Since Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich was released late last year, smartphone and tablet manufacturers have already released information as to when the devices in their respective stables will get the update to the latest version of the Android mobile operating system. In the case of Acer, the manufacturer announced that the Acer Iconia Tab A500 was supposed to get the jump to Ice Cream Sandwich starting in the middle of April and since the middle of the current month has come and gone, it is pretty obvious that the previous announcement of Acer did not push through.
Buy the Acer Iconia Tab A500 for $481.
The ICS update for the Acer Iconia Tab A500 has been delayed but Acer confirmed that it will only be a bit of a delay and has confirmed that Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will start hitting the tablet in US shores starting April 27. Android fanboys in Canadian territories who rock the tablet will also get treated to a tasty treat of ICS on the same day. Hopefully, there will be no more delays and Acer will get to push through with the supposed ICS update for the Acer Iconia Tab A500 come April 27.
Users of the Acer Iconia Tab A501 on the other hand are in for a disappointment because the company has announced that it has no plans to have the tablet get the upgrade to ICs for that matter. Putting our two cents’ worth, we can’t see the percentage that Acer will gain in not getting the A501 upgraded to ICS given the fact that it is almost similar to the Acer Iconia Tab A500 with one glaring difference, the A501 has 3G connectivity that is lacking in the Acer Iconia Tab A500. While waiting for the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update to finally land on the Acer Iconia Tab A500, let us get reacquainted with the Acer tablet by going through its specs sheet which you can find below.
The Acer Iconia Tab A500 is one aging tablet which reached official status when it was announced back in February of last year. It finally hit the shelves in April and is a bit bulky and hefty like the original Motorola Xoom and has measurements of 260 x 177 x 13.3 mm and tips the scales at a rather hefty 730 grams. Under the hood, the operation of the Acer Iconia Tab A500 is powered by an NVIDIA Tegra 2 T20 chipset which gives the tablet a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor clocked at 1 GHz and 1GB of DDR2 RAM for some snappy performance in the tablet. It was released in a 16GB and 32GB model in terms of storage space with memory expansion a possibility in the tablet with its dedicated microSD card slot. It has a 10.1-inch LCD display with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels and its operating system is overlaid with the custom Acer User Interface. It also has a capable shooting department with a 5-megapixel autofocus camera at its back panel and 2MP webcam for video calls out front.
April 19, 2012 at 4:31 pm
Thank you for the update! Much appreciated!
It’s curious why they aren’t updating the 3G Capable model. I’m wondering if there are some incompatibilities with the technology used on the A501.
And lastly, a major factor for me in purchasing the A500 over say the ASUS Transformer, was the built in USB Port. Sure, they can both use Bluetooth for Keyboards and Mice, but a full size USB port also allows for importing files directly off a memory stick, or plugging in a camera to download pictures as well! (Besides, Bluetooth peripherals are still WAAAAY more expensive than wired Keyboards/Mice)
Overall, I think the A500 was the best Android Tablet for the money.
Now if only they made a longer Power cable…>.<
April 19, 2012 at 8:59 pm
What about Australia, when will they get the update?
April 22, 2012 at 1:53 am
ROBERT your right about the power cord how dumb was that besides that i am very happy with my A500 the usb port and adobe flash won me over from the ipad and they can have there silly itunes.