Acer, HP and Lenovo Unveil 7-inch Tablets at MWC

The first thing to come to mind when MWC is mentioned might be “smartphones”, but the tablets are sure making their presence felt at this year’s show. Acer, HP and Lenovo have each announced 7-inch options aimed at the budget (or “extra tablet”) segment. Because it’s a little hard to choose which one of these to talk about first, let’s just go in alphabetical order.

Of the three tablets, Acer’s Iconia B1-A71 is the best-known – it’s been out since last month. However, all we’ve had available since then was the 8GB model, while the 16GB one was just pushed out in Europe, Middle East and Africa. It retails for ~$180 USD, whereas the 8GB model sits closer to $160.

This tablet features Jelly Bean 4.1, 512MB of RAM (at least, we believe this holds true for the 16GB model), a Mediatek 1.2GHz Cortex-A9 dual-core processor and a paltry 0.3 megapixel front camera. Other specs include a 320g weight and 2710 mAh battery.

For $169, HP’s Slate⁷ is quite the looker. It bundles in a faster processor than the others, at 1.6GHz, and also offers a 1024×600 resolution along with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage. One perk, however, is dual cameras; a 3 megapixel at the back, and a front 0.3 megapixel. Not all of the specifics we’re looking for are available, but we do know the audio is powered by Beats, and the tablet weighs in at 360g.

Finally, Lenovo’s A3000 is one tablet that lacks a lot of specifics¹, including a price. Like the others, it also has a 1024×600 resolution, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage, but its processor is boosted to a quad-core A9. No information on the camera is mentioned, although its weight is: 340g.

As mentioned before, Acer’s tablet is available right now, while HP’s and Lenovo’s are due in Q2.

¹ Addendum: Lenovo shot us over some of the specs we were looking for. The A3000 features two cameras; a 5 MP at the back and 0.3MP at the front. It also boasts a large 3500mAh battery, which promises “about” 8 hours worth of WiFi Web browsing. We also made a mistake on the SoC; it’s not an A9, but rather A7. Pricing is still unknown, but we’d expect it settle around the ~$180 mark, based on specs.