Acer Iconia Tab 8 is fashionable, but forgettable (pictures)

If you're interested in a stylish tablet, the Acer Iconia Tab 8 is a competitively priced option. However, there's quite a bevy of budget tablets available, and the 8-inch Acer doesn't offer much to stand out in the crowd. Click through the slideshow for a closer look and read our review for a more in-depth look.

The 8-inch Acer tablet ships with Android KitKat 4.2.2, as an update to Lollipop 5.0 has yet to be announced. Keeping with tradition, the tablet comes with some preloaded software (also known as bloatware), and unfortunately, not all of it is removable.

Vested in a silver aluminum back and shiny white bezels, the Iconia Tab 8's design resembles a certain Apple tablet. From afar, the undiscerning eye might even confuse the two.

The Acer Iconia Tab 8 packs a microSD card slot on the left edge, almost in line with the rear camera. Most popular tablets don't offer an expandable storage option, but it's one of the best features on the affable Acer slate.

When holding the tablet in portrait orientation, the speaker on the rear side poses no problem. However, switch to landscape and you're left blocking the speaker with one hand. You can get crafty and cup your hand around the speaker for a fuller sound -- or choose a tablet with better speaker placement.

The top edge is home to the headphone jack, Micro-USB port, and Micro-HDMI port -- a rare and welcome sight. Paired with the storage capabilities of the microSD card expansion slot, you can load it with all of your media and easily display it on an HDTV (with a micro-HDMI-to-HDMI cable, of course.)

It's no iPad Air 2, but the Iconia Tab 8 is one of the sleeker budget tablets available. It's as skinny as the Google Nexus 7 but not so much so as to land on our slimmest and lightest tablets list.

Though tablets in its price range usually offer a 1,280x800-pixel screen, the Iconia Tab 8 sports a higher 1,920x1,200-pixel resolution display. This, paired with the Micro-HDMI port, make the Acer tablet a unique budget option. Unfortunately, this slight edge doesn't make up for the tablet's lackluster performance.

If you have no use for a Micro-HDMI port and are willing to opt for a slate that doesn't resemble an iPad, I suggest spending a little more for a better-performing model.