Acer Iconia W3 Windows 8 Tablet Unboxing & Overview
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2014-05-07
·
1,730 words · ~8 min read
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more so what was missing on Windows 8 or Windows RT devices compared to Android
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devices you could make an argument for quite a few things but I would say that
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one of the big ones was variety early on
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when Microsoft released Windows 8 and Windows RT they only had a specification
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for how the operating system was supposed to work for down to a 10in
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tablet so that's why you saw so many devices in that size range the way that
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the menus were designed to work the way multitasking was designed to work wasn't
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made for smaller tablets that's all changed as of around computex this year
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and Acer's first response to this need for smaller Windows devices is the W3
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tablet so we're going to go ahead and fire this bad boy up and see what we
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think of it now like some of my unboxings lately you can see that the
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packaging has been removed also the device might look like it's been used
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for a bit because I have done that thing
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so this is the packaging that you would normally find on it here is the Do Not
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discard thing with your product key which I'm of course covering up for you
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know safety and then we've also got a quick start guide a power adapter and
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see if I can get this out of the there we go might might have broken a little
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bit and the piece that that goes into so this allows Acer to easily adapt for
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different regions so power adapter is pretty much what you'd expect and I
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think that's pretty much it in terms of accessories so physically the device
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shouldn't be too surprising if you've seen a tablet in the last 5 years or
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so what can I say it's pretty thin okay so here's an HTC1 for comparison not by
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any stretch of the imagination as thin as something like an iPad mini but it's
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a bit of a different device it's meant to be more of a productivity device as
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opposed to the iPad Mini feels more like an entertainment uh you know mobile
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gaming platform or Mobile Media consumption platform right here is where
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you'll see it compared to an HTC1 in terms of screen size so that's a 5-in
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screen compared to an 8 in screen up on the top of the device we don't find
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anything particularly surprising a volume rocker as well as a Micro SD
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expansion slot it should be noted that Google's moving away from micr SD Apple
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has never really had any support for it but that doesn't seem to be the case
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with Windows devices at least at this point in time on the right hand Edge we
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find that this is a bit of an odd one so there's two speakers two stereo speakers
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here and here and then we've also got power in as well as a headphone
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microphone combo Jack on the back of the unit we find a shiny Acer logo just uh
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kind of a a pretty slick but it has a bit of grip to it so it's not completely
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glossy and slippery so a bit of a slick back as well as an Intel Inside sticker
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and the Windows 8 sticker we also find a 2 megapixel webcam both here and on the
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front here so this is um sort of sort of
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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
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landscape device there's an Acer logo there but then the Windows button is
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here so that looks more like a portrait device and then the stereo speakers are
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here and here which makes it look more like it's intended to be used in
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portrait mode as well and then your webcam is up there so maybe Acer was
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kind of hedging their bets going okay well maybe some people will use it landscape some people use it portrait
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and we're not going to put them into a box in terms of how they intend to use
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it but it gives you some challenges because for me particularly when I'm
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consuming media I would hold it in landscape mode duh and both of my stereo
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speakers are now on the right so I lose stereo uh which is sort of the point of
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putting two speakers on one of these devices and then if I was doing
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something like webcamming with uh with a relative I I don't know maybe I would
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maybe I would hold it like this and then I can sort of thumb type so I guess I
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understand the orientation of the webcam up there but uh just the whole thing
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still feels a little bit a little bit a little bit weird to me Acer sent along a
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couple of accessories for us to check out while we were uh spending some time
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with the W3 so this one right here is a
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case protective case I think I uh joked
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about this on Twitter when I originally got the shipment because I had just
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dropped my HTC1 and I was like really
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you drop one phone and every manufacturer sends you a protective case
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for the samples that they lend you jeez come on anyway so it fits in here pretty
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pretty easily actually it's similar to the w700 that I'm using right now over
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here to uh display my notes for this particular unboxing so all it does is
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there's a spot for the webcam right there it clips into the plastic shell
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piece and then that gives you a couple of options in terms of uh whether you
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want to just close it it's kind of a pley uh feel to it overall so you can do
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that or you can prop it up this way for
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more like uh sitting and typing there we go looks a little something like that no
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I don't want to restart right now I'm in the middle of unboxing Windows 8 okay or
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you can put it all the way down and that would be more like a Content consumption
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or or touchscreen sort of interface uh mode now I want to talk specs as well so
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it has an atom z2760 2 gigs of memory so
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it's 1.5 GHz base 1.8 GHz boost
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processor it's got 32 gigs or 64 gigs of
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SSD storage so that's going to be emmc that's not going to be a full-blown SSD
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but it's fast enough for the sort of portable 8 in touchscreen experience
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they're quoting an 8 Hour battery life uses Wireless N as well as Bluetooth 4.0
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to communicate with various things such as the keyboard accessory so this is
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actually a pretty neat little keyboard it is able to do a couple of things
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pretty well so number one is is it's reasonably comfortable to type on which
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you wouldn't expect for an 8-in tablet keyboard however it's quite a bit larger
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than the keyboard so it's not as portable I think it takes away from the
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mobility of the device a little bit but what's good about it is the fact that
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because the device comes with office home and student which I think is a
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really really cool add-on it turns it
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into something that's more than just a way to watch movies on the plane but
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something that you can actually get a little bit of work done on compared to
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most tablets particularly in this size range it actually Clips onto the tablet
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itself just like this there we go so here I'll show you guys how this works
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so the the two speakers down there that might be part of the reason for the
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design there go there and then it clips into place so the screen itself is
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actually protected and then you can carry around the whole thing like this
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maybe stuff it into a bag or whatever else but the weight and size starts to
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become more like something like a netbook class product as opposed to um
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as opposed to something like a tablet with a wireless keyboard that goes with it now I've made it this far in without
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criticizing it yet but I have to do it unfortunately the W3 uses a TN panel and
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particularly in something like a mobile device where you're out and about and
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you can't necessarily guarantee that you're going to be viewing it from the
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optimal angle um I do find that to be a bit of a deficiency in this product so
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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
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that we start to see um at probably
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probably around uh 60° we start to get inverted
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colors sideways and then when we tilt up
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and down uh yeah we we definitely see those
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those characteristics of TN panels really shine through with that said it
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should be noted that IPS panels are more expensive so it's it's it's a give or
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take do you want a tablet that's small and portable and reasonably powerful
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comes with office or would you rather it had a nicer screen and you'll get your
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own copy of office ultimately it's up to you however there aren't really that
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many options out there comparable to the W7 or the W3 right now
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so yeah there you go thank you for
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checking out this unboxing and first look of the W3 from Acer don't forget to
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