The rumored Acer Iconia A1 shapes up as an aggressive competitor to the iPad Mini, complete with an IPS and a quad-core chip for half the price.

The Acer Iconia A1 comes as the successor to the very affordable Iconia B1 slate. The B1, however, had a low-quality TN display, while the A1 will sport a 7.9-inch IPS display with wide-viewing angles and a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels, just like the iPad Mini.

According to Bulgarian site Tablet.bg, the Acer Iconia A1 will hit the market at the end of June as "another strong player among small tablets." The publication claims to have confirmation regarding the slate's price, features and characteristics.

Design

The Acer Iconia A1 has a 7.9-inch screen with an aspect ratio of 4:3 and the aforementioned resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels, identical to the iPad Mini. Acer reportedly aims to offer a greater ease of browsing with this aspect ratio.

The front of the tablet is "completely clean," save for the VGA front camera for video chats. The company logo adorns the slate's back, while a 5-megapixel rear camera is in the upper left corner. The internal speakers are at the bottom left, while the 3.5mm audio jack is located at the bottom. The Acer Iconia A1 also packs a micro SD card slot for additional memory, a micro USB port and dual keys for volume control.

Specs

Under the hood, the Acer Iconia A1 packs a MediaTek MT8125 4-core Cortex-A9 processor clocked at 1.20GHz, 1GB of RAM and PowerVR SGX graphics. It runs on the latest Android 4.2 Jelly Bean operating system and comes in 8GB or 16GB internal storage configurations, both expandable via micro SD. In terms of sensors and connectivity, the tablet supports Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, accelerometer and gyroscope, in addition to the aforementioned 3.5mm jack, microSD card slot and micro USB 2.0. In terms of battery performance, the site currently unconfirmed information of a 3,250 mAh battery capacity.

Price

Tablet.bg claims the tablet will launch in Bulgaria at the end of June with a 379 lev price tag for the 8GB model. The price for the international market will reportedly be €169, i.e. about $220. With those specs and price tag, the Acer Iconia A1 might just give the iPad Mini a run for its money. Keep in mind, however, that Acer has yet to announce the tablet, so take things with a grain of salt until the slate is official.