Acer Iconia A1-713

 

 Acer's Iconia series of tablets has been in the market for some time and the Taiwanese manufacturer is not a stranger to this space. The latest to hit the retail shelves is the Iconia A1-713. The tablet costs around Rs. 13,000 and has a mediocre specifications list. However, its USP is its support for 3G data and voice calling. We try to find out if it is worthy as a tablet that can also make calls.

 Look and feel

The Acer Iconia A1-713 looks like any other 7-inch Android tablet in the market today. The uninspired design doesn't attract too much attention.
The front is dominated by the 7-inch screen with thick borders on all sides. While the tablet is mostly made of plastic, Acer proudly advertises the metallic finish on the rear. It looks premium but the finish actually makes the rear slimy and we had to be extra careful not to drop the device. The Iconia A1-713 has dimensions of 193x116x8.95mm and weighs 305g. 
Above the display are the front-facing camera, earpiece, a few sensors, and a notification LED. The Iconia A1-713 uses on-screen buttons for navigating through the operating system. The volume rocker and the power button sit on the right edge. The microphone and the Micro-USB port are on the bottom and there is a 3.5mm jack on top. On the bottom of the rear is the loudspeaker and on top is the protruding rear camera. The upper segment of the rear is removable, and reveals the SIM card and the microSD card slots.

Specifications and software

Powering the tablet is a Mediatek MT8382 quad-core processor clocked at 1.3GHz with the older Mali-400MP GPU integrated. There is 1GB of RAM for running applications, and 16GB of internal storage which can be upgraded by a further 32GB using a microSD card.

The Acer A1-713 is a voice-calling tablet and accepts a single Mini-SIM card. It can connect to networks operating in the 850/900/1800/1900/2100MHz frequency bands, which includes 3G. The other connectivity options include Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi b/g/n. Also, there is a 2-megapixel rear camera and a VGA front-facing camera. The 7-inch screen has a resolution of 1024x600 which translates to a pixel density of 169.5. This is probably the worst screen we've seen on a 7-inch tablet till date. 

Camera

It seems pretty clear to us that both, the 2-megapixel rear camera and the VGA front-facing camera, are mere add-ons and you would be better off forgetting they exist.

The rear camera doesn't have auto-focus. The captured images have smudged details and the colours are also slightly off. For those interested (we don't know why), it can also capture videos at a lowly 480p resolution. Take a look at the full resolution sample photograph captured by the rear camera to see for yourself.

Priced at Rs. 12,999, the Acer A1-713 is characterised by sluggish performance, a terrible screen and unexciting software.