad piece of work to look at, certain price notions may twist and turn in your head. Well, that’s about all I can say for this tablet without giving too much away. If you truly want to know more, do keep reading as you will find each important part clearly structured and given its own spot for ease of reading and text scanning, for those of you who don’t like reading the whole thing.
GENERAL
We’ll begin the review per say with a brief look at the more general aspects of the device, aspects such as : supported networks and announcement and release dates. The Acer Iconia Tab A511 is a special tablet. This is one of those rare tablets that actually supports GSM networks on it as well. The supported networks of the Acer Iconia Tab A511 are as following : 2G ones ( GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800 and GSM 1900 ) and 3G ones ( all that is known about this one is that it will be HSDPA, but not what networks per say ). The Acer Iconia Tab A511 was announced in February 2012 and it is said to come out officially in all the world somewhere in Q3 of 2012. I am aware that it may be available in certain places, but as long as it did not come out in all of the places it was scheduled to come out in, it is still classified by many as “Coming Soon” instead of “Available”. Since there’s nothing left to say for this part, let us move on now to the next one – BODY.
BODY
Next up we’ll try and take a look at the aspect of the Acer Iconia Tab A511. Usually we try and see some details a bout the size and weight of the device and also see whether or not it has any particularities that might make it stand out from a crowd. Unfortunately, there is not enough information available in any of my sources for me to be able to say how big this tab is, how much it weighs or if it has any particularities or any protection on it. I have some pieces of info that may point out its size, but those aren’t present in this part. All I can say about it here is that it looks positively stunning and it functions as well as it looks. Out of lack of things to talk about here, I say we move on now to the next part of the review – DISPLAY.
DISPLAY
Next up we’ll take a brief look at the display of the device. Under the category of “display” I also place things such as : the type of screen, the screen size, the screen resolution and pixel density as well as whether or not said screen has any particularities and any protection. The screen of the Acer Iconia Tab A511 is a capacitive touchscreen with approximately 16 million colors. The size of the screen is approximately 10.1 inches. This screen can house a resolution of approximately 1280 x 800 pixels. The pixel density isn’t a very good one, considering that it is only around 149 ppi. For a screen this size, it can’t help but be a bit bothering. The only feature of the Acer Iconia Tab A511’s display is the fact that it has Multitouch, but even that isn’t the sort of advanced multitouch which can use more than two simultaneous fingers. Unfortunately, the Acer Iconia Tab A511’s screen has no protection on it, so you’ll have to be extra careful with it. That being said, let us move on now to the next part – SOUND.
SOUND
Next we’ll take a brief look at the audio output capabilities of the Acer Iconia Tab A511. Normally we try and see whether or not the device has any sound enhancement whatsoever on it, and usually the devices reviewed by me tend to disappoint. The Acer Iconia Tab A511, however, has not one, but two means of sound enhancement installed on it. The Loudspeaker of this device isn’t a standard one, actually, the Loudspeaker has a few Stereo Speakers on it for enhancing the volume. Now don’t worry, since this isn’t one of those devices from which you can hear stuff loud but fuzzy. For the quality of the sound it has Dolby Mobile sound enhancement. Thus, put those two together and you have a tablet from which you can hear things Loud and Clear. That being said, let us move on now to the next part of the review – MEMORY.
MEMORY
Now it is time to take a brief look at the memory of the Acer Iconia Tab A511. Here you can find out a bit about the internal storage space and ways of expanding said storage space and also a bit about the RAM memory of the device. The RAM of the Acer Iconia Tab A511 is 1 GB. For me it’s pretty good, but I’ll let you decide considering there are already devices available which have 2 GB. However, in the Acer Iconia Tab A511’s defense, those devices weren’t announced yet when the Acer Iconia Tab A511 was announced. The internal storage space of the Acer Iconia Tab A511 is around 32 GB and if that ungodly amount is not enough for your greedy needs, know that the Acer Iconia Tab A511 also has a Micro SD card slot which uses any card of up to 32 GB. That’s about it for this part, so let’s move on now to the next one – CONNECTIVITY.
