Iconia Smart: The smartphone tablet

Acer’s latest smartphone, Iconia Smart, has been launched, and the company claims that it is a tablet too

Ever heard a company claim its smartphone to be a tablet PC too? Well, that’s what Acer says about its newest device, Acer Iconia Smart, launched at the 2011 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Iconia Smart is perfectly described by its name and its iconic representation of a smartphone. With its huge 4.8 inch touchscreen display, this device sure is the biggest amongst smartphones, but slightly smaller as compared to the 5 inch Dell Streak.
Although bigger smartphones defy the purpose of a cell phone, still, with their additional capabilities such as better experience in terms of internet browsing, emailing, gaming and multimedia are fast becoming a hot favorite among smartphone lovers.
Coming back to the Iconia Smart, it is based on the hottest new processor chip and the star of MWC, the Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon running at 1 GHz with 512 MB each of RAM and ROM, and an Adreno 205 graphics engine.
Although considering its Flash 10.1 support and HSPA capabilities, 1GB of RAM was expected, but 512 will suffice for most functions of Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). One thing great about the Iconia is its multi axis gyroscope based position sensing, which enables motion control gaming.
This device is expected to ship starting April, and will be targeted at customers in Europe first, followed by the USA market a couple of months later. Pricing information available tags this device at about $500, which translates to about Rs 23,000 but by the time it reaches India the price is expected to be around Rs 30,000 to Rs 35,000.