Testing the Acer Iconia Tab P10

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After a long absence from the Android tablet market, Acer makes a return with the Iconia Tab P10-11, wrapped in a high-quality dark grey metal chassis. While the tablet's stability is OK, it is prone to bending and denting, particularly at the corners. Notably, when pressed, the tablet generates audible creaking sounds.

The upper edge of the cover has a plastic insert to improve Wi-Fi reception. The material selection is thoughtful, and the subtle color variation appears to be a deliberate design aspect. The Iconia Tab P10-11 is incredibly light, weighing only 440 grams (~15.5 oz). The display's edges look modern while providing enough width for a secure grip without accidentally pressing the touch screen all the time.

For the recommended price of 199 Euros (~$215), you get 64 GB of eMMC flash, the standard configuration. It has a 4 GB memory, which is normal in this price range. GPS tracking is possible, and Bluetooth 5.0 is also on board to connect wireless accessories. There is also a 3.5 mm audio jack at the top right corner of the housing.

The microSD reader is hidden behind a rubber cover. It performs relatively slowly in the test, transferring data at up to 20.3 MB per second from our microSD card, the Angelbird V60, to the tablet's internal memory. The card reader, on the other hand, is quite fast in the CPDT benchmark, therefore overall average speeds are to be expected.

Exclusively available as a WiFi version, the Acer Iconia Tab P10-11 lacks cellular network connectivity. While it supports WiFi 5, Acer's tablets have slightly lower-than-average transfer rates in this category, falling short of most comparable devices' capabilities. The tablet's top speed of 313 MBit/s is sufficient for fully utilizing most Internet connections—only gigabit Internet users may find it limiting.

Acer delivers the tablet with Android 12, offering a pure Android experience free of significant changes or preinstalled bloatware. However, at the time of testing, the security fixes were from March 2023, making them hopelessly out of date. The chances for regular upgrades to the new Iconia tablets remain questionable due to Acer's restricted range of Android devices.

Unfortunately, Acer has no Widevine certification for their tablet, which means you can only stream videos from several major sources in SD quality.

The touchscreen remains highly responsive even in the corners and reacts quickly to our inputs. It does not support biometric unlocking; instead, you can use a PIN, password, or pattern to prevent unwanted access.

Cameras in tablets are typically designed for snapshots or QR code scanning rather than for users with serious photography ambitions. The Iconia Tab, in fact, only sports an 8-megapixel rear camera. The resulting photos are neither very detailed nor colorful, so they are only suitable for simple requirements.

The poor dynamic range of the images is seen in situations with low light and high contrasts. Nothing can be seen in the images in the lab at 1 lux illuminance. Videos can be recorded in Full HD at a maximum of 30 fps.

The front-facing camera has a 5-megapixel resolution and is sufficient for video calling if there is good light. Images, however, appear blurry in detail.

Image Comparison

Choose a scene and navigate within the first image. One click changes the position on touchscreens. One click on the zoomed-in image opens the original in a new window. The first image shows the scaled photograph of the test device.

The display has a resolution slightly higher than Full HD and offers a sharp image. When it comes to brightness, the Iconia Tab P10-11 outperforms its competition, averaging 386 cd/m². However, the tablet's suitability for outdoor usage on sunny days is somewhat limited.

Additionally, the screen has a fairly high black level, which means that contrasts are low and colors appear less radiant.

The CalMAN test indicated significant color discrepancies, which is a frequent feature across tablets in this price range. The significant bluish cast in the greyscales, on the other hand, should not be there.

Despite its poor response times, the tablet works without PWM flickering even in low-light conditions.

* ... smaller is better

In comparison: 54 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 18961 (minimum: 5 - maximum: 3846000) Hz was measured.

The Mediatek Kompanio 500 MT8183 SoC is used in the Iconia Tab. It is designed solely for tablets and lacks a built-in mobile modem. In terms of performance, our test device fails to compete with similarly priced tablets: in most benchmarks, it only manages to finish last; the difference of 10-20% isn't significant, but it is evident.

On a daily basis, waiting for apps to reply is common, and pages can sometimes load very slowly when surfing the Internet. This could be due to the slow eMMC flash, which is also present in other tablets in this price range, but it is further slowed down by a weak memory controller on the Acer Iconia Tab P10-11.

