Acer Iconia One 7 (B1-780-K610) - Review 2022

Amazon has established a dominant presence in the depression-cost tablet market, only not everyone wants to be tied to its apps and services. The $79.99 Iconia One 7 (B1-780-K610) from Acer is an alternative, with a crisp seven-inch display, robust parental controls, and access to the Google Play store. That said, it suffers from issues with sluggishness and a profusion of bloatware, not to mention lackluster Wi-Fi range. Information technology'southward a decent selection if yous want unrestricted access to Android apps, but Amazon'due south ecosystem is pretty robust, and the Burn down Hd 8 gets y'all ameliorate performance for the same cost.

Design, Features, and Display

The Acer Iconia One 7 is a generic black plastic slate. Measuring 7.5 by 4.0 by 0.iv inches (HWD) and tipping the scales at 8.8 ounces, it's quite a bit lighter than the Amazon Burn down 7 (7.6 by 4.five by 0.4 inches, ten.4 ounces) and Fire Hard disk drive 8 (8.iv past 5.0 by 0.4 inches, 13 ounces). That makes it easier to hold for a long menstruum of time, just it doesn't feel quite as sturdy, which could be a concern if you're planning to give it to a child. The dorsum is textured for a improve grip, and you can always put a protective example on information technology.

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At that place's a power push button and volume rocker on the right side of the tablet. The summit has a three.5mm sound jack, a micro USB charging port, and an exposed microSD card slot that worked fine with a 256GB bill of fare. One downside for media employ is that are no dual front facing stereo speakers like on the Fire Hard disk viii. Instead you're stuck with a tinny, easily muffled mono speaker on the dorsum.

The main attraction is the vii-inch, 1,280-by-720 IPS LCD, which is adequately sharp for the price. The 210 pixels per inch (ppi) here effect in a denser picture than the panel on both the Fire vii (171ppi) and Fire Hard disk drive 8 (189ppi). The screen gets quite brilliant and viewing angles are decent, only it will launder out if yous tilt it too much.

Connectivity options include dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. Nosotros tested the tablet on 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands in PC Labs, and recorded strong connectivity shut to the router with a peak speed of 56.3Mbps down. However, from a altitude of 24 feet abroad, download speeds dropped to 17.2Mbps. At 36 anxiety the Wi-Fi disconnected, unlike the Burn down tablets, which had no trouble holding a betoken. PC Labs is total of network interference, so connectivity will likely fare better in your abode, but it'southward worth keeping in mind, peculiarly if your dwelling network has some weak or expressionless spots.

Bloat

Processor, Battery, and Photographic camera

The Iconia One 7 is powered past a MediaTek MT8163 processor clocked at i.3GHz, a slightly more powerful chipset than the MT8161 in the Lenovo Tab3 eight. On the AnTuTu criterion, a mensurate of overall system operation, the I vii does better, scoring 36,497 compared with 25,407 on the Tab3 8. Simply that's only part of the story. Both slates take simply 1GB of RAM, so while the I vii performs smoothly enough for some lite spider web browsing and watching videos, information technology starts chugging if you try to push it in terms of multitasking. It too can't handle demanding games without serious slowdown. You'll find the Fire Hard disk 8 a better performer thank you to its 1.5GB of RAM.

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According to Acer, the One 7 should last for upwardly to six hours of employ, but due its limited Wi-Fi range, we were unable to consummate our standard battery test in which we stream full-screen video over Wi-Fi at maximum screen brightness. At that place's a 2,780mAh jail cell under the hood, which is smaller than many phones and half the size of the Tab3 8'due south four,290mAh prison cell (which lasted v hours, 27 minutes), and so it seems unlikely the Ane vii will best it. Both Amazon tablets final around four and a half hours, and then there are no big winners in this department.

At that place's a 2-megapixel rear and a 0.3-megapixel front camera, both of which aren't really worth using for more than than video chat. This isn't unusual for the toll range. If still image quality is of import to yous, the Tab3 viii has a 5-megapixel rear and 2-megapixel front camera, but the pictures still won't wow.

Software

The Iconia I vii runs Android six.0 Marshmallow. The software is outdated, merely without shelling out for an expensive tablet like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3, you're not going to find a slate in this price range running Android vii.0 Nougat. The UI layer is minimal aside from the add-on of Acer's custom news feed when yous swipe left from the home screen. It lets you connect to various apps like Facebook, Twitter, and Opera Discover to generate content.

The i significant advantage the One vii has over the Fire 7 and Hard disk drive 8 is unrestricted admission to the Google Play store. Both Amazon slates run Fire Os, a heavily customized version of Android that limits you to using Amazon'south ecosystem of apps and services. Information technology's adequately comprehensive, but it'southward not quite every bit open and far-reaching as Google Play.

Apps

The I seven also has a Kids mode, in the grade of an app called Kids Middle. Launching it lets you lot gear up a customized home screen with bright, child-friendly colors and a set of automatically curated apps and games. Internet access can be restricted by enabling Safety manner, which blocks unapproved sites and apps. Extra Safe Manner and Kid Launcher disables the home button and locks the tablet in Kids Center even if it gets rebooted, so you lot can employ the I 7 as a dedicated children's tablet.

In improver to Kids fashion, the One vii comes with 14 preinstalled apps and v shortcuts that take you to a Google Play download page. You can delete the shortcuts and uninstall half of the preloaded apps, just that still leaves y'all with just vii.44GB of storage out of the full 16GB. You tin always use a microSD menu if you demand more infinite.

Conclusions

The $80 Acer Iconia One 7 is an affordable multimedia tablet that tries to have on offerings from Amazon, just falls short. Despite its adequately nice screen and power to download apps from Google Play, the One 7 is held back by lackluster performance. The Amazon Burn down Hard disk drive 8 has more RAM and better Wi-Fi range. The Amazon Fire vii, meanwhile, isn't much faster, simply costs $thirty less. Neither has access to Google Play, but both are better values overall.