Acer Iconia Tab A100 launching end of April

Acer has brought forward the launch of its 7in Iconia Tab A100 device to the end of April.

Business users looking to purchase a budget tablet may find the A100 an enticing option, as the device is set to be one of the cheapest Honeycomb tablets on the market with a launch price of £300.

Specifications of the A100 also look promising. The 7in display comes with a 1,024 x 600 resolution, and the tablet is powered by a 1GHz Tegra 250 dual-core processor.

Acer has included 8GB of storage, micro-SD and HDMI support, together with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and HSPA connectivity.

The device is equipped with a rear-facing 5-megapixel camera and a front-facing 2-megapixel camera, and weighs 470g. Acer quotes up to five hours of video playback.

However, the A100 could be overshadowed by other tablets such as the Acer Iconia W500, Motorola Xoom and Asus Eee Pad Transfomer that are due to hit the shops this week.

Business users are likely to be attracted to the Acer Iconia Tab W500, which runs Windows 7 and is designed to replicate the experience of a netbook.

The 970g device is powered by a 1GHz dual-core C-50 processor together with 2GB of DDR3 RAM, and will ship with a 32GB SSD. The tablet will also be able to slot into a companion keyboard, effectively turning it into a portable PC.

Key features include a 10.1in LED backlit touch screen, which has a resolution of 1,280 x 800. The W500 also supports full HD 1080p video playback.

Support for Adobe Flash 10.1, Adobe Reader 9.1, Bing and Microsoft Starter 2010 is included, and USB, HDMI and Ethernet ports, together with a two-in-one card reader are built into the chassis.

Pricing for the Wi-Fi-only model has been set at £449.99.