Acer Iconia A500 Tablet Review and Root

I recently became the proud owner of an Acer Iconia tablet thanks to a few discounts bringing my price down to a sweet $250. I figured that now that I have spent a few days messing around with this new device I would share the wealth of knowledge I have accumulated with you and while I'm at it, why not add in a little rooting tutorial?

The Acer tab is a 10.1 inch bearing beast of tablet rocking a Tegra 2 1GHZ dual-core processor and 1 full gig of ram for some of the best performance I have evr seen in my life of Android. Pulling all this hardware together is Googles 3.0 Honeycomb version of Android which remains stock however a few applications come pre-installed. There are two cameras, front and back, 2MP and 5MP respectively and the back features flash. Ports are a big thing on this device with the left side sporting a mini HDMI (although they really could have afforded the full size) power button,and the headphone jack, the right side has a power port, micro USB, and full sized usb for data transfer and peripheals, the bottom has a dock connector, and the top has volume rockers, slots for an sd card and sim,  and an orientation lock switch (big fan of this). Despite the large number of vrey useful ports the exterior looks unimaginably slick with tapered edges and a brushed aluminum back. The only complaints I have in the way of design is that the webcam is not located in the center making for odd angles and the back is so slick that it can be hard to grip sometimes. Some may complain of the weight (it is a heavy tablet) but I like this extra pressure as it makes the tab feel more solid.

There is no real reason to talk about Honeycomb and if you haven't already checked it out I will link you to a separate review HERE. A good bit of applications come pre-installed on top of the usual Google apps, some are pretty useful, others not so much. One of my favorite additions is the full version of Need For Speed Shift which is quite an addictive game and runs impressively smooth. Other than that there is a golfing game and a trial for Hero of Sparta. Acer bundles a bunch of media applications which I find tacky compared to Honeycomb's built in media apps.  Everything runs smooth as butter and so far I have experienced no crashes, freezing, and only minimalistic lag when really pushing the processor. I do have a complaint though in that when playing music be warned that if you leave the screen off the device will not advance to the next track for some reason. Other than that the only thing that bothers me is the lack of available music types to play.

Battery life is decent, I have reached close to 7 hours consistently playing Dungeon Defenders non stop and lasted well over a day using randomly throughout the day. One of the best things I love this tab for is the USB port as it allows using keyboards and mice. I am writing this entire blog on the tablet thanks to this. There is sadly no included file manager so if you want to make use of flash drives I recommend Astro File manager which can be downloaded HERE. Just because I should probably add it in this, the Iconia does come with GPS and Bluetooth, both of which are welcome in my book. If I had to rate this device I would give it a 4/5 only because the screen is not perfect, especially in any amount of sunlight, viewing angles are amazing though.

Now to get on to the really good part and that is Rooting the Acer Tab. Before I start just know that I am not responsible to anything that may happen to your device as a result of this tutorial, proceed at your own risk. To root the Acer Iconia download this file HERE> Install the file on the tablet> Run the application> Select Root. I know that was really difficult but now you are finally under root access. Enjoy the new found power you have over your wonder device.

Do you have the Iconia? Is there a better tablet out there? Leave your comments down below and always haves a great day. See ya.