A500 review after one week of use

wolfganggold

Member
May 11, 2011
95
4
First off, hello everyone...first post here.

Here are some observations I've made over the past week...some may be Iconia specific and some may be Honeycomb specific.

1. I plugged some headphones in and the external speakers stayed on. I tried 2 sets of headphones and they both do it...that sorta stoopid! :)

2. The Hero of Sparta game is NOT the full version. It's a very short demo...it looks good and shows off the graphics capability of the unit ably but I was looking forward to some more monster bashing...The other two included games, Need For Speed and Let's Golf DO seem to be full versions and also look and play great.

3. The unit is generally very fast in all things. I have noticed some slowdown in wifi when switching from one router to another but a reset fixes it. The reset hole is super small...I wish it was just a smidge bigger.

4. I've had to reset the unit several times, mostly to fix the above-mentioned wifi slowdown. I wonder if just turning off wifi and turning it back on might accomplish the same thing.

5. I've tried 4 different browsers (stock, Dolphin, Firefox, Opera) and have pretty much settled on Dolphin HD. I'm disappointed because I REALLY wanted to use Firefox but it just doesn't seem to be up to snuff. Rendering on some fonts and graphics just doesn't seem to be as crisp as all three other browsers. I also don't like how it handles tabs. Dolphin seems more like a proper browser and supports various plugins with mixed success. AdBlock doesn't seem to work at all and Xmarks works OK but doesn't seem to be able to import bookmarks that are in subfolders with 100% success.

6. The wireless card is just OK. With a strong signal it's great but at my desk at work I'm pretty far from the router and, while my laptop gets 1 to 2 bars (and sporadically disconnects, but not unusably so), the Iconia gets a maximum of 1 bar and is disconnected more often than not.

7. Multitouch is very nice and responsive...the interface in general is very snappy and I don't ever feel like I'm waiting on it excessively.

8. Battery life is acceptable though I've noticed as some others have the large drain from the non-existent cell standby. There's GOTTA be a good, non-kludgy fix forthcoming for that. I run the display at about 33% indoors and it's just fine brightness-wise...I'm sure that contributes some battery time. I get through and entire day right now, up til bedtime with moderate use and still have about 10% battery left. Granted, I'm not surfing much at work due to the weak wifi signal but I still play games here.

9. The software available is hard to find (if you're looking for HD, tablet optimized apps that is...in general, the market is sorta like drinking from a firehose :)) but a lot of it is fantastic. The CNN app is great as is Accuweather's Honeycomb app. USA Today's app is also very nice. I get some force closes, mostly (it seems) on apps not optimized for tablets but they're not excessive.

10. As have others, I've noticed that the device wakes up spontaneously from time to time. I won't swear to it but I don't think it was doing it until I enabled my hotmail account in the mail app a couple days in. I set up my Gmail account right away and I don't THINK it exhibited the wake up behavior then.

11. I haven't used the cameras much, and not at all for skyping but the few pics and videos I've taken seem passable and hitting the shutter button results in a picture being taken quite quickly, noticeably faster than both my phone and my el cheapo digital camera.

12. Wish List: I wish the USB slot would see NTFS devices. I wish I could charge via USB. I wish the charging cord was WAY longer. I wish the market had a dedicated tablet-optimized section.

I absolutely LOVE this thing! It has some minor flaws but I don't expect perfection from any computing device and I don't think it's realistic to do so. I can't wait for the Honeycomb 3.1 update!
 

Icebike

Senior Member
Apr 28, 2011
1,523
186
Um, why are you worrying about the size of the reset hole?

I've never even once had occasion to use that.

If you have wifi slow downs, simple turn off wifi (or go to airplane mode) then turn it on again.
Worse case, you hold down power button to clean reboot it.
Hitting reset is like yanking the plug on a desktop computer. At best a last resort, at worst a memory corrupting action.

Look, this isn't windows. Don't use windows solutions. Your wifi "slow downs" are as likely to be corrupted cache as anything else. Clear your browser cache. Use a different browser, or test with another app.

Oh, and you DO Realize that Dolphin is just a thin wrapper around the stock browser don't you? No magic there as far as I can tell.
 

bladerunn3r

Member
May 10, 2011
89
2
MMmm. . when I plug in my headphones, the speakers don't continue to sound. I've only tried one pair though. You might have a defective unit. Better check on that.
 

pentool

Member
May 1, 2011
93
3
I also recommend sending your observations and wish list to Acer. I don't think anyone can do anything about wishlists (like the NTFS thing) on this forum. I think the more feedback they receive about what people like and what not, are better chances that they might do something about them.

