My Acer W500 as a full time work machine

[gsquared]

I have recently began using my W500 as a full time work machine and I must say this is simply a wonderful machine. The fact I can go from wired Ethernet with full keyboard to Wi-Fi / tablet mode in a seconds notice makes this device invaluable. Also having Windows 8 Pro installed means I can run full-boat Office apps and other corporate apps without missing a beat. I expect to see more people using these hybrid devices as I've had several people give this device a thumbs up in meetings and such.

What I'm most surprised about is how well this machine runs. It runs circles around that PoS laptop I had which had double the physical specs of what I'm running now. I did give up some screen size but have already adjusted to this.

 

[woodbane]

Are you talking about the W500 or the newer W510? Two different machines.

 

[Daniel0418]

I completely agree. I love my w510 more than I expected. Its like a super surface RT. I received mine as a gift for Xmas, and didn't get the keyboard dock. I don't see anywhere to buy it just yet, but when it is for sale I can't wait to make this a full laptop at a moment's notice

 

[gsquared]

I'm talking about the W500. Isn't the W510 a Win 8 RT machine? I have no use for a machine like that. Running Win 8 Pro I haven't yet found anything I cannot do on this machine that I could do on a full-boat laptop or desktop. The are however a bunch more things I can do on the W500 that I cannot do on a laptop or desktop.

 

[woodbane]

I'm talking about the W500. Isn't the W510 a Win 8 RT machine? I have no use for a machine like that. Running Win 8 Pro I haven't yet found anything I cannot do on this machine that I could do on a full-boat laptop or desktop. The are however a bunch more things I can do on the W500 that I cannot do on a laptop or desktop.

The w510 Acer tablet runs full Windows 8 and it utilizes the new(ish) Intel Atom dual core chip.

Not to discount your experiences with the w500 at all - just wanted to make sure everyone was aware we are discussing two totally different tablets in the same thread - although you did clarify that in the title I guess.

I'm interested to hear how the w500 runs Windows 8? What's your battery life like? I don't know much about that tablet.

 

[gsquared]

It runs Win8 Pro surprisingly well. I upgraded the internal SSD to a 128 GB mSATA III. The faster drive really makes up for the slower processor. I think it gets a 2.9 on the Windows Experience Index due to the processor. The other index items range between 4.0 to 4.5. The battery is spec'd around 6 hrs. I haven't payed much attention to the battery life as I'm not away from the dock for that long. For only having 330.00 US invested in it I'm quite happy.

 

[Ridemyscooter86]

you know one thing that I'm not understanding with the clover trail atom tablets is that if you read the reviews of "professional" websites/blogs (which I think are quite biased IMHO), they all say that the atom has sluggish performance but for most people that I have seemed to talk to on these forums and for my own hp envy x2, the new atoms perform great. I'm running visual studio professional right now, IE, the app store, Reader App, Bing app, and haven't noticed any slowdown. I'm especially surprised with visual studio as it seems to run fine on this tablet.

 

[Coolknight1968]

Well, the German magazine Chip.de tested a Acer Atom W510 Win8 tablet and ranked it as the second best tablet available. It was the first Win8 tablet/hybrid they tested... They were more than impressed by the W510 performance. Chip.de is very pro iPad / Android tablet, so the good review says alot! I am a firm believer in Win8 / 8 Pro tablets/hybrids. I have a Samsung Ativ-S Smart PC T700 hybrid.

 

[Coolknight1968]

Could you be so kind and explain how to replace the W510 32Gb SSD with a 128Gb SSD and how you moved the OS and files from the 32Gb SSD to the 128Gb SSD? Please!!!

 

[gsquared]

Though I do not own the W510 (Mine is a W500) the process should be the same. You need to remove the back cover to access the internal SSD. You must use caution here as its tricky. Once you get the cover off its simply a matter of pulling out the old SSD and inserting the new drive. I have attached instructions and a video for removing the W500 cover.

Tweaking4All ? SSD upgrade for your Acer Iconia Tab W500
how to open back cover acer w500 - YouTube

Make sure you get the right tools. The person in the video is not using the correct tools. See the first link.

I installed a fresh copy of Win 7 then upgraded the machine to Win 8. You should be able to use the restore disks with the new drive. If not I think the first link explains how to clone and move the OS.

G/L..

 

[woodbane]

Though I do not own the W510 (Mine is a W500) the process should be the same. You need to remove the back cover to access the internal SSD. You must use caution here as its tricky. Once you get the cover off its simply a matter of pulling out the old SSD and inserting the new drive. I have attached instructions and a video for removing the W500 cover.

Tweaking4All ? SSD upgrade for your Acer Iconia Tab W500
how to open back cover acer w500 - YouTube

Make sure you get the right tools. The person in the video is not using the correct tools. See the first link.

I installed a fresh copy of Win 7 then upgraded the machine to Win 8. You should be able to use the restore disks with the new drive. If not I think the first link explains how to clone and move the OS.

G/L..

Unfortunately I don't think this is relevant to the Acer Iconia w510 or any of the newer 32/64 gigabyte variants of windows 8 tablets; as almost all of them use eMMC as storage and it's soldered to the motherboard.

Unless your Windows 8 tablet expressly states it uses a SSD I would strongly not recommend this procedure.

You'll probably bork it and you'll definitely void the warranty.

 

[Ridemyscooter86]

yeah, I agree with woodbane, I will tell you that almost all of the new tablets use memory soldered to the motherboard. If the tablet were an core I-series tablet it might be an ssd with a m-sata connection like most ultrabooks but most tablets, especially smaller tablets, use memory soldered to the motherboard. A class 10 micro sd card will help a little .

 

[gsquared]

I tried to find some detailed information on the W510 regarding the storage type. No luck. If it is soldered on the board that's very disappointing. Planned obsolescence at its finest.

 

[hdfan24]

I also have the Acer W500 running on Windows 8 and it works great. Although lately it's had issues with the Bluetooth drivers and now does not recognize the Bluetooth at all. Before it would just have issues connecting to Bluetooth devices now the Bluetooth radio is no longer recognized. Not sure if some update killed it. The device control app also no longer works, just crashes, maybe connected to the Bluetooth issues. But besides those its very speedy. I also upgraded to 128 gb drive, used a credit card to get back cover open. You start from sd card slot, just get a card to slide in, and just slide all around the cover, it unhooks the tabs as it goes along. Just take your time, once u remove the first time, comes off easier the next.