| Acer is no stranger to tablets and have been actively developing them since 2011. They might not enjoy the same critical acclaim that Samsung and Apple do, but their business model works. The Acer Iconia W3 is the first tablet in the world to employ a 8.1 inch display running Windows 8 Pro. How does it stack up against the competition and is it a worthy investment compared to other Windows tablets on the market? Hardware The Acer Iconia W3 features a 8.1 inch display with a resolution of 1200 x 800 pixels. I found that magazines, newspapers and comic books looked fairly solid and all had vibrant and rich colors. The one drawback with the display is the viewing angles and it draws many parallels to the way a 3D television works. You have to be looking at the screen dead on, if you start to skew your prospective and look at it from a different angle, you can’t read the screen. I really don’t understand why Acer did not go with the same IPS display that the iPad Mini used. It is important to note that if you decide to buy this tablet, you won’t be able to really show your friends what is happening on the screen. Underneath the hood is a Intel Atom 1.5GHz Z2760 dual core processor and 2GB of RAM. There is 32 GB of storage space, but once you turn it on for the first time there is roughly 8 GB of usable memory. This prompts users to purchase a 32 GB Micro SD card to boost up their memory. You can also free up storage space by deleting a number of Acer bloatware apps or if you are an advanced user, messing around with the drive partitions. There is a Micro USB port for you to hook the device up to your computer and transfer data easily to the tablet. There is also a Micro HDMI port, if you want to stream audio and video to your home entertainment center or projector. You can’t charge the Acer W3 via the Micro USB, instead you have to use the accompanied power charger. Speaking of power, you will roughly eke out 6 hours of battery life and out of the box it is only charged 54%. If talking to other people via Skype or other video messaging clients is your thing, there are two cameras and mics. Both are a paltry 2 MP, but at least the front facing one is not VGA! The back of the device is one of the most visually striking elements of the W3, with its brushed gun metal plastic. It actually looks very solid, but there are a number of stickers for Intel, Acer and other companies all over it. The front of the device is a mixture of black and white and really is not very endearing. Seriously, it is three different colors and I wish they just decided to go with one. In the end, the poor viewing angles might be a deal breaker for most people. It only costs $365, so if you are looking for a viable Windows tablet that will run all of your legacy apps and all the new Windows 8 apps, you won’t find many cheaper alternatives. The stereo speakers are also the weakest part of the W3. They are placed on the sides of the device, which are in the same position of the iPad Mini. Unfortunately, you really have to get your ears close to the external speakers to hear what actually is playing. Recommend to buy headphones to use on this device if you tend to listen to lots of music or buy a pair of Bluetooth speakers. Software The Acer Iconia W3 features Windows 8 Professional edition. This will give you the ability to run the new breed of native Windows 8 apps and also all of the legacy versions. You can easily install Steam, Call of Duty Black OPS 2, Starcraft 2 and all of the big name and indie titles. Obviously, it does not have a dedicated graphics card, so the big name AAA titles will not excel. I would recommend smaller games and RTS style of games where you don’t need a massive PC to handle all the shaders and particle effects. The W3 when turned on for the first time has a number of Acer exclusives, like their cloud storage solution. This works similar to iCloud, where you can send documents, audio, video and other essential data to your cloud accounts. If you have any other Acer devices, such as their smartphones or computers, everything is delivered there automatically. Most companies these days offer similar services, so its not the most compelling feature. The rest of the preinstalled apps are mainly ones that Acer recommends, such as Spotify, Kindle, Netflix Encyclopedia Britannica, TuneIn Radio and Skype. Most of these are essential, so their fairly practical for the average user. Most people should have at least tried Windows 8 or have it installed on their home PC or laptop. I won’t get into the semantics of the entire experience, but suffice to say its all about live tiles. Most apps you install like a photo gallery, chatting program, news app, will all swap out on the fly, making the entire environment fairly dynamic. This is a far cry from Android and iOS, which is static. The Windows 8 store has a ton of content, since we last saw it when the Microsoft Surface RT and PRO first came out. There is more news apps like Pulse, Nook, and RSS Reading apps. There is also plenty of games and everything else, it feels like in a fairly short period of time, the platform has attracted a number of top tier developers. This helps with the sustained growth as Windows as a viable mobile platform. It encourages more companies to produce tablets with the operating system installed, instead of constantly relying on the only other viable market alternative, Android. I wish Blackberry would take a page out of Microsofts playbook (no pun intended) and throw big money at the companies you need to get signed up to get more users to buy into it. The big selling point about the W3 is the ability to multitask and have many things on the go at once. The other is the traditional windows desktop, that should appeal to the vast majority of people. I found some of the limitations of the hardware, if you have five Windows open with different e-reading apps installed, often when you relaunch the app, the entire screen will be unresponsive and a black screen. You have to then close the app and relaunch it, tedious to be sure. In the end, Windows 8 has all of the apps you could shake a stick at, and there are millions of apps you can install on this. Virtually any game or app made in the last 10 years could run on this. This is where Windows mobile on tablets shine. You can be an artist, engineer, web-designer and just run anything. It will easily handle AutoCad, Adobe and anything else. e-Reading Experience The Acer Iconia W3 is not overwhelming amazing when it comes to being a dedicated e-Reader for newspapers, magazines, manga, comic books or eBooks. The limitations of the current display always warrant a particular viewing angle to actually see the content on the screen. Most people have their own unique ways of holding it and you may feel let down. The resolution isn’t terrible, but not amazing either. You will get the same eBook experience as any other tablet, including enhanced books. One of the drawbacks of e-Reading apps for Windows 8, is that they tend to get the least amount of love from developers. Android and iOS are the top priority and often get pushed the most unique features and overall enhancements. Windows, is not a priority to Kobo, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and most other companies we regularly talk to. So, if you say use the installed Amazon app, you can change the margins, font size, background color, and not much else. Anything you augment in the settings menu will not be updated dynamically and you have to click on ‘apply settings’ for anything to take effect. Comic books and magazines tend to look very solid. You will get the full color spectrum and not feel cheapened. We compared this directly to the iPad Mini and Kindle Fire HD, and both of these turned pages faster and performed better. I would not recommend this tablet as a dedicated e-Reader. Sure Windows 8 is still new enough to warrant a second look, but I would recommend the Kobo Arc, Kindle Fire HD 8.9, or iPad Mini as a dedicated reader. Wrap Up To be honest, there aren’t many pure Windows 8 tablets on the market right now. Most are very overpriced and they have not sold as expected. Microsoft is said to have taken a $900 million dollar loss on discounting the Surface PRO in the last quarter. The W3 is the most affordable tablet right now, but I would still avoid it at all costs. I was turned off automatically by the chosen design aesthetics with 4 different colors on the back, body and sides. Just pick one color and stick with it! The speaker quality was also very poor, that warranted me constantly having to strain to hear anything. The display is terrible and is much akin to a 3D TV in its viewing angle. Finally, there is only 8 GB of memory when you power it up for the first time. I don’t think Star Wars – The Old Republic would even install all the updates after the client was done. PROS Windows 8 PRO! Cons Rating – 4/10 Acer Iconia W3 Windows 8 Tablet Review is a post from: E-Reader News |
Friday, July 19, 2013
Acer Iconia W3 Windows 8 Tablet Review
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