Remember when you used to spend $600 for an Android Honeycomb tablet? Well, those days are just about gone. April 24th, is the day the Acer Iconia Tab A500 will wash that price away. That’s when the WiFi-only version of Acer’s Android 3.0 tablet will hit Best Buy and online retail for $450 without a contract, but with the same basic specs as the WiFi-only Motorola Xoom: a dual-core 1GHz Tegra 250 SOC, a 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 LCD screen, 1GB of RAM, a 5 megapixel camera around back and a 2 megapixel camera up front, HDMI-out, not to mention a pair of 3260mAh batteries that Acer claims are capable of eight full hours of life while playing HD video. Sure, it’s thicker and heavier and only sports half the flash storage (16GB), too, but if you like shiny things, look for a review in the coming weeks or wait until this summer to get one with AT&T.

Update: As Acer mentioned in its press release, pre-orders for the device are beginning exclusively at Best Buy today, and you can now get your order in online.

photo: courtesy Engadget