Report: Acer & Lenovo readying Android 4.0 tablets

It’s starting to look like the first quarter of 2012 will bring with it a slew of Android 4.0, Tegra 3 tablets. A recent report indicates that both Acer and Lenovo are lining up tablets with the Nvidia Tegra 3 processor that will be running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Those tablets would mark the first to release with both Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and the Tegra 3 processor. The recently announced Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime, which will also use the Tegra 3, is only going to ship with Android 3.2 Honeycomb.

DigiTimes is reporting the quad-core tablets coming from both Acer and Lenovo based on reports from sources. Those sources are indicating the offerings from both Acer and Lenovo are expected to come in around $459 – $599. That price puts them squarely up against the iPad 2 in terms of price point, except with the added benefit of a quad-core processor.

It was reported about two weeks ago by Engadget that Lenovo’s quad-core tablet would be a 10.1 inch device, have 2GB of ram, and a USB port. That report indicated the tablet could be released before the end of 2011 but DigiTimes’ sources seem to think Q1 2012 is more likely.

The Tegra 3 based tablet is not the only thing Lenovo is working on. The company announced three new Android tablets on Tuesday under the name IdeaPad. The three tablets range in size from 5 to 7 to 10 inches.

The most interesting of the three devices is the 5 inch S2005. The S2005 will come with Android 2.3.5, a dual core Qualcomm 1.2GHz chip, 1GB of RAM, a 800×480 pixel screen, a 1.3 megapixel front camera, and a 5 megapixel rear camera. The device will also have a micro-USB port, micro-HDMI port, and HSPA+ cellular connectivity. The size of the device and the specs make it a weird combination of a tablet and a phone without the ability to make any calls.

Those three new Lenovo tablets will release in China in December making the idea of the quad-core tablet coming in Q1 2012 a little more credible.

Do you have any interest in a quad-core tablet? What about a 5 inch device? Let us know what you think of these new machines in the comments.