I've had a somewhat unhealthy fixation on Honeycomb for a while now- and eventually just flicking through at my local Best Buy wasn't cutting it. Over the Thanksgiving shopping period I noticed the Acer Iconia had dropped to as low as $189. I didn't act quickly enough to snag one at that price, but I did find one at Gamestop.com for $240 and convinced myself it was worth my while.The first thing I noticed was how light it is compared to my Evo View. Not that my View is a brick, but I definitely noticed how heavy it was next to the Acer. The body was slick and had an interesting shape. When I turned it on, I spent the first few moments playing with Honeycomb. I didn't like the stock launcher as it wasted a lot of space allowing for the rotation from landscape to portrait. So, after downloading Launcherpro I felt more at home. More exploration led me to realize that Honeycomb is not that much different from Gingerbread on a tablet. In fact, there is a certain uniformity that Honeycomb is missing- everything in Gingerbread happens in the status bar, but in Honeycomb you need to go right for the clock, go left for the task switcher, remember which icon is used to go back.
In the end, the thing that annoyed me the most about the Iconia was the home button. In portrait orientation things were fine, but hold it in landscape and your fingers inevitable brush by the button dumping you right back on the home page. If there is already a home button as part of the OS, please tell me why there is a need for another physical button? I bundled the Iconia back up, but because I wasn't quite sure what the Gamestop return policy is I decided to go to a local store to return it. My first try was unsuccessful but the manager did point me to a store that stocked the Iconia and would probably take a return. So, I was able to return the Iconia, less shipping cost, and finally was able to put my Honeycomb curiosity to rest.
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