Acer Iconia Tab A200 Review: a pretty good choice for enjoying media entertainment

Hi guys, welcome back!

Last month, i’ve already showed you some of Acer tablets which i thought were pretty great, especially for gaming.

Most of them actually are powered by Tegra processor, either its Tegra 2 and Tegra 3 chipsets, which are 2 of the best performing chipsets, of course around the time when they made their debuts.

(Acer Iconia Tab A200 Specs)


Some of them are Acer Iconia Tab A110, A500, A511 and A700, although there are also other Acer tablets that are packing other chipsets inside their machines.


The reason why i thought that these tablets would be great gaming tablets is because from what i’ve already seen on internet especially YouTube videos, all of Tegra-powered tablets are mostly great in handling any games even the most graphically demanding ones, which run in smooth performance and most of them in full graphics.

Of course it all depends on which Tegra generation that the tablets are packing, the graphics quality of the games or probably the quality of company that manufactures the tablet itself.

But i’m really sure that most of Tegra-packed tablets are just good for playing games.

This time, i also have a few more tablets from Acer that are also powered by that NVIDIA’s homemade processor, coming up in the next few days.

One of them that i want to share to you today is Acer Iconia Tab A200, an Android tablet packing a Tegra 2 dual-core processor.

Well then, if you’re interested to know more about this device, then here you go, my personal review of Acer Iconia Tab A200.


In tablet market, mostly, tablet consumers in general are more familiar with the names like iPad, Samsung GALAXY, Asus, Nexus or Sony Xperia.

Well, that’s nothing wrong with that.

Besides, they all are great quality tablets.

However, the thing is, even though those popular tablets are so great in many ways, there are still many other tablets from unpopular brands that don’t get the spotlight that they deserve.


I think one of the tablet manufacturers that should get more attention this year are Hewlett Packard and Acer. HP, as we all know already, makes many great computer-related products, like laptops or printers.

In the last quarter of last year, HP just debuted some of its tablet family under the flag “HP Slate”.

What makes these HP Slate tablets awesome is because all of these latest HP slate family are packing Tegra processors, which makes them great gaming tablets.

It goes the same with Acer.

Even though not many people are aware with the existence of Acer tablets, if you dare to check out their reviews on YouTube, you will see how Acer really takes this tablet market seriously.

Many of Acer tablets that i’ve already personally-reviewed on this site are mostly powered by Tegra processor.

And in the next few days, you are gonna see more of Tegra-armed tablets from Acer that i would like to share to you on this website.

Acer Iconia Tab A200 is one of them.

Acer Iconia Tab A200 is an Android tablet packing a Tegra 2 processor.

It comes with a 10.1-inch display with the resolution of 720p or 1280x800 pixels.

It’s really obvious that the highlight of this tablet is definitely its Tegra 2 dual-core processor, which has been known as the “world’s first dual-core processor” on smartphone and tablet market.

There are actually other Acer tablets that are also packing this same Tegra 2 chipset.

And one of them is Acer Iconia Tab A500, which amazingly is a great quality Android tablet, according to PhoneArena.

Interestingly, even though Acer Iconia Tab A500 was released before the Acer Iconia A200, there are some sectors that make A500 better than A200, which you’re about to find out in this review.


In terms of design, Acer Iconia Tab A200 actually looks kind of similar with Acer Iconia Tab A210, which is not surprising given that they both are released under the same generation.

So there is a metallic trim around the side of the tablet with slightly rounded shape on its corners.

The bezels on the front are pretty huge though but have the same size on every side.

On the back side, you can see some smooth matte finish all over it, with the Acer logo engraved on the center position.


There is no camera on the back, however, so you must always bring your digital camera or smartphone everytime you’re using this tablet on-the-go outside your house.


Overall, the design of this tablet actually looks great compared to other low-end or mid-end rivals that mostly have cheap looking design, especially Chinese tablets.

But still, there is nothing special about the design of this tablet.

It still looks generic with other 10-inch tablets out there, especially compared to more premium looking tablets, like iPad Air, LG G Pad 8.3 or Sony Xperia Tablet Z.

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• Released 2012, January
• 10.1 inch Capacitive touchscreen, 800 x 1280 pixels, 16M colors, (~149 ppi pixel density)
• Android OS 3.2 Honeycomb, upgradable to Ice Cream Sandwich
• Dual-core 1 GHz Cortex-A9 Nvidia Tegra 2 T20 Chipset
• ULP GeForce GPU
• 1 GB DDR2 RAM
• Acer UI
• 2 MP front-facing camera
• No rear-facing camera
• MicroSD card slot for up to 32 GB
• 8/16 GB Internal storage,
• No EDGE
• No GPRS
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
• USB
• Bluetooth
• No Radio
• GPS
• Java MIDP emulator
• Non-removable Li-Po 3260 mAh battery
• Up to 8 hours for talk time

When it comes to specs, Acer Iconia Tab A200 can still be considered as a mid-end quality tablet.

