Acer Makes Budget Iconia B1-A71 Tablet Official With $150 Price Tag [CES 2013]

Just as we expected, Acer has announced a new Android tablet at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas today. Pictures of the device surfaced several hours ago, but we were unable to confirm its specifications or its price tag until Acer made it official. Now we can confirm the device will be targeting the budget end of the market, priced at $150. But is it too expensive?

For me, yes. Let me tell you why.

The Iconia B1-A71 — also known as the Iconia Tab B1 — offers 8GB of internal storage, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, and a 7-inch display with a 1024×600 resolution. These specifications match the (underwhelming) benchmarks and the FCC approval that leaked back in December.

Now, at the budget end of the market, Acer has some stiff competition, mostly from the Google Nexus 7. For just $49 more, you could get a tablet with double the storage, a significantly faster quad-core processor, and a far greater 1280×800 resolution display. Not to mention future Android updates almost as soon as they’re ready.

I know which tablet I’d prefer.

The Iconia B1-A71 is $50 too expensive. If Acer could have price it at $100 — as many reports suggested it would have — the price difference between this and the Nexus 7 would have been a compelling reason to accept the lesser specifications for many users. But for the sake of just $49, I’m not sure why anyone would choose this over Google’s offering.

• Via The Verge

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