Under heavy load, the maximum temperature rises to 37.8 °C (100 °F), which is visible but not unpleasant. The SoC doesn't need to throttle: Our test device still performs similarly after 20 rounds of 3DMark benchmarks.

The stereo speakers on the Acer Iconia Tab P10-11 have a decent maximum volume. The sound is quite heavy, which is usually good for vocal reproduction but takes away from richness. There is a 3.5 mm jack connector for external audio devices, as well as Bluetooth for wireless connectivity. SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, and LDAC are the basic wireless sound transmission.

The Acer tablet features a 6,000 mAh battery, that has slightly less capacity than others in its class. Despite this, the tablet managed a very respectable 14:44-hour runtime in our Wi-Fi test. This is usually enough to get through a day of heavy use in daily life, and it is typically enough to charge it every few days. When plugged in, the tablet charges at a maximum of 10 watts, which means it can take well over 3 hours to recharge the battery.

Legend

(+) | speakers can play relatively loud (82.2 dB)Bass 100 - 315 Hz(-) | nearly no bass - on average 32.9% lower than median(±) | linearity of bass is average (13.3% delta to prev. frequency)Mids 400 - 2000 Hz(±) | higher mids - on average 7.1% higher than median(±) | linearity of mids is average (8.4% delta to prev. frequency)Highs 2 - 16 kHz(±) | higher highs - on average 9.7% higher than median(+) | highs are linear (5.8% delta to prev. frequency)Overall 100 - 16.000 Hz(-) | overall sound is not linear (32.9% difference to median)Compared to same class» 89% of all tested devices in this class were better, 2% similar, 9% worse» The best had a delta of 8%, average was 23%, worst was 129%Compared to all devices tested» 90% of all tested devices were better, 2% similar, 9% worse» The best had a delta of 4%, average was 26%, worst was 134%

(+) | speakers can play relatively loud (82.8 dB)Bass 100 - 315 Hz(-) | nearly no bass - on average 27.2% lower than median(±) | linearity of bass is average (12% delta to prev. frequency)Mids 400 - 2000 Hz(±) | higher mids - on average 7.8% higher than median(+) | mids are linear (5.5% delta to prev. frequency)Highs 2 - 16 kHz(±) | higher highs - on average 6.3% higher than median(+) | highs are linear (5.8% delta to prev. frequency)Overall 100 - 16.000 Hz(±) | linearity of overall sound is average (28.2% difference to median)Compared to same class» 81% of all tested devices in this class were better, 4% similar, 15% worse» The best had a delta of 8%, average was 23%, worst was 129%Compared to all devices tested» 82% of all tested devices were better, 3% similar, 15% worse» The best had a delta of 4%, average was 26%, worst was 134%

The Acer Iconia Tab P10-11 isn't an impressive entry in the area of tablets priced at around 200 Euros (~$216). Acer appears to have initially chosen a bread-and-butter gadget - one with a nice look and enough performance - that does not necessarily surprise or convince anyone. They have, after all, only lately returned to the Android tablet market.

This leaves us with a solid mid-range tablet: the Iconia Tab P10-11, which is lightweight, offers GPS tracking, long battery life, and a high-quality metal case.

When it comes to software, however, Acer still has some catching-up to do. There are very few upgrades, and Widevine certification is also missing, which makes using the tablet for video streaming unwelcome. A fingerprint reader and a slightly better camera would have helped Acer stand out from the crowd.

If you just want to surf the web, there are more capable devices in this price range that can load websites faster. Overall, the Acer Iconia Tab P10-11 is simple to operate.

The Acer Iconia Tab P10-11 offers a great and lightweight metal case but falls short in terms of functionality and software.

Those looking for a tablet with LTE at a lower price can consider the Lenovo Tab M10 Gen 3 or the Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 2022. However, software updates are limited there as well.

The Iconia Tab P10-11 is available at Acer Germany for 199 Euros (~$215). During the testing period, it was also available at Amazon.de, Galaxus, and Saturn for a little bit less.

Acer Iconia Tab P10- 2023-08-2408/24/2023 v7Florian Schmitt

The present review sample was made available to the author as a loan by the manufacturer or a shop for the purposes of review. The lender had no influence on this review, nor did the manufacturer receive a copy of this review before publication. There was no obligation to publish this review.