Its display may not be on par with the competing rivals out there that already adopt that higher-resolution 1080p or 2.5K display (2560x1500 pixels).

However, even for today’s standard, 720p screen or 1280x800 pixel display is still considered as pretty good though for current tablet market, of course in mid-end segment.

Acer Iconia Tab A200 comes with some pretty good specs, from a 10.1-inch display sporting the resolution of 1280x800 pixels, a dual-core Tegra 2 processor clocked at 1GHz, 1GB of RAM, GeForce ULP GPU, front-facing 2MP camera with no rear-facing camera, 3620mAh battery, Java emulator and many more.

Some of the specs of this tablet actually kind of remind me with the specs of Acer Iconia Tab A500, from the same exact display, the same Tegra 2, the same 1GB of RAM and the same Acer UI, although A500 comes with 5MP rear-facing camera while A200 doesn’t have it.

So having known that, then it’s pretty obvious that you can expect the same performance, battery life, gaming capability and display of Acer Iconia Tab A500 on this Acer Iconia Tab A200.


On the display sector, it’s great to hear that Acer Iconia Tab A200 is already packing a 720p quality display (1280x800 pixels), which has already become the standard for mid-end tablets (even low-end in 2014’s tablet market).

It may not be as sharp as other competing rivals on 10-inch tablet market, but with this display, the 720p resolution of this tablet actually already looks sharp on its 10.1-inch screen.

So for watching HD movies, reading books or magazines, browsing the web or even playing games, all of these tasks can be enjoyed at the fullest on this tablet.

The text or images may not look as sharp and crisp compared to other 1080p or 2.5K display tablets out there, especially when reading books or browsing the web.

But you can always use that pinching gesture in order to zoom in zoom out the screen whenever your eyes can’t read the text or see the images perfectly.

Actually, by using this 720p display on this tablet, the whole performance of Acer Iconia Tab A200 will be fast and smooth because its Tegra 2 processor is only tasked to deliver its performance on a rather medium-resolution display, compared to other tablets with 1080p or 2.5K display that require way more powerful chipset than Tegra 2.

Not to mention, the battery life of this tablet will also last much longer because its processor doesn’t require a lot of power to bring its best performance on that 720p display.


The UI of Acer Iconia Tab A200 is actually similar with the User Interface of other Acer Iconia tablets, of course the ones with Acer UI.

It has the same standard homescreen where you can deploy your favorite widgets and shortcuts all over it, the same notification window on top, and other standard features here and there.

But overall, the UI of this tablet is still considered as pretty standard with other regular Android tablets out there. It only has more features and different visual presentation than on the stock Android OS.


One of the great things of having an Acer Iconia tablet is definitely its rich-content features. Unlike other Android tablets with the stock Android OS, Acer Iconia Tab A200 definitely has a much better UI than those regular tablets out there.

It has much cooler visual presentations/effects on its pre-loaded apps, plus it has more useful features that probably can’t be found on other Android tablets with stock Android UI.

There are many cool features and apps that you can get on this tablet, like the app shortcuts on lockscreen “key”, Photo Browser 3D, cool camera UI, 3D-alike carousel effect on music player and many more.

But some of my favorites are definitely the shortcut apps on lockscreen and Photo Browser 3D.

Actually, i’ve already explained a lot about these 2 features in my previous reviews of Acer tablets, given that most of Acer Iconia tablets have similar UI and features.

But if you’ve just heard about these 2 features, Photo Browser 3D is actually similar with photo gallery app that you can find on other Android tablets out there.

However, what makes it different is its visual presentation.

On Photo Browser 3D, all of your photos will be displayed in the form of 2-page photo album.

So if you want to see the next or previous photos, you can just swap the screen the left or right, as if you’re swapping the paper of book, or photo album.

The cool thing about this app is that, besides using swapping gesture, you can also use the gyroscope in this tablet to swap the page to the next and previous photos, which can be activated by lifting up the tablet either on the right or left position.

As for the app shortcuts on the lockscreen “key”, (i’ve also already explained a lot about this feature by the way), this feature can also be found on any CyanogenMod-installed devices out there.

With this cool feature, everytime you press the on-screen lockscreen key (in order to unlock screen), there will be some shortcut of your favorite apps being shown in a circle ring shape of UI, like camera app, web browser, music player, etc.

So if you press, hold and move your finger to any specific app shortcut, instead of just unlocking the device, you will jump straight to your chosen app.

I think this is a really cool and useful feature. Hopefully, this feature will be implemented by Google on the next future Android updates.


In terms of performance, Acer Iconia Tab A200 can be considered as on par with its sibling, Acer Iconia Tab A500, given that they both share the same exact internal hardware, from the Tegra 2 dual-core chipset, GeForce ULP GPU, 1GB of RAM, 1280x800 pixel display, 3620mAh battery and the same software.

So basically, with those same internals, plus the same software and UI, then the performance of Acer Iconia Tab A200 will be as great as Acer Iconia Tab A500.

