Android tablets are a funny thing. The first ones had the exact same specs as the iPad, some were even faster, but crucially they also had the same $499 price tag. Translation: No one bought them, because why buy a knock off when you can buy the original? Companies then got smart and realized that the only way to compete with the iPad is to offer consumers something that the iPad doesn’t, and thus the 7 inch form factor was born. Thanks to the smaller screen, consumers also saw smaller prices.
But then Apple released the iPad mini last year. The cat and mouse game has to go on, right? Enter Acer, who did the unthinkable. They launched a sub $200 tablet called the Iconia B1. Yes, the screen is pretty bad, and yes, the processor is a bit slow, but time will fix both of those things. Earlier this month, Acer held an event in New York to announce the 7.9 inch Iconia A1. During the same event, the company also announced a refreshed 7 inch Iconia B1, thought sadly they didn’t have any prototypes to demo.
This is where Notebook Italia comes in. Last week, Acer Italy showed the site the new B1, and it looks a hell of a lot better than the original. It also has a faster processor and more RAM, though it looks like the screen didn’t get upgraded. Expect to see a lot of activity in the sub $200 tablet space over the coming months. It’s a totally new market, driven by the race to the bottom, that will bring computing to potentially hundreds of millions of people.
