Ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show next week in Las Vegas, Acer Inc. has announced what it's showing off - including two refreshed Android tablets, a Windows 8.1 tab, a new Chromebook, and an unexpectedly strange personal computer.
Iconia A1-830
Acer's slew of refreshes and new products start with the new Acer Iconia A1-830. The 7.9-inch Android tablet looks pretty nice with its aluminum finish and features one of Acer's strong suits: a cheap starting price.
Starting at $179, Acer's newest Iconia A1 slate has a 1024 x 768p resolution IPS display, powered by an Intel Atom processor clocked to 1.6GHz with 1GB of RAM.
Available with 16GB of built in storage, with a microSD card slot capable of up to 32GB more, the budget device runs the now-outdated Android 4.2.1. It gets 7.5 hours of battery life and features WiFi, Bluetooth (3.0), and a front-facing camera.
Iconia B1-720
Acer's second refresh is the super low-budget Iconia B1, which now has a 1.3GHz dual core processor and 1GB of RAM. It seemingly has the same 7-inch display, but the speakers are now on the front of the device, which is a nice change.
It also runs Android 4.3 and comes with a $129.99 price tag. Other details are scant on this refresh, according to Android Community, but don't expect too much different on this slate.
Another C720 Chromebook Variant
Acer will also debut yet another version of the C720 Chromebook. This time it's the C720P-2600, which is "moonstone white" and features 2GB of RAM, along with the other features common to the current Acer C720, including a Haswell-generation Celeron processor, 11.6-inch HD LED screen, 32GB of solid state storage, WiFi, webcam, Chrome OS, and, of course, a cheap price of about $300.
Iconia W4
This Windows 8.1-based Acer tablet will also make an appearance. As we previously reported when Acer first introduced it, the Iconia W4 is an attempt at redemption from its unimpressive W3 tablet. It offers an 8-inch display with a 1200 x 800p resolution which uses "Zero Air Gap" technology to make sure the IPS has no air gaps between the LCD and the panel, giving it better viewing angles, color, and brightness with less glare. It comes with an Intel Atom clocked at 1.8GHz, the option of 32GB or 64GB of storage, a 5-megapixel main camera, a 2-megapixel front-facer, and Windows 8.1.
Acer TA272 HUL Android All-in-One
As mentioned, by far the strangest Acer offering at CES this year will be the "Acer TA272 HUL Android All-in-One" personal computer. Besides the catchy name, this desktop computer is strange because it only runs Android OS.
Featuring a 27-inch WQHD resolution screen (2560 x 1440p, or four times sharper than HD) the All-in-One, or AIO, is powered by a quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor.
It looks like a premium AIO desktop (for a PC) and includes WiFi, a USB 3.0, HDMI, and display port, along with two front-facing Dolby surround sound speakers and a webcam.
But it comes with 16GB of internal memory and runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, which is definitely not a desktop operating system - even if the computer has a kickstand that leans the touchscreen down for easy access. And it costs $1,099.
Acer says that with the "DisplayPort", a Windows 8-based device can use the AIO as a high-resolution external monitor. Still, Android OS on an expensive desktop machine instead of Windows, or even Chrome, OS is an oddity.
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