Back in May, I called out Acer for launching their Iconia Tab A500 and advertising that it could do 1080p output when it was actually unable to do so at the time of launch. Their self-imposed deadline for releasing an update to fix this has come and gone with no news from the company.
The Iconia A500 launched back in May and has been rather well received. A number of users how now received the Honeycomb 3.1 update, and while it made some nice improvements, it didn’t enable the claimed 1080p output.
Acer noted in some fine print that the device only supported 720p output through its mini-HDMI port at launch, despite claiming that it can do 1080p output in various marketing materials. The fine print went on to say that an update in June would enable the device to push 1080p video more than doubling the number of pixels of output through the mini-HDMI port.
June came and went, and so did July. Now we’re into August, and even after the Honeycomb 3.1 update, we still can’t get the A500 to do true 1080p. That same fine print, claiming that an update will arrive in June, is still present on Acer’s site.
We’re trying to get an official response from Acer, but I must say that I’m just about sick and tired of these unfulfilled update-promises. It’s about time Google get’s its update alliance rolling.
Now I’m wondering whether or not Acer is going to try to pull the same stunt with the upcoming Acer Iconia Tab A100.
I can confirm that the output is still only 720p at 60Hz although i’ve yet to see a 1080p video being played back. Testing continues.
Tried 1080p video playback this weekend. Video on the device does 1080p, output to TV only renders at 720p.
– Vr/JLM Jr.
I also tested and can confirm….the device playback is 1080p but the output to my TV is 720p.
My Iconia a500 running Android 3.1 barely plays 1080p content. It plays, but really stutters. Wish I waited a couple of weeks for a Xoom instead of this Acer-crap :(
@Jacob, is your content on the device or streamed? And if onboard, is it actually in local storage, or on an external mount (microSD or USB Thumb Drive, or other)? Thanks.
Great reviews! Thanks Do you know if Acer finally fixed their video codec problems mentioned in your review. An ACER rep told me that it was fixed with the latest Honeycomb 3.2 but I don’t know if I trust them. I have the Iconia unopened and after yours and other reviews I’m strongly considering returning it for a better video tablet. Any advice would be helpful.