Name: Iconia Tab A200 (8GB)
Brand: Acer

TechRadar Verdict

If you want a budget tablet for the house, that everyone in the family can use, then this is one of the better choices available.

Pros

+
Attractive and cheap
+
MicroSD connection
+
Ice Cream Sandwich
+
Acer Ring

Cons

-
Bulky and heavy
-
No rear camera
-
No HDMI
-
Screen's a bit dark

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Introduction

The Acer Iconia Tab A200 is one of three new tablets from Acer in 2012, and the runt of the litter.

Priced at £279.99 in the UK and $329.99 in the US, this 10.1-inch tablet packs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and serves as a budget option for anyone who doesn't fancy paying out for the new iPad 3 or other top-tier Android tablets such as the Asus Transformer Prime or Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Acer's other two new tablets are the Acer Iconia Tab A500 and the premium Acer Iconia Tab A700, but it's the cheaper Acer A200 that could cause the biggest stir among those searching for an affordable tablet.

Acer is obviously pitching the A200 at families and first-time tablet buyers. The Acer Iconia Tab A200 wears its family-friendly persona on its sleeve, with a friendly curved rectangle form factor and a soft, rubber-coated back that reminds us more than a little of the BlackBerry PlayBook.

It's available in two colours; the standard Titanium Grey and the much-better-looking-in-our-opinion Metallic Red.

As ever with budget tablets, there are some corners being cut. That's no different with the Acer Iconia Tab A200, and the eagle-eyed among you will have noted the lack of a rear-facing camera lens in our pictures.

Acer has stripped out the camera, as well as other features such as HDMI connectivity, to keep the costs down.

However, it has kept both a full-sized USB port and micro USB and the option to expand the 8GB of storage with a MicroSD card. In the US, 16GB versions are also available, for $349.99.

Also, the Acer Iconia Tab A200 isn't exactly what you'd call lithe. At a chunky 12mm thick, it's a big difference from the 8.8mm iPad 2 or the 7.7mm Toshiba AT200.

The Acer Iconia Tab A200 also weighs 715g, which is heavier than both the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (565g) and the iPad 2 (601g) - and the difference is obvious. This feels solid, but not obviously a tablet that you could just scoop up and use.

The big selling point of the Acer Iconia Tab A200, though, is the fact that it ships directly with Android Ice Cream Sandwich. And Google's latest update works well, with plenty of small tweaks such as the ability to load apps into folders and save web pages for viewing offline at a later date.

It's not like Acer has really skimped on the specs under the hood either. There's an Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, built-in GPS support, 1280 x 800 screen resolution and support for the Google Play app store.

It's far from competing with the likes of the Asus Transformer Prime or the new iPad, but as a budget option, the Acer A200 doesn't do much wrong.

It concentrates on the main things you want to use a tablet for - browsing the web, watching movies and playing Draw Something. All of which it handles nicely for a budget device.