Meet The New Budget Tablets: Quad-Core And Under $200

For the past couple months, NVIDIA’s been talking about how its Tegra 3 SoC, the first chip to bring quad-core processing to Android, could be the heart around which a new family of budget-priced yet powerful tablets are constructed. The target price point that NVIDIA keeps returning to is the $200 mark, and we can understand why; it’s hard enough to find an off-contract smartphone for that kind of money that includes anything resembling modern hardware, let alone a quad-core chip. Nevertheless, it looks like NVIDIA’s seemingly-lofty goals are being realized, as Acer has revealed a seven-inch Tegra 3 Android tablet for under $200.
The Acer A110 runs a very toned-down Ice Cream Sandwich with little in the way of customization. It has one gigabyte of RAM on-board, offers microSD for storage expansion, and includes an HDMI-out. Hands-on reports note the tablet’s solid performance, and while the display’s not the highest-quality component around, and the A110 is thicker than some competitors, it supposedly stacks up quite favorably when compared to other models it would compete with at this low price point.
Acer will also have a 10.1-inch tablet, the A210, for users looking for something a little larger. The 210 differs from the 110 by the inclusion of a standard USB port for hooking-up accessories, as well as gaining the option for having a 3G radio. There’s no word yet on on a price.
The sub-$200 Acer A110 should arrive sometime in the third quarter.