Everybody is doing slate tablets this year, that’s for sure, and Acer is one of them, announcing its intentions a few moments ago at a presentation in United Arab Emirates. Here, the CEO of Acer presented a 7 inch slate type tablet running Android OS. As you might expect, what he held in hand was a prototype, but one that brings an interesting feature, which we haven’t seen on much tablets: a hardware QWERTY Keyboard at the bottom of the screen (viewed in portrait mode), just like the one found on the Kindle eBook reader.

    Acer suggested that their tablet was fast and responsive, which indicates top notch hardware specs and also the presence of a built in 3G modem indicates Acer wants their 7 inch tablet to be a competitor for Apple iPad in terms of always on Internet connectivity. I’m curious if Acer manages to bring this tablet in stores this year, at which cost and if they’re gonna use the Android Marketplace or they’re planning on building their own.

    Acer 7 inch tablet prototype

    Acer 7 inch tablet prototype

    Source: Engadget