Lenovo IdeaTab A2109A vs Acer Iconia A700
The tablet market is a fascinating place to hangout. There are various grades and types of tablets advertised by various companies. Tablets first came with a 10 inch screen and better-than-smartphone performance. Since then, we have seen 9 inch tablets and 7 inch tablets along the way. Please note that 9 inch tablet means the tablet range having a screen size of 9-9.9 inches and so on for the other class too. Performance enhancements have grown exponentially, and a quad core processor has become the general standard of a tablet. The screen resolution has also grown to such an extent that even laptops released these days can’t match the resolution of the tablets. Apple new iPad aces the resolution barrier by having a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels while other tablets closely follow with a full HD display featuring a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels.
Hence when Lenovo revealed three tablets at IFA 2012, our mindset was set to discover a performance hungry beast inside a decent housing along with a budget version, as well. Unfortunately, these tablets have been in the rumor mill for some time, and pre releases are also available in BestBuy; hence they are not exactly new tablets. But let us take a shot at them and compare them with some prominent tablets in the market to set a benchmark on what we can actually expect. For that, we chose Acer Iconia A700 tablet which is by far the best tablet offered by Acer with a competitive price tag on it. Obviously the price of Lenovo A2109A is substantially cheaper compared to Iconia A700, so we are expecting a performance landslide here. However, we found that Lenovo IdeaTab A2109A is of decent quality with decent performance matrices, when we looked in-depth in to the device.
Lenovo IdeaTab A2109A Review
Lenovo IdeaTab A2109A is a 9 inch tablet that fits between the 7 inch and 10 inch tablet storm. It has moderate performance matrices although we have to take it for a run to ensure the quality. It has a LCD capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels at a pixel density of 167ppi. IdeaTab 2109A has an all-aluminum variety rear encasement which can appeal to your finer tastes. It is rather light for a tablet in this class weighing 1.26 pounds. Lenovo IdeaTab 2109A is powered by 1.2GHz quad core processor on top of NVIDIA Tegra 3 chipset with 1GB DDR3 RAM. Android OS v4.0.4 ICS is the current operating system although we hope Lenovo would release an upgrade to v4.1 Jelly Bean soon. This is not a powerhouse by the looks of it, but it certainly wouldn’t break your heart. If you buy this tablet, we guarantee you’re in for some sweet gaming experience with the 12 core NVIDIA Tegra 3 GPU.
IdeaTab A2109A comes in 16GB of storage capacity while having the option to expand the storage using microSD card up to 32GB. There is a 3MP camera at the rear as well as a 1.3MP camera in the front for video calling. IdeaTab 2109A is certified for SRS premium sound which means you are in for a great audio experience, as well. There is a 3.5mm headphone port and a micro USB port as well as a micro HDMI port. Unfortunately, IdeaTab 2109A doesn’t sport HSDPA connectivity. Instead, it’s limited to Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n which may be an issue if you are in a country where Wi-Fi networks are rare. We don’t have records about the battery usage patterns as of yet although it was purported that Lenovo IdeaTab 2019A would come with a two cell lithium ion battery. The prerelease is offered at a price of $299 at BestBuy.
Acer Iconia Tab A700 Review
Acer announced Iconia Tab A700 at the CES 2012, and this was one of the best tablets showcased at CES 2012. Iconia A700 has 10.1 inches LCD capacitive touchscreen that features a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels at 224ppi pixel density. This is a super resolution even 20 inch monitors rarely score. To emphasize how great the resolution is; most of the typical laptops you find today only do up to 1366 x 768 pixels of resolution. In that context, you can understand that 1920 x 1200 pixels is a killer resolution. The screen is of high quality too which makes this ideal for entertainment.
The screen is just the cover for a beast that’s waiting to be burst. Acer Iconia A700 is powered by 1.3GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 quad core processor and 1GB of DDR2 RAM. It is managed by Android OS v4.0 IceCreamSandwich which does justice to the hardware configuration. ICS runs smoothly on the device. It has three storage options; 16 / 32 / 64GB, and has the ability to expand the storage using a microSD card, as well. A700 also has 5MP camera with autofocus, LED flash and geo-tagging while it can capture 720p HD videos at 30 frames per second. It also has a front camera for the purpose of video conferencing. We are content about the HSPDA connectivity this tablet offers although LTE connectivity might have been the ideal option. It also has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n for continuous connectivity and the ability to host a Wi-Fi hotspot is an ideal way to be generous with your internet connection.
On the usability perspective, Acer Iconia Tab A700 felt surprisingly light, and it’s not the thinnest tablet in the market, but the 9.8mm thickness isn’t discomfort to hold in your hand. Another special addition in Iconia Tab is the Acer Ring. It is a circular launcher menu you can directly use to access predefined apps from the lock screen. It is a nice enhancement to the stock ICS OS, and we are glad about the perspective it has given. It comes in Titanium Gray or Metallic Red and has, somewhat, thick screen outline, but it doesn’t cease to look expensive. We expect the 9800mAh super battery to keep the device up and running for 10 long hours, and that certainly is great.
A Brief Comparison Between Lenovo IdeaTab 2109A and Acer Iconia A700
• Lenovo IdeaTab 2109A is powered by 1.2GHz Quad Core processor on top of NVIDIA Tegra 3 chipset with ULP GeForce GPU and 1GB DDR3 RAM while Acer Iconia A700 is powered by 1.3GHz Quad Core processor on top of NVIDIA Tegra 3 chipset with ULP GeForce GPU and 1GB of DDR2 RAM.
• Lenovo IdeaTab 2109A and Acer Iconia A700 both run on Android OS v4.0.4 ICS.
• Lenovo IdeaTab 2109A has 9 inch LCD capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels at a pixel density of 167ppi while Acer Iconia A700 has 10.1 inches LCD capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels at a pixel density of 224ppi.
• Lenovo IdeaTab 2109A has 3MP camera with 1.3MP front camera while Acer Iconia A700 has 5MP camera with VGA secondary camera for video conferencing.
Conclusion
If you’re going to choose between these two tablets, it gives rise to two concerns. The first one is, what you will miss for $150 when you forego Acer Iconia A700 tablet. Basically, you let go of that gorgeous screen with a monster resolution of 1920 x 1200. Iconia A700 is also rather well built compared to Lenovo IdeaTab 2109A. Besides these, there won’t be much you miss if you decide to forego $150. If you are comfortable in settling for the 1280 x 800 screen, Lenovo IdeaTab 2109A would be a good match for you. It’ll work decently and give a good gaming experience with the improved GPU. Essentially speaking, the hardware specs in both tablets are the same where the processor is overclocked by 100MHz in Acer Iconia A700. This may well be compensated by the better DDR3 RAM included in 2109A so I think we can settle for the two tablets to fall in the same performance range. Hence evaluate your options and make your decision depending on your preference.