News - Acer shows off the £99 Acer B1-A71 tablet at CES

[HEXUS]

Though earlier reports suggested it would be priced equivalent to US$99.

Read more.

[Jake_UK]

US$99 is a hard price to reach for something like that!

[sykobee]

Pretty low-end tablet though - 512MB RAM is especially limiting. You are better off getting a Playbook (and installing Android apps on it) IMO, the hardware and build quality is going to be a lot better.

[BobF64]

PC-Pro describes it is an “In-Plane Switching TFT rather than a higher quality twisted nematic touchscreen” but in the video the viewing angles look OK

No, the PC Pro article says the reverse, it uses an TN panel, not the higher quality IPS ones.

I dont think anyone has ever claimed TN panels are high quality, at least not in recent years.

[brianzion]

stick with my nexus 7

[RoganJosh]

stick with my nexus 7

ditto - it's an amazing piece of kit

[kingpotnoodle]

stick with my nexus 7

ditto - it's an amazing piece of kit

There is always a price below which too many compromises must be made, the Nexus 7 @ £159 seems to be at that price, it's great value. Anything cheaper has had to cut too much IMHO and thus is worse value, less useful per £.

[Fraz]

"Acer B1-A71" How catchy.

I predict it won't do well.

[kingpotnoodle]

"Acer B1-A71" How catchy.

I predict it won't do well.

Agreed lol, Acer aren't a name that can sell something the same quality as the cheap tabs on eBay for a higher price.

[Saracen]

There is always a price below which too many compromises must be made, the Nexus 7 @ £159 seems to be at that price, it's great value. Anything cheaper has had to cut too much IMHO and thus is worse value, less useful per £.

Not necessarily. I got a Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 at £145. For my needs, much better value .... for my needs.

[hesham1516]

I was hoping for a sleek lil device that I can use to read books on and occasionally play games or watch videos... but this thing looks waaaay cheaper than it's worth, i've seen better designed chinese ebay junk.

I was honestly expecting the magic of the nexus pricing with the performance you get to affect all the newer devices comming out, what a let down.

[kingpotnoodle]

Not necessarily. I got a Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 at £145. For my needs, much better value .... for my needs.

That's not it's RRP though...

This Acer is starting out at £99.

[TheAnimus]

Not necessarily. I got a Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 at £145. For my needs, much better value .... for my needs.

But its about the on the street price surely?

If something is £100 to start with, that can only be good. The tab 2, is about £270 from a quick google.

I for one love this race. Why?

Because one only needs to go to the better 3rd world, or 2nd world and look at the importance of tablets / phones. A while back I was in a Belgian bar in Thailand, why? Because their wifi was top notch, and unlike my hotel I could skype with 2+ people. I bar with internet and Trappist beer? I spent a lot of time there. This being Thailand, there where a lot of girls who were whores, the easy way to tell, did they own an iPhone? That was the test. Someone who'd have sex for about £20, spent it on an iPhone (eventually). Fast forward to present day and its an S3. If a bar girl owns an S3, she is 'for rent'. I found this astonishing because you don't think of people falling in to sex work to buy a phone. You assume they are pressured for food or necessities.

However, you take a step back, and all of a sudden it makes sense. A phone or small tablet is always with you. It provides endless entertainment. It is frankly amazing.

To see the price of such things drop I find to only be a good point. Sure there might be a race to the bottom, but it isn't ruining anything, there are still higher end devices. It will however pressure immensely all developers. I like this.

I've actually bought internet for my gran (£7.50 pcm) for the sole purpose of skype, A nexus 7 for £170, with a gimped shell, I thought that was a bargain. If you have quality devices for <£100, the market is open to soo many more people. That can only be good.

tldlr: I think this is ace news. Just because you got a bargain doesn't matter, I love the average price for the device, even thou I'll probably not buy one.

[dom99]

if its priced at under £99 it might do OK. I'm very happy with my archos cobalt 80 from Tescos for £49 on boxing day. Dual core 1.6ghz 1gb ram 8gb storage up to 64gb SD card 1024x768 8inch screen

[wasabi]

If it has GPS I 'might' consider it. However I'm beginning to think a SIM card slot is a must have (for me, no wifi on phone to tether) so either one of the Vodafone £150 jobs or pay the £240 for the 32Gb Nexus 7 with sim.

Or just wait and see...

The bezel looks crazy big but I found another youtube vid (in German) with a side by side with a Nexus 7 - it doesn't look so bad there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5rSNuY59LM