Acer Iconia 8 (Android, 16G_WIFI)

flibberdipper · March 24, 2015

INTRO
My mom got this tablet a few months ago at Best Buy on sale for about $160USD. Initially, she wouldn’t let me touch it. But, now that I can touch it… I like it. A lot.

GENERAL PERFORMANCE
For a normally cheap (like $180USD cheap) Android tablet… Not bad. Actually… Really good. This thing packs a quad-core Intel Atom Z3735G operating at a nominal 1.8GHz-ish. The minimum clocks were about 500MHz, “normal” clocks were about 1500MHz, and max (more or less normal) clocks were just over 1800MHz. Also up are the Intel HD Graphics for BayTrail for… Well… Graphics, and 1GB of (assumingly) LPDDR3 RAM. It also has 16GB of storage, which is not bad. The OS was smooth, the camera was smooth (more on that guy later), and everything just… Worked. It was nice.

GAMING PERFORMANCE
So, I haven’t really played any games on it. My grandma’s internet is painfully slow, and I was only able to play some simpler games (Clash of Clans, Hill Climb Racing, Crossy Road, and The Simpsons Tapped Out). Everything ran great, even Clash of Clans when I was getting brutally demolished by some level 80+ asshat. So, sadly, no 3DMark scores or anything for this review.

MULTITASKING PERFORMANCE
Again… It was nice. Switching between apps was nice and fast, and there were no issues to report. I did notice that due to the rather small amount of RAM this device has, that when you were playing something like Clash of Clans, went to another app (Firefox, for example) and back, that it would have to reload the app again (but the loading times are fairly good, so who cares).

BATTERY
For this “test,” I had the screen set at 50% brightness and jumped around from Clash of Clans, to Crossy Road, to The Simpsons Tapped Out, to Chrome, and back and forth repeatedly (kinda like a lot of tablet users might end up doing). I was able to squeeze close to 3 hours out of it, and I didn’t start out with a full charge to begin this test. So… Not bad for the price.

BUILD QUALITY
I can sum it up in just one word: Impressive. The back seems to be made of aluminum (if not, it is damned good plastic), the screen seems to be a solid glass piece, and for an 8-inch tablet… There is some actual weight to it. Moving on, the CPU never seemed to go above 60C, which is pretty good. I did notice some “stress artifacts” when I pressed on the back a little too hard, but that’s okay, given that this is a fairly slim tablet, and it’s cheap.

SCREEN
It’s pretty. ‘Nuff said. The resolution clocks in at 1280x800 and has a pixel density of 213DPI. At a normal viewing distance (1 foot away), it looks fantastic. Even up closer, it still looks really damn good. The backlight is pretty freaking bright, and I’m not sure if it’s the OS’s fault or what, but the backlight hardly seems to get brighter going from 60% all the way up to 100%.

CAMERA/SPEAKER(S)
Ah, the camera. So pretty. The rear facing camera has a resolution of 2560x1440 (yes, 1440p) and it looks pretty good. Unfortunately, I do not have any pics from it. As for video, you can record in up to 1080p, and it looks pretty good. Again, no footage. I haven’t used the front camera though, so I can’t tell you about that one. As for the mic(s), it sounded pretty nice when played back through my headphones.

Going to the speaker(s), it’s a rear mounted setup, and although not in the best spot (the bottom edge, when used in portrait), they still sound okay. Now, as you can imagine, for a tablet that is this cheap, they don’t sound the greatest. They are kinda tinny, but they can get loud. So if loud matters, this tablet is worth a look.

APPEARANCE
One word: Sexy. The design is very close to the HTC One Mx lineup, and it’s just flatout sexy. I love the design, and this is one of the few cases where I am okay with a white color scheme, since it just… Works. I will now let you drool at the backside of this bad boy. Do note though: The Acer logo is looks kinda chromey, and there will be an ugly sticker and stuff above the seam which is above the speaker.

OPERATING SYSTEM/BLOATWARE
My mom’s tablet currently is up to date with Android 4.4.4 KitKat, and I guess there isn’t that much else to say about it, other than this is one damn fine OS. I do hope this gets updated to Lolipop, though.

As for bloatware: There’s a fair amount of it. Some of which you can’t even remove, as far as I can tell. Shame on you Acer for ruining such a fine tablet with your crapware. At least in my eyes.

CONCLUSION
For $180USD, this tablet is worth a good look. It brings a lot to the table for the money, and while there is a lot of bloatware on it, the tablet is still a good purchase. It’s built nice, is pretty fast, and if you’re just going to do simple things like Clash of Clans, browsing the web, reading your emails, and watching YouTube, you really couldn’t go wrong with it.

IS IT WORTH IT?
For sure. Just… End of story, right there. And end of review, since I bet this thing is getting pretty long.

Tiby · March 24, 2015

You can root it and uninstall these additional apps that just take space and consume resources.

Personally never liked Acer not for their software implementation (.. even on laptops it is awkward) but because they usually don't stand by their customers in providing updates.

The community of developers is also smaller, which does have its downsides (apps not properly tested on this or are completely unavailable, lack of security updates ..). But performance wise it's a nice tablet.

flibberdipper · March 24, 2015

You can root it and uninstall these additional apps that just take space and consume resources.

Personally never liked Acer not for their software implementation (.. even on laptops it is awkward) but because they usually don't stand by their customers in providing updates.

The community of developers is also smaller, which does have its downsides (apps not properly tested on this or are completely unavailable, lack of security updates ..). But performance wise it's a nice tablet.

I don't quite think my mom would approve of me doing that.