Today, two of the most sexiest Honeycomb beasts, the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer and Acer’s Iconia Tab A500 are fighting against each other. These tablets are quite evenly matched against each other, leaving only a few specs which really puts them apart. The Eee Pad Transformer is priced at $399, while the Acer Iconia Tab A500 is priced at $449.99, only a mere $50 price difference.
ASUS Eee Pad Transformer
ASUS Eee Pad Transformer features a 10.1″ WSVGA (1280×800) IPS capacitive LED touchscreen, 1GHz dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, and 1GB of RAM (DDR2). The tablet comes in 2 variants – with 16GB and 32GB flash memory – that include Wi-Fi & bluetooth capability, mini HDMI output port and a 4-in-1 card reader. ASUS’ Eee Pad also has a rear 5MP camera, and a front 1.2MP camera for video calls, a stereo speaker and an internal microphone. As for the sensors, it’s got GPS, gravity sensor, E-Compass, gyroscope and a light sensor. The iPad and iPhone too have gyroscope and it makes the device much more responsive to motion.
The tablet’s 24W/h Li-ion battery gives a backup of 9.5hours. One more great thing about Transformer is that you can attach a keyboard (sold separately), which gives an additional battery life of 6.5hours, totaling it up to 16 hours. Weighing only 1.5lb, Transformer is 10.7 x 7 x 0.5 inches and has ASUS’ Waveshare Interface, which hosts a variety of unique applications to help manage content and easily launch softwares. With Honeycomb installed at its core, this tablet makes up for a great buy.
Acer Iconia Tab A500
Another Honeycomb tablet is Acer Iconia Tab A500 that sports similar configurations – 10.1″ HD (1280×800) Multi-touch display with a 16:10 aspect ratio, 1GHz dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, 1GB RAM, 16GB internal memory (with MicroSD slot supporting upto 32GB). Iconia Tab’s screen allows for a 160° viewing angle, while ASUS’ Eee Pad Transformer allows for 178° viewing angle.
The Comparison
Acer’s Iconia Tab has dual speakers (resulting in better sound quality), a micro USB 2.0 port and a regular 2.0 port (which the Transformer lacks), 1 micro HDMI out, a 5MP rear camera and a 2MP front camera.
The Transformer captures less crispier images than the Iconia Tab due to its 1.2MP front camera, but assuming the primary usage being video calling, it does a fine job. ASUS offers better battery backup with a single full charge lasting for 9.5 hours while Acer’s Iconia Tab lasts for 8 hours. ASUS has a slight advantage as the keyboard accessory does offer an additional 6.5 hours of battery, but does also cost you about $150 more.
Acer Iconia Tab A500 has a solid aluminium built, which makes the tablet look very neat and better looking than the Transformer. As for stability, we’ll give Transformer the winning hand, the Iconia Tab seems a little sloppy, but that can be fixed with a custom ROM or an update in the future.
Both of these tablets are on par with each other and certainly keep up with the iPad 2. Both these tablets have 1GB RAM, which is the double of what iPad 2 has. The user has more freedom too; as it’s an Android tablet, you are free to do whatever you want to your device without any hassles. Install a custom ROM, do some freaky hacking or just beat the hell out of the CPU by overclocking it, it’s all up to you.
The Conclusion
We had quite a tough time deciding between the two tablets, but if you’re low on money, like stability and don’t mind losing a feature or two, we’ll give ASUS Eee Pad Transformer the winning trophy.
the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, again, by the truckloads, starting on June 2. The 16GB and 32GB variants should supposedly cost $399 and $499, respectively. Yes, that’s a $100 less than Motorola Xoom (or $200, if you opt for 32GB) and same as the basic iPad 2 version – even though this one carries more internal storage.