...or not.
 

Jress

Member
May 9, 2011
13
0
I have used it with headphones and the external speakers go mute when I plug them in. Are you sure you have the plug in all the way?



Sent from my A500 using Android Tablet Forum
 

pentool

Member
May 1, 2011
93
3
Yes, about the headphones, it happened to me once, too. I took my headphones off and I was... what the heck?... then I disconnected and reconnected the jack and it was ok.
 

wolfganggold

Member
May 11, 2011
95
4
Icebike, you sold me on the stock browser. Now I just have ONE installed heheheh. Also, the wifi slowdowns are across the board...the market gets slow, trying to download game updates, etc etc. But you're right...I'm going to just cycle wifi power which should do just fine.

I plugged in a headset just now and gave the end the barest of wiggles...the external speakers went off and they don't seem to be doing it now, so good deal there.

My wish list is really just directed at the ether...Although supporting NTFS partitions WOULD be nice! :)
 

Icebike

Senior Member
Apr 28, 2011
1,523
186
Yes, about the headphones, it happened to me once, too. I took my headphones off and I was... what the heck?... then I disconnected and reconnected the jack and it was ok.

Actually, this isn't all that uncommon.
The days when this was a physical switch that disconnected the speakers are long gone.
Now days plugging in the phones just sends a logical signal to the sound chip which causes it to switch off the speakers.
If that signal is missed or doubled, the sound chip will often miss it. Even happens on desktop linux sometimes.

Different phones sometimes work better than others. The socket is designed for four connections, (mic, left, right, ground)
So some earphones only plugs don't work as well because of imprecise manufacturing standards.
 

bladerunn3r

Member
May 10, 2011
89
2
My wifi seems to be flaky as well. Sometimes it has trouble. Did it tonight, and I just turned Wifi off, then back on again--seemed to solve the problem. Hopefully that works every time.
 

spexwood

Member
May 11, 2011
229
18
I had read somewhere that the FAT only thing with the usb was a Honeycomb issue. Whether or not this is true, I do hope that either Acer or Android adds the ability to read NTFS devices. It sucks having Avatar in HD, but having to split it into 2 files because of FAT32's 4GB file size limit.
 

Raven312

Member
Mar 28, 2011
325
10
I just plugged in headphones for the first time and experienced what you experienced, wolfgangold (I was ticked because my great headphones didn't sound very dynamic, either.) I unplugged them and replugged them and made sure they were solidly in there - the magic was back! Plug your headphones back in, make sure they're ALL the way in, and give them a little turn - see if that does it. I plugged and replugged them about a dozen times. After the first time, all seems to be well.
 

spexwood

Member
May 11, 2011
229
18
Oh btw, I have found it better to visit the Market through the browser. Just go to market.android.com and sign in using your gmail address and password. You can view all of your apps (My Market Account) and can also download and buy apps. For whatever reason, the website version has more features than the app version. You can even view featured tablet apps.
Best of all, everything is synced between the app and the site. I mainly use the app to notify me of updates only now lol.
 

bladerunn3r

Member
May 10, 2011
89
2
Mmm spexwood -- my market app takes me to a "tab centric" market place that is different than my droid x's marketplace. Specifically, it has that "featured tablet apps" section at the top--which is cool. That's one of the first things I noticed that was different and "tab centric" about the acer iconia. Does you market app not take you to a different, "tab centric" market place than your phone?? Just curious
 

spexwood

Member
May 11, 2011
229
18
Mmm spexwood -- my market app takes me to a "tab centric" market place that is different than my droid x's marketplace. Specifically, it has that "featured tablet apps" section at the top--which is cool. That's one of the first things I noticed that was different and "tab centric" about the acer iconia. Does you market app not take you to a different, "tab centric" market place than your phone?? Just curious



If by "tab centric" you mean that it only shows apps for tablets, then no. I do get the "featured tablet apps" section, but I still occasionally dl apps that are made only for phones. (ex: screen appears tiny on my tablet).



I do have the stock Market app too, but my tablet is also rooted... but I doubt that that has anything to do with it.

BTW, my Market app also doesnt give me a review option. :-/ Gotta do that online.

[edit]
I forgot to say too that the Market app is definitely different from the one on my Xperia x10 (Android 2.1)
 
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