AT&T announced it will offer the 10-inch Acer Iconia Tab A501 tablet beginning this summer, featuring Android 3.0 running on a dual-core 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 processor. The Iconia Tab A501 will provide 4G cellular networking, offer five- and two-megapixel cameras, plus Android Market support, says AT&T.

Acer unveiled its Iconia Tab A500 and similar seven-inch A100 tablets, along with a 4.8-inch Iconia Smart phone, at February's Mobile World Congress. Running Android 2.3, the three Iconia devices were originally previewed by Acer in November, and tipped again at CES in January.

Acer Iconia Tab A501
Source: CNET

In February, Acer said the tablets would ship in April and May, but offered relatively few details. AT&T has not added much here except to say that the "A501" will be optimized for its 4G network and will offer Android Market access.

Like pretty much all the 10.1-inch Android 3.0 ("Honeycomb") tablets, the Iconia Tab A501 runs on the dual-core 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, and features a 1280 x 800 pixel display. While Acer listed the dimensions for the A500 as 10.1-inches, AT&T says the A501 has a 10-inch screen. Also available are the typical five-megapixel and two-megapixel cameras and an HDMI port, says AT&T.

Other features said by Acer to be offered on the original A500 include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 wireless options, as well as a micro-USB port and Dolby Mobile audio. While the A501 might differ, the base A500 system was said to ship with 1GB RAM and 16GB internal storage.

Acer touted the Iconia Tab A500 as being only 0.52 inches (13.3mm) thick, although this may now be considered on the fat side, compared to the 0.34-inch (8.8mm) iPad 2 and 0.33-inch (8.6mm) Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1.

While Acer mentioned nothing about it at the time, the tablet was said in other reports to support 4G LTE communications, which is being launched this year on AT&T. Acer also touted its Iconia Tab tablets for their DLNA-infused Clear.fi media sharing software, which was said to enable accessing, playing, and sharing multimedia across a home network, as well as pushing updates to social media networks.

Phandroid demo of Acer Iconia Tab A500 on YouTube at Mobile World Congress in February
Source: Phandroid
(Click to play)

Stated David Haight, vice president of business development, AT&T Emerging Devices, speaking of the A501. "This tablet is packed with features that will enable HD gaming and exceptional video playback."

Availability

Distribution and pricing for the Acer Iconia Tab A501 will be announced at launch, expected in the second quarter, says AT&T. More information on the Iconia Tab A500 may be found on this Acer site.

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