Acer Launches Tab A500

By Doug Olenick On Apr 18 2011 - 4:01am

SAN JOSE, CALIF. – Acer has begun selling its Iconia Tab A500 tablet PC exclusively through Best Buy.

The Wi-Fi-only A500 carries a $449 suggested retail and runs the Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system. The lithium-ion batteries can supply power for eight hours of HD video playback or 10 hours of Internet browsing.

The tablet runs on an Nvidia Tegra 250 1GHz dualcore processor and has as integrated GeForce graphics processor that runs a 720p 10.1-inch display. The A500 also supports Flash 10.1. It has front- and rearfacing 5- and 2-megapixel cameras.

There is 16GB of flash storage and a MicroSD card slot that can take a 32GB MicroSD card. Later generations of the A500 will be upgraded to include 32GB of onboard flash storage.

Internet connectivity is handled via Wi-Fi, and there is built-in GPS with bundled navigation apps.

The A500 weighs 1.69 pounds and is about half an inch thick.

The tablet comes preloaded with Google’s eReader book apps and Zinio software for reading full-color digital magazines.

There are several accessories now available for the A500, including a full size keyboard, $69.99; and a two-position dock with charger and a connection for external speakers or headphones for $79.99.