Either for doing basic tasks like checking emails or even doing much heavier tasks like watching HD movies, browsing the web pages and playing games, all of these daily tasks can be executed very well with its Tegra 2 processor in smooth performance.

The great thing about this Tegra 2 chipset is that, even though it’s capable to deliver a fast performance to this tablet, this processor is not really power hungry.

So this will give a much longer battery life to the tablet, even for doing tasks in heavy usage.

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On the sector of gaming performance, Acer Iconia Tab A200 is probably on par with the Acer Iconia Tab A500.

They both are packing the same exact internals, from the same Tegra 2 dual-core chipset, GeForce GPU, 1GB of RAM, 10.1-inch 1280x800 pixel display and 3620mAh power battery.

So practically, with this type of specs, this tablet is capable to handle any kind of games on Google Play Store, even the most graphically demanding ones, of course the games that were released back in 2012, like: Samurai Showdown, Need for Speed Undercover, Need for Speed Shift, N.O.V.A 1, Modern Combat 1, ShadowGun, Minion Rush, Asphalt 6 and many more, all in full graphics and in smooth performance.

However, when faced with much newer games like Modern Combat 4, GTA Vice City, Asphalt 7 or 8, N.O.V.A 3, or Horn, this tablet will definitely suffer in delivering a smooth performance especially in high graphics setting.

So if you’re not a huge fan of tablet gaming and you’re only looking for a tablet with a pretty standard gaming performance, then Acer Iconia Tab A200 is still a good choice for you.

However, if you want to get a much better alternative gaming tablet than A200, there are many other options that you can check out around the market, like Tegra Note 7, HP Slate 7 Extreme, 2nd-gen Google Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HDX and many more.


Nowadays, the use of tablet camera has arisen to the level that most people now are not really shy anymore to take photos with their huge tablets even in front of public.

Therefore, the need to have a rear-facing camera on a tablet is now considered as really important for majority of people, even tech geeks.

Unfortunately, if you’re getting Acer Iconia Tab A200, you will be left behind disappointed in tablet camera party because it has no rear-facing camera.

The good thing is, there is still a 2MP front-facing camera that lets you take selfies or do video calls.


Earlier, i’ve already shown you the personal review of Acer Iconia Tab A500, which is packing the same exact internals just like Acer Iconia Tab A200.

According to many reviews across the YouTube, the battery life of Acer Iconia Tab A500 is really amazing, it could last in solid 2 days in heavy usage, which is really rare to find on a tablet with only a 3620mAh power battery.

So having known that, then the battery life of Acer Iconia Tab A200 will likely reach the same length of time frame just like A500, given that they both share the same exact hardware specs, from a dual-core Tegra 2 processor, 1GB of RAM, GeForce ULP GPU, a 10.1-inch display with the resolution of 1280x800 pixels, the same UI and software, plus the same 3620mAh power battery.

So if Acer Iconia Tab A500 already has a great and long lasting battery life, then you can expect the same thing on this Acer Iconia Tab A200.

For doing basic things to heavy tasks like watching HD movies, reading books or magazines, browsing the web, listening to music, or even playing games, this tablet probably could last around 2 days in heavy usage, of course in one full charge.

However, if you intend to use this tablet to do some heavy serious intense tasks without resting the screen, like for watching HD movies in marathon or playing some games in the row, then the battery life of this tablet will drain much faster but could still last in 1 day, which is really great considering that this tablet is capable to deliver fast performance on a 720p display.


So to sum this review up, i’ve gotta say that Acer Iconia Tab A200 is a good media-consumption tablet.

It has huge and great display, it has one of the best performing processors around tablet market (of course in 2011), it has great battery life, it has many cool features and visual presentations, and the most importantly, it’s good for enjoying media contents, like movies, tv series, books, magazines, apps or games.

I think the downside that can be found on this tablet is its gaming performance.

This tablet may be able to run any games that were released back in 2011, like Need for Speed Undercover, Need for Speed SHIFT, N.O.V.A 1, Modern Combat 1, ShadowGun, Dungeon Hunter, Dungeon Defender, PES 2012, 9mm, Gangstar Miami Vindication, Avatar The Movie or Hero of Sparta, all in full graphics, however, for other latest games like GTA Vice City, Asphalt 7, Horn or Modern Combat 4, this tablet will suffer a lot in delivering all the graphics in smooth performance.

So with that being said, then if you’re a huge fan of tablet gaming and always want to have the chance to play the latest tablet games in full graphics, there are many other alternatives that are just way much better than Acer Iconia Tab A200, like Tegra Note 7, HP Slate 7 Extreme, Google Nexus 7 (2013 edition), Kindle Fire HDX and many more.

The other weakness of this tablet is definitely its lack of rear-facing camera, which could steer people from getting this tablet in the first place.

However, overall, i still think Acer Iconia Tab A200 is a good quality tablet, but not great.

It has a big and good display, great battery life, smooth and fast performance, cool features and visual presentation on Acer UI and it’s still good as a media-consumption device, either for watching HD movies, reading books, listening to music, browsing the web or even playing some awesome games from 2011 - 2012.

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