The Acer Iconia B1 Android tablet is expected to be announced at CES 2013 in a matter of hours and yet it already seems to have popped up, as reviewed by one site in Bulgaria.

The 7-inch, Jelly Bean-sporting device is set to go head to head with the likes of the Google Nexus 7 and iPad mini and, according to the benchmark tests on the review, looks like it will even outperform them. At the heart of the tablet is a dual-core, Cortex A9-based MediaTek SoC featuring a Power VR SGX531 GPU and 512MB of RAM to back it up.

Where it might not do well is with the screen. The 1024 x 600 pixel dimensions and resulting 170ppi is similar to Apple's small tablet but not a patch on what the Google/Asus device offers. Worse, though, is that the screen brightness and viewing angles are apparently not much of a match either.

It's a about the same thickness as the Nexus 7 at 10.78mm and weighs an iPad mini-matching 308g. There's no rear camera but the front-facer will let you do 720p video calls with a 30fps rate. Obviously, this is all according to the Bulgarian review but we certainly wouldn't be surprised if the site had managed to get its hands-on a model just before CES 2013.

The one detail that would be good to know for sure is the price. As it stands, benchmarks aren't all that much to go by, and the Iconia B1 might still be a tough sell against Apple and Google with a reported price of around £150. Early word from the States, however, suggests it might be available for as little as $99. Now that would be an offer too good to resist.

UPDATE: Engadget is reporting that Acer has officially confirmed the Acer Iconia B1-A71 as described above in the review. US price is $150. If it's the same in pounds in the UK then, well, that's a bit of a shame.

UPDATE 2: Acer B1 UK price is £99, it will be available from Currys, PC World, Argos and Tesco, amongst other retailers from 25 January 2013.