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more so what was missing on Windows 8 or Windows RT devices compared to Android
devices you could make an argument for quite a few things but I would say that
one of the big ones was variety early on
when Microsoft released Windows 8 and Windows RT they only had a specification
for how the operating system was supposed to work for down to a 10in
tablet so that's why you saw so many devices in that size range the way that
the menus were designed to work the way multitasking was designed to work wasn't
made for smaller tablets that's all changed as of around computex this year
and Acer's first response to this need for smaller Windows devices is the W3
tablet so we're going to go ahead and fire this bad boy up and see what we
think of it now like some of my unboxings lately you can see that the
packaging has been removed also the device might look like it's been used
for a bit because I have done that thing
so this is the packaging that you would normally find on it here is the Do Not
discard thing with your product key which I'm of course covering up for you
know safety and then we've also got a quick start guide a power adapter and
see if I can get this out of the there we go might might have broken a little
bit and the piece that that goes into so this allows Acer to easily adapt for
different regions so power adapter is pretty much what you'd expect and I
think that's pretty much it in terms of accessories so physically the device
shouldn't be too surprising if you've seen a tablet in the last 5 years or
so what can I say it's pretty thin okay so here's an HTC1 for comparison not by
any stretch of the imagination as thin as something like an iPad mini but it's
a bit of a different device it's meant to be more of a productivity device as
opposed to the iPad Mini feels more like an entertainment uh you know mobile
gaming platform or Mobile Media consumption platform right here is where
you'll see it compared to an HTC1 in terms of screen size so that's a 5-in
screen compared to an 8 in screen up on the top of the device we don't find
anything particularly surprising a volume rocker as well as a Micro SD
expansion slot it should be noted that Google's moving away from micr SD Apple
has never really had any support for it but that doesn't seem to be the case
with Windows devices at least at this point in time on the right hand Edge we
find that this is a bit of an odd one so there's two speakers two stereo speakers
here and here and then we've also got power in as well as a headphone
microphone combo Jack on the back of the unit we find a shiny Acer logo just uh
kind of a a pretty slick but it has a bit of grip to it so it's not completely
glossy and slippery so a bit of a slick back as well as an Intel Inside sticker
and the Windows 8 sticker we also find a 2 megapixel webcam both here and on the
front here so this is um sort of sort of
weird because you look at the Acer logo on the back here and it looks like okay this is an intended to be used as
landscape device there's an Acer logo there but then the Windows button is
here so that looks more like a portrait device and then the stereo speakers are
here and here which makes it look more like it's intended to be used in
portrait mode as well and then your webcam is up there so maybe Acer was
kind of hedging their bets going okay well maybe some people will use it landscape some people use it portrait
and we're not going to put them into a box in terms of how they intend to use
it but it gives you some challenges because for me particularly when I'm
consuming media I would hold it in landscape mode duh and both of my stereo
speakers are now on the right so I lose stereo uh which is sort of the point of
putting two speakers on one of these devices and then if I was doing
something like webcamming with uh with a relative I I don't know maybe I would
maybe I would hold it like this and then I can sort of thumb type so I guess I
understand the orientation of the webcam up there but uh just the whole thing
still feels a little bit a little bit a little bit weird to me Acer sent along a
couple of accessories for us to check out while we were uh spending some time
with the W3 so this one right here is a
case protective case I think I uh joked
about this on Twitter when I originally got the shipment because I had just
dropped my HTC1 and I was like really
you drop one phone and every manufacturer sends you a protective case
for the samples that they lend you jeez come on anyway so it fits in here pretty
pretty easily actually it's similar to the w700 that I'm using right now over
here to uh display my notes for this particular unboxing so all it does is
there's a spot for the webcam right there it clips into the plastic shell
piece and then that gives you a couple of options in terms of uh whether you
want to just close it it's kind of a pley uh feel to it overall so you can do
that or you can prop it up this way for
more like uh sitting and typing there we go looks a little something like that no
I don't want to restart right now I'm in the middle of unboxing Windows 8 okay or
you can put it all the way down and that would be more like a Content consumption
or or touchscreen sort of interface uh mode now I want to talk specs as well so
it has an atom z2760 2 gigs of memory so
it's 1.5 GHz base 1.8 GHz boost
processor it's got 32 gigs or 64 gigs of
SSD storage so that's going to be emmc that's not going to be a full-blown SSD
but it's fast enough for the sort of portable 8 in touchscreen experience
they're quoting an 8 Hour battery life uses Wireless N as well as Bluetooth 4.0
to communicate with various things such as the keyboard accessory so this is
actually a pretty neat little keyboard it is able to do a couple of things
pretty well so number one is is it's reasonably comfortable to type on which
you wouldn't expect for an 8-in tablet keyboard however it's quite a bit larger
than the keyboard so it's not as portable I think it takes away from the
mobility of the device a little bit but what's good about it is the fact that
because the device comes with office home and student which I think is a
really really cool add-on it turns it
into something that's more than just a way to watch movies on the plane but
something that you can actually get a little bit of work done on compared to
most tablets particularly in this size range it actually Clips onto the tablet
itself just like this there we go so here I'll show you guys how this works
so the the two speakers down there that might be part of the reason for the
design there go there and then it clips into place so the screen itself is
actually protected and then you can carry around the whole thing like this
maybe stuff it into a bag or whatever else but the weight and size starts to
become more like something like a netbook class product as opposed to um
as opposed to something like a tablet with a wireless keyboard that goes with it now I've made it this far in without
criticizing it yet but I have to do it unfortunately the W3 uses a TN panel and
particularly in something like a mobile device where you're out and about and
you can't necessarily guarantee that you're going to be viewing it from the
optimal angle um I do find that to be a bit of a deficiency in this product so
I'll give you guys some idea of what the viewing angles are like here I'm just going to go out of there so you can see
that we start to see um at probably
probably around uh 60° we start to get inverted
colors sideways and then when we tilt up
and down uh yeah we we definitely see those
those characteristics of TN panels really shine through with that said it
should be noted that IPS panels are more expensive so it's it's it's a give or
take do you want a tablet that's small and portable and reasonably powerful
comes with office or would you rather it had a nicer screen and you'll get your
own copy of office ultimately it's up to you however there aren't really that
many options out there comparable to the W7 or the W3 right now
so yeah there you go thank you for
checking out this unboxing and first look of the W3 from Acer don't forget to
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