Still a Good Deal?

[SilverSVT]

Hey all,

Just started reading here as I have been a long time member for my HTC Thunderbolt.

I have been looking for a tablet since Christmas and after passing on the refurbished Toshiba Thrive on Woot on Thursday, I was more anxiously looking for something in that price range ($285 shipped).

Friday night we stopped by Target to pick up a few things and I of course headed to the electronics section to look at their tablets. They had the A500 16gb marked for $399 still, but another price sticker showed it at $350. So I asked the lady behind the counter and she scanned it and $350 was the price and the last one available. After walking around and thinking about it for 15 minutes and reading reviews on Amazon on my phone I bit and with my Target Red card scored it for $332.50.

I haven't opened it yet, just been reading all the reviews I can find. I don't think I can do any better for the price and seems most issues have been fixed via the 3.2 update. And it seems 4.0 is around the corner. Most of this is new to me as I have been living in the 2.3 land with my Thunderbolt that is still not rooted.

I guess I am wondering if I got a good deal and if I should keep it? I don't think for this price I can find anything new with equal specs. Target still wants $449 for the Galaxy and even teh lowest price on Amazon for the Acer is $379.This will only be for web browsing and games, nothing too intense. Probably play some videos and have Mobo player bookmarked to download if I open it for that task. This will probably slowly take over my laptops duties at home.

I look forward to your thoughts!

 

[al2fast]

I do a lot if the same stuff you do and have been very satisfied. Lots of ROMS and pretty good size user/development community. You'll love the flexibility of the USB port. If you have issue with one thing it may be the wifi reception, its no secret the a500 has weak wifi reception compared to other devices.

I looked for a couple months and ended up with the a500 (albeit a refurb) and have not regretted it one bit. There are a few ICS roms already and I have also read that Acer will be doing an official ICS release too!

 

[emagin]

I very much enjoy my A500, and have this to say to you:

Negatives:
Wifi
Can be weak but sofar it has not impacted me, at my house there's signal and walking around I use wifi finders to automatically connect me and it's ok

External Mic
This one is a bigger deal. The external mic (after 3.2 upgrade) is terrible, I mean unacceptable levels terrible. I am forced to use phone headphones/mic to talk on skype or external mic like for ipod touch. Very cheap, 3 bucks but what a pain. A lot of grumbling on this mic situation, very tinny echo sound, search youtube for demos of this issue.
I am still not clear if it's software (i guess it got worse with 3.2) and if it will be addressed.

Price
The best price I can find online is refurbished at Cheetahdeals
I got an acer Revo nettop box from them and was very happy. They occasionally have incredible deals on acer tablets and tablet bundles, but you have to wait to keep checking.

Overall I'm happy with my setup and just hoping the mic will improve in future versions. There is also talk of a beta version of ice cream sandwich android OS out there for a500s that will come online end of Jan.

Enjoy