Jelly Bean

[Icebike]

It becomes warm. Not hot. Never uncomfortable to hold.

There are a lot of people who exaggerate.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

 

[ExtremeRyno]

There is not a heating issue with the A700...Anyone who considers it "hot" is absolutely exaggerating. I played Horn for about an hour and a half last night and it was warm at best. I've played all my old games through emulators for hours at a time with only warmth to show for it.

Icebike speaks truth.

 

[Tom T]

Thats how rumours get started, you tell someone this is one Hot tablet and the next thing you know they are reporting overheating issues.

 

[Angus66]

Thats how rumours get started, you tell someone this is one Hot tablet and the next thing you know they are reporting overheating issues.

Widespread or not, it's been reported by more than a few owners that their particular A700 overheated to varying degrees. The original poster even made reference to it in his 1st post.

Links:

My A700 Review: Pros, Cons, & Heat

[MOD] A700 Heat & a Viable Solution!!!

CPU Temp Benchmarking - Request for Help - xda-developers

Owner reviews on Amazon & Newegg report similar issues:

Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Acer ICONIA Tab A700-10k32u 10.1-Inch Tablet (Black)

Newegg.com - Acer Iconia Tab A Series A700-10k32u Tablet PC NVIDIA Tegra 3 1.30GHz 10.1" 1GB DDR2 Memory 32GB NVIDIA ULP GeForce

Admittedly this is only a small number of owners reporting this problem.

Maybe the problem only affected a certain run of A700's or maybe the issue was fixed/reduced with a software update and/or a manufacturing revision.

In a way it seems like the problems TF300 & TF700 owners report in that some units are horrible, some are perfect and others fall somewhere in-between.

 

[Icebike]

But again, none of those reports resulted in any damage, injury or malfunction.

Its simply people expecting it to be as cool as a Kindle while having the performance of a desktop computer.

If i game all day on my cell phone it gets warm too.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

 

[Angus66]

But again, none of those reports resulted in any damage, injury or malfunction.

You obviously did not read the reviews, especially the Amazon ones. With the exception of injury, both of those situations occurred multiple times:

"After just a few minutes of watching a Netflix stream, the bottom right corner of my A700 was VERY warm. Probably not enough to burn me or damage the tablet, but still not something pleasant to use.

Despite making recommended tweaks (font size to normal, acer ring off, touch sensitivity to high), web page and PDF scrolling was very sluggish compared to my A500 as well. I realize this beast has a lot more pixels to push around, but when a quad core device *feels* slower than a dual core it's a disappointing experience. If I'd never used another tablet though, I probably wouldn't have noticed as much.

Wi-fi signal strength degraded as the tablet got warmer, to the point that streaming video became impossible and downloading anything was tedious. (1MB per minute speeds)

USB access from the bottom edge was a weird design decision. I sometimes use a small USB keyboard or a flash drive with my A500, but I would've had to flip the A700 over to do that. Not a huge deal since I'm sure the screen would rotate fine in most apps, but still odd given Acer's previous thoughtfulness.

3D performance was excellent, though the heat issue again made that difficult to enjoy. Build quality of the device was very nice, as I've come to expect from Acer.

I really wanted to love this tablet, thinking it'd be a worthy upgrade, but ultimately I decided to return it. I suspect a future software update will fix the sluggishness, maybe when they (hopefully) push out Jelly Bean. The heat issue... well, I guess I could have done something to fix that on my own, but I happen to like having a warranty."

"I spent a lot time doing research before upgrading from my Toshiba Thrive that I've had for a year. Part of the criteria was for the for the tablet to be Full HD. No issue for A700 since the display is stunning and I only needed the brightness to be at 25%. I thought the other reviewers might be exaggerating about the heat issue so I ordered it anyway. After a couple of hours of use they were not exaggerating. It became uncomfortable to the touch. I ordered a cover figuring this way the heat wouldn't bother me. With the cover the unit shuts down and re-boots when it gets too hot. Regretfully, I had to return the unit as a result of the heat problem. Hopefully Acer will address this problem going forward as it would be nice to have an Android tablet that can at least compete with The New iPad."

"I sooooo badly wanted to like this product. Received it on June 30 after getting my pre-order. Installed all my favorite Android apps and even a few new ones. Was absolutely loving the product----with one exception. The overheating is a very real issue. I like the tablet so much (gorgeous display) that I have been putting up with the overheating reboots. One of the apps I installed is System Tuner (from Google Play). That app reports the CPU temps. Mine would consistently be at 185 degrees plus, with the top temp seen (just before an overheat reboot) of 210.6 degrees F. That's water boiling/egg cooking HOT!

So I was putting up with the heat and re-boots because I liked the tablet so much. However, this morning, it did another overheat reboot, only this time, it did not reboot. It powered off and back on, and powered up only to the little pretty green Acer logo on bootup, but that's as far as it would go. Let it sit for 1/2 hour like this, but nothing. Turn off and back on multiple times but same hang at the Acer logo. Tried a hard reset (the little reset button hole by the USB power port), but same result every time.

