Acer Iconia Tab 7 review: Hands-on

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The Acer Iconia Tab 7 tablet is part of the brand's 2014 lineup. T3 went along to the global launch event for a closer look

The Acer Iconia Tab 7 is the brand's latest mini tablet, unveiled alongside the Acer Aspire Switch 10, Acer Liquid Leap fitness band and slightly cheaper Acer Iconia One 7 and set to go up against the likes of the Google Nexus 7, iPad Mini 2 and Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0.

Slightly bigger than phablets like the Nokia Lumia 1320 and Samsung Galaxy Note 3 but still packing phone capabilities, it has more in common with the likes of Asus Padfone.

Acer Iconia Tab 7: Size and build

As a tablet, the Iconia Tab 7 is a neat looking device that looks and feels like a premium product. As a phone, it's ludicrously big.

Measuring, 8.9mm thick, the device is relatively svelte and sports an attractive metallic finish with rounded edges.

Acer Iconia Tab 7: Features

You'll find a standard 5MP rear camera as well as fairly lacklustre 0.3MP front-facing camera - we tried both out with reasonable results although the photos did look a little soft when not taken in a well-lit area.

According to Acer, you'll get up to 6 hours of battery life - something that we'll be putting to the test in our full review.

Acer Iconia Tab 7: Screen

The 7-inch IPS screen has a resolution of 1280 x 800 and has been designed to offer a wide viewing angle. It's a decent screen but it can't compare to the likes of the iPad Mini 2 in terms of clarity. Having said that, it's more than up to the job and web pages and video still look perfectly watchable.

Acer Iconia Tab 7: Performance

Powered by a Media Tek MT8382 quadcore processor running at 1.3GHz, the Iconia Tab 7 runs Android 4.4 - we didn't have any problems navigating around the UI and didn't experience any lag either, but we'll let you know more as soon as we've had some more time to play with the device.

Acer Iconia Tab 7: Verdict

It may not be an iPad killer, but then it's not really supposed to be. As an affordable Android tablet, the Acer Iconia Tab 7 has got a lot going for it, not least a very slick design. We'll know more as soon as we've got a full review device in at T3 Towers.

Acer Iocnia Tab 7 release date: May 2014

Acer Iconia Tab 7 price: 149 Euros