DATA CONNECTION
Next up we’ll be taking a look at the data connection of the Acer Iconia Tab A511. Here you find out a bit about the : GPRS and EDGE, the Speed and WLAN and the Bluetooth, USB and other ( if any ) connections. The Acer Iconia Tab A511 has both GPRS and EDGE, both of them with the same mount of unknown to them. By that, I mean that it is unknown what speed they can each reach and what Class they are. The speed of the Acer Iconia Tab A511 is as following : HSDPA and HSUPA. It is unknown what speed they can each reach, although know that the maximum speed for HSUPA is around 5.76 MB/s. The WLAN of the Acer Iconia Tab A511 is a Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with Wi-Fi hotspot. The Acer Iconia Tab A511 also has a Bluetooth, although it is unknown what version it is. The USB port of this device is a Micro USB v2.0 one. That’s about all that can be said for this part, so let’s move on now to the next one – CAMERA.
CAMERA
Next up we’ll be taking a look through the camera of the Acer Iconia Tab A511. Here you can find out a bit about the main and secondary cameras ( if any ) and the features and capabilities of those cameras. The Acer Iconia Tab A511 has both main and secondary cameras, although none of them are too impressive. The main camera is a 5 MP one which can photograph at resolutions of approximately : 2592 x 1944 pixels. The only features of this camera are : autofocus and geo-tagging. The Acer Iconia Tab A511’s main camera isn’t one of those advanced 5 MP ones that can record in 720p HD. This one can record video, however, there’s no news about the video quality. The secondary camera is a 2 MP one with no features of its own. Since there’s no more to be said here, let’s move on now to the next part – BATTERY.
BATTERY LIFE
Next up we’ll be taking a look at the battery life of the Acer Iconia Tab A511 since that is usually a great issue with Android devices. Here you can usually find out a bit about the battery of the Acer Iconia Tab A511 and how long said battery can work. The battery of this phone is a Standard Li-Ion 9800 mAh. Unfortunately, it is unknown how long this battery can function in stand-by mode, but in the end, stand-by is irrelevant since you’re not paying more than 300 dollars for a device to just leave it on your table. I happen to know for sure that this tablet can run for more than 10 hours of stress use and still have enough battery left to “stand-by” for a few more days. What I do know from my sources is that the Acer Iconia Tab A511 can work for around 15 hours of talk-time. So, since I’ve nothing left to say, let’s move on to the next part – HARDWARE.
HARDWARE
Next up we’ll be taking a look at the three main hardware components of the Acer Iconia Tab A511 : processor, motherboard and graphics card. The Acer Iconia Tab A511’s strongest point is the hardware. The processor of this device is a Quad-Core 1.3 GHz one. This tablet also has an Nvidia Tegra 3 Chipset and a GeForce ULP GPU. The graphics card itself is also a Quad-Core one. All and all, the hardware of this device is extremely powerful and it should run with just about anything available. Since there’s no more to be said about this most powerful hardware, let’s move on now to the next part of the review – SOFTWARE.
SOFTWARE
Next up we’ll be taking a look at the OS version of the Acer Iconia Tab A511 and see whether or not said OS needs, or can even handle, an update. The Android OS of the Acer Iconia Tab A511 is Android OS v4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Since there’s no news of when exactly the Android OS v4.1 Jelly Bean is going to come out, there’s no point in discussing the upgrade-ability of the phone. Since there’s no point in going on here, I say we move on to the final part of the review – FEATURES.
FEATURES
Last but certainly not least, the features and capabilities of the Acer Iconia Tab A511. Here we will be covering things such as : sensors, messaging, browser, radio, GPS, Java and colors. The sensors of the Acer Iconia Tab A511 are as following : Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity and Compass. The messaging on this phoe ncan be done via : SMS ( with Threaded View ), MMS, E-Mail, Push Mail and IM. The browser of this phone uses HTML and has built-in support for Adobe Flash. Unfortunately, the Acer Iconia Tab A511 has no radio, however, that can be fixed by simply downloading a radio app. The GPS of this tablet has A-GPS support. The Acer Iconia Tab A511 also has Java via Java MIDP emulation. This tablet is available in only two colors : Black and Silver.
Here is a brief list of what the Acer Iconia Tab A511 can do :
- SNS integration
- Google Search, Maps, Gmail
- YouTube, Google Talk, Picasa integration
- MP3/WAV/WMA/eAAC+ player
- MP4/H.264/H.263 player
- Organizer
- Document viewer
- Predictive text input
This concludes our little review of the Acer Iconia Tab A511. If you feel that anything is lacking from this review feel free to leave your suggestions in the comment section below for things which should be added and I will be sure to take them into consideration when writing my future projects. In the meantime, I sincerely hope you had as much fun reading my little review as I had writing it.
