We spent a good amount of time checking out the Iconia range at the Acer launch today. One of the early birds here was the A300 smartphone / tablet hybrid. Acer likes to count this as a tablet and we would call this a large phone, but either ways, this thing is gorgeous. The Iconia A300 / S300 is a 4.8″ touchscreen (21:9 aspect ratio ) running Gingerbread and custom Acer shell. The device has a strong feel and despite its large display / size it feels good to hold.
The best comparison of the feel is perhaps the good old Nokia 9300 communicator. A300 packs in Dolby sound (lot of Dolby audio options to play with) and a 8MP camera. This thing records 720p HD videos and packs in a 1GHz processor from Qualcomm. The device is currently being tested by field engineers and the personnel we spoke to mentioned a 1500 mAh battery which lasts a day easily. Acer is probably missing out on Super LCD or AMOLED on its devices, but the quality still serves the purpose with good brightness and viewing angles. On the software end the cutomizations by Acer aren’t out of the world, but its work in progress.
The Iconia Smart A300 would launch in India towards the end of June. The pricing is currently unknown. Here is a video demo of the A300:
Update: Acer seems to have launched this model as the S300 after a brief delay. The same is priced at Rs 28,900 in India.
