[Review] Acer W3-810 32GB

[TeknoBlast]

During my lunch hour, I picked up the Acer W3 Windowstablet. Some of you already know, this is the first 8” Windows tablet with fullWindows 8. It also includes free Office suite, which is nice.

The casing is not high quality like the Surface or someother but still feels pretty nice. It’s a three-tone device with a grey back,white sides, and black front.

I picked up the 32GB because I really only wanted it formedia consumption. I’m not going to do real work on it. So after I fired it up,I checked how much space I had left. Well it wasn’t much at all; it only had11.1GB left. However, like most Windows tablets, you can add a micro SD card,which I have one waiting at home.

Honestly, this device is very snappy for having full Windowsrunning on an Intel Atom with 2GB RAM. There’s no lag or delay between apps.

I think the W3 is about the size of a Galaxy Tab 2 7.0,maybe slightly longer.

It’s light weight, but do think it’s a little heavier thanthe Galaxy Tab. The stat sheet states its 1.10lbs.

If you’re into social networks, there’s a very nice appcalled Social Jogger. This could be an Acer only app, but not sure. You can loginto FB, Twitter, YouTube, and some other network I never heard of.

It does have a mini-USB port, mini-HDMI port, and a microSDcard port.

The power cord is pretty short, so you might need a powerstrip if you’re going to charge it while using it in bed.

For anyone that uses a Surface, you know you can touch theWindows logo to get back to the Start screen….with the W3, there’s a Startbutton on the right side that takes you back to the Start screen. So there’s noaccidental grazing of the logo that takes you to the Start screen.

Using the W3 is best used indoors or when it’s not so brightoutside. When I was unpacking it inside my car, I notice that the screen hasthat oily type sheen when viewed in an angle. The screen is not top of the line, but stilllooks pretty nice when in the right lit conditions.

I think that’s about it. If you guys have any questions about the W3, feel free to ask.

Oh yeah, so if you’re anal about disk space, get the 64GBmodel.

 

[mase123987]

I was considering getting an 8in Windows 8 tablet but there was one thing that was stopping me: keyboard. To have a physical keyboard that is the same length as an 8in tablet, you have to make the keys considerably smaller. This is one of the big reasons I sold my iPad Mini. On my Surface RT, I find myself using the keyboard a lot when on forums.

 

[TeknoBlast]

I was considering getting an 8in Windows 8 tablet but there was one thing that was stopping me: keyboard. To have a physical keyboard that is the same length as an 8in tablet, you have to make the keys considerably smaller. This is one of the big reasons I sold my iPad Mini. On my Surface RT, I find myself using the keyboard a lot when on forums.

Yeah, if you're the type of person that required a keyboard, then an 8" tablet is not for you. I've played around with small tablets, like the iPad mini, Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, and now the Acer W3, so I'm kind of used to using the on-screen KB.

I think the 8" tablets are great when one wants to read articles, watch videos, or just simply browse the internet. For a person who is all into typing out long responses in forums or typing long documents, 8" tablets are not for that person.

Like I mentioned, I like this 8" Acer. It has all the functions of Windows, but I'm going to mostly use it for media consumption. Plus, as much as I love my Surface Pro, I don't want to take it everywhere with me because you never know what might happen. Someone out there might want yours for some reason.

 

[stephen_az]

I must admit I had a chance to look at one at OfficeMax today and put it down and walked away. FẂIW, it reminds me of the early days of Android tablets when people were shoving out all sorts of junk to just get in the market. From my perspective it is about as ugly as a tablet gets and is both thick and heavy for something so small. The plastic is also remarkably cheap and it comes complete with a tacky plastic Windows button that is off to the side if you hold it landscape. You can throw in a dim, dull, low resolution screen as well - even m old BB Playbook looked sharper. As far as the processor goes, it in line with other Atoms, meaning it is netbook slow. I really couldn't recommend this to anyone, even as a child's toy (which incidentally is what most resembles).

 

[mase123987]

I must admit I had a chance to look at one at OfficeMax today and put it down and walked away. FẂIW, it reminds me of the early days of Android tablets when people were shoving out all sorts of junk to just get in the market. From my perspective it is about as ugly as a tablet gets and is both thick and heavy for something so small. The plastic is also remarkably cheap and it comes complete with a tacky plastic Windows button that is off to the side if you hold it landscape. You can throw in a dim, dull, low resolution screen as well - even m old BB Playbook looked sharper. As far as the processor goes, it in line with other Atoms, meaning it is netbook slow. I really couldn't recommend this to anyone, even as a child's toy (which incidentally is what most resembles).

Pretty harsh from someone who doesn't own it. Also atoms are faster than they used to be.

 

[TechBlogTv]

For surfing the web, watching movies, or listening to music, the Acer Iconia W3 is plenty fast. For anyone that says it's slow, I'd like to hear what apps they are using.

 

[TeknoBlast]

Since most of us are spoiled with some high-end tablets, sometimes people forget that tablets like the W3 shouldn't be held at the same standard. When purchasing the W3, I already knew what I was expecting even before trying it out...hell, I didn't play with the demo. I just ordered one online and picked it up the same day. Was I gambling on a $349 product? Of course I was.

For being the first sub-10 Windows tablet on the market, I think Acer did a good job. Yeah, there are some things, hardware-wise, that needs improvement, like the screen, but other than that, it's a nice little device.

I also think, the W3 should be priced $50 less, 299 for the 32GB and 349 for the 64GB.

Either way, still fun to have for media consumption purposes.

 

[Fanappy]

Can you snap with the W3 I really want a small tablet but being able to have say word and a web page together would really sell it to me?

 

[Ridemyscooter86]

I put up the iconia w3 at my work so I can give you my impressions of it. The tablet is a little big for an 8 inch, it is a little bulker when compared to the samsung galaxy note 8.0, but its not absurdly big or chunky. Even though the casing is plastic (I think it looks okay, some people find it ugly), its feels fine in terms of build quality, it feels like the iconia w510, sure its plastic, but it feels like its built fairly well.

The atom processor is fine for these tablets and windows 8 ran rather smoothly. As someone was saying earlier, because it is an 8" you can't have a full-size keyboard the same size as the tablet, so acer made a bluetooth keyboard for the tablet that feels a little cheap, but does do the job of standing it upright, its bigger than the tablet is so it actually has a part in the back of the keyboard that you can dock the tablet into.

Apparently, according to the reviews, it gets a 9 hour battery life which is pretty good for the atom-based tablets. There is one issue with the tablet and mainly the reason I wouldn't buy it is the screen. I mean, its awful. The samsung galaxy tab 7.0 from last year that costs 150$ now has a better screen! The problem isn't the resolution, I understand having to cut some corners to make the price low, but this screen looks like the screen on 70$ android tablets. The viewing angles are awful, its like if you barely look like 20 degrees off the perpendicular viewing angle, it washes out. Also, the other major problem with this screen is something about it looks very grainy, and no, I'm not talking about the 1280 x 800 resolution here, I mean if you go look and compare it to any android tablet like the nexus 7 or the galaxy tab 2 7.0, its screen looks washed out and grainy compared to them.

I don't mean to harp on the screen, but for me, having to look at that every time would be a deal breaker to an otherwise nice tablet, especially for the cost. If you can get over the screen quality, which I can't, its otherwise a decent tablet for the money.