With a little less than 90 days until the start of 2012, we already know what sort of specs are going to become the norm for high end smartphones. We’re talking 720p screens, dual core processors, NFC, LTE, Bluetooth 4.0, all that is considered essential if you want to get a seat at the flagship table. But what about tablets? The most popular tablet on the market, the Apple iPad 2, has a 1024 x 768 screen resolution, dual core 1 GHz processor, and 512 MB of RAM. There are higher end Android tablets, but beyond some extra megahertz here and there and a few more vertical and horizontal pixels, the baseline hasn’t changed much since early 2011. Thanks to a leak on Acer’s website that was spotted by HDblog.it, we now not only know about two new devices that are due to hit next year and will make us foam from the mouth, but the specs that will become commonplace over the next 12 to 18 months.
The quad core NVIDIA Tegra 3 is at the heart of the Acer Iconia A700 and A701, but what makes these tablets special is the screen. Forget 1080p, these bad boys are going to deliver 1920 x 1200 pixels, the same resolution as the 17 inch MacBook Pro that this writer is using to compose this piece. Assuming that these tablets measure no more than 10 inches diagonally, that would equate to roughly 225 pixels per inch. Oh and as for the difference between the A700 and A701, the latter features 3G connectivity while the former does not.
Here’s what we’ve yet to find out: When will the Iconia A700/A701 be announced? How much will they cost? When will they actually hit store shelves? If we had to guess as to when we’ll get the answers to all those questions, we’d say January 2012 when the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas takes place.