So, back it went today. Fortunately, it died within three weeks of delivery, so still within the Amazon return period. If this product did not have the overheat issue and had not died, I would have enthusiastically given it a full five star review. However, for a $449 product (yes, that's what I paid on pre-order), for this to overheat consistently and finally die within three weeks, I have to warn that this is a defective product by its very design.

I would highly urge anyone who purchases this to install System Tuner available on Google Play and check the CPU temps carefully. Your product will not last long when it overheats to the point of reboot consistently. It will fail shortly just as mine has."

"Ordered this Acer A700 and received it in about a week. Was very excited about a new tablet with new technology. Set-up was a breeze and the tablet seem well built. But, regrettably, looks are very deceiving.This tablet is as bad as some of the of the negative reviews mention. First, it gets incredibly hot and is uncomfortable to hold. In the first few hours of operation I was kicked off the Internet connection a few times. Later, when I placed the tablet in a custom case it apparently over heated to the point that it completely shut down had to reboot to use it again. After 2 days of seer frustration I requested a return to Amazon. If you are considering the Acer A700 it may be better to look at tablets with better performance and reliability track records."

"This is my first tablet. I was really excited to get it. My excitement went away when trying to listen to music, surf the web, and just play when it just got too hot to hold. It took about an hour before I just gave up. I went from palming it to finger tip holding to turning if off to allow a cool down. Even on the front, you could feel something wrong just swiping. The hot spot in the far right side middle in landscape orientation. I really like the features though. The display is awesome. If not for the high heat, this would have been a great tablet. I bought this to replace an aging laptop that becomes a furnace after a while of use. I don't need two heaters. I gotta believe that with a case on it preventing heat dissipation, this guy would eventually self destruct. First time in years of using Amazon that I sent something back."

"Damn thing gets damn hot.. Those that mention it and say it's not that bad are nuts.. You begin to notice it after about 10min, gets annoying after about 15min, and becomes downright uncomfortable after about 20min.. You won't kill the battery on this thing - you will likely put it down first.. Was I taxing it?? You be the judge.. Restoring from my Google account, dragging Apps to different home screens, setting up my calender and e-mail widgets, browsing the web.. YouTube Video or two to check out the display.. Doesn't sound too much to ask to me.. No Hard Core gaming going on.. I consider this typical use, and for the unit to become uncomfortably hot - now we are talking deal breaker.. From what I have read elsewhere, expect this as well.."

A full 14 out of 39 Amazon reviews (almost 36%!!!) mention heat as a MAJOR issue that either caused the tablet to shutdown, crash apps, make the tablet uncomfortable to use and even end in total hardware failure.
Not one reviewer said it took all day to get too hot.

Just because your individual A700 didn't have a heat problem, doesn't mean others did not.

I for one would like to know what Acer did to fix the heat issue with this unit:

"Got this tablet 06/23. It replaces the A500 which was very good. The a700 feels very light in hand and has a good solid feel. I will give a updated review as I use it more.

UPDATE:

This tablet was getting kind of hot like others have stated. Sent it in to Acer service and got it back and it no longer gets hot. Don't know what they did, but it worked, no more heat issue. This is a very solid tablet with a beautiful HD display. Photos I have taken with it look great."

 

[Tom T]

this kind of thing worries me somewhat, I suppose they could have some faulty batteries, in fact it would be the most likely scenario. If it was software related an update should suffice. Here where my concern would be- if the overheating was somewhat of a user perception, much like the iPads which were reaching 114° and some people were alarmed, others not so much, and really the only thing they Could do would be to Under clock the CPU which would definitely keep the tablet running cooler. I`m not a paranoid person but I would certainly be running a couple tests on my tablet once I got it back.

 

[Angus66]

Just to be 100% clear here, it's not my intention to bad-mouth the A700. I'm seriously considering purchasing one now that the price has dropped below $400 in the US.

Furthermore, almost all tablet models currently available have some flaw or another (hardware/software/design) that shows up from time to time.
I am more concerned with how the manufacturer responds to and/or fixes these problems once they are brought to their attention.

This was - and still remains - my reason for posting my question in this thread.

 

[ExtremeRyno]

I've not had to deal with support, so I couldn't tell ya. I just know my A700 is pretty kick-ass. I waited for MONTHS on the Asus TF700T, but they had a media silence and I honestly thought it had been abandoned...Went with the A700 instead, and I don't regret it. I've played with the TF700T since it was released, and I admit it is a better tablet, but it also costs enough more that the "better-ness" of it isn't worth the cost.

 

[Batchman]

Can anyone confirm that the JB update solves (or at least greatly reduces) the overheating issues?

While I can't confirm that personally (I don't have an A700), the initial reports of the update on a Blog here in Germany did say that the heat problem had been fixed.

 

[Angus66]

While I can't confirm that personally (I don't have an A700), the initial reports of the update on a Blog here in Germany did say that the heat problem had been fixed.

Thanks for the response!!!

 

[robroy51]

Anyone knows when jelly bean Will comme toi toshiba thrive ?

 

[ExtremeRyno]

This is the Iconia A700 forum, so I don't think we'll be much help here. Might try Toshiba Thrive