Acer Iconia Tab A200 Video Hands-on: Unique Ring UI, Tegra 2 for $329

LAS VEGAS — Priced between the Kindle Fire and iPad 2, the Acer Iconia Tab attempts to tempt tablet shoppers with Tegra 2 power at an affordable price. It goes on sale January 15th for $329 for 8GB and just $349 for 16GB. We just spent a few minutes with this 10-incher at CES 2012, and it’s a slate that’s stripped down in some ways but has a unique ring interface.

Check out our video of the A200 below, along with our hands-on impressions and photos.

In order to keep the price low, Acer decided to nix the camera on the back, which the Iconia Tab A500 had. Since most folks probably don’t want to use their tablets as camcorders, this feature likely won’t be missed. However, Acer did keep the full-size USB port, which you can use to plug in a mouse, keyboard or even wireless game controller should you decide to hook the A200 up to a TV to play games like Shadowgun.

The most unique thing about the Iconia Tab A200 is the ring interface, activated by pressing a circle at the bottom of the screen. You’ll see a circular UI pop up with shortcuts for the browser (complete with thumbnails of your favorite sites fanned out), for taking a screenshot, Settings and Gallery. You can also control the volume from this menu. Acer says you should also be able to customize the ring UI.

Although the A200 will launch with Honeycomb, Acer told us to expect an upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich in February. No, the Iconia Tab A200 isn’t as sexy as the quad core-packing, full HD A700, but it looks like a solid bread-and-butter Android tablet that makes the right trade-offs for its price. Stay tuned for a full review.

• CES 2012: Full Coverage
• Amazon Kindle Fire Full Review
• Apple iPad2 Full Review