Acer Iconia W3

With Windows 8, Microsoft turned its focus to touchscreen devices as the new operating system featured swipe gestures and charms that could be best experienced on touch-enabled devices. While we've been seeing ultrabooks, hybrids and 10-inch tablets running Windows 8, it was not ported to a device with a smaller form factor, until now. 

The Acer W3 changes all that, becoming the first 8-inch (8.1-inch to be precise) tablet to run Windows 8 and not Windows RT, which Microsoft created specially keeping tablets into consideration. The 8-inch form factor is really good when it comes to using a tablet for consuming content - reading, watching videos and movies or playing games.

Build/ Design

The front of the tablet features the 8.1-inch screen surrounded by a rather broad Black bezel. The bezel makes the tablet look really unpleasant. The display panel with the bezel fits into White coloured plastic frame, which also sports a Windows hardware key at the right side of the tablet (in landscape mode). There's a 2-megapixel front facing camera located at the left side (top if you hold the tablet in portrait mode).

The right side of the tablet features a proprietary charging port connector, a 3.5mm headset jack and two speaker grills. A Micro-USB port and a micro-HDMI port are placed at the left hand side of the tablet, along with the Power/ Screen lock key. The microSD card slot and the Volume rocker key sit at the top of the tablet. 

The back of the tablet is made of plastic with a Silver-Grey matte finish. There's a 2-megapixel rear camera located at the top right corner (looking at the tablet in landscape mode). There's also some Acer branding and Windows and Intel stickers.

Display

The Acer Iconia W3 has an 8.1-inch Active Matrix TFT Color LCD, which sports a resolution of 1280x800 pixels.  Colours look washed out and viewing angles are terrible. This means that not looking at the screen directly from a certain angle affects visibility and colour rendering.

The screen looks terribly grainy, as if someone's put a screen protector on it, and there's moisture between the two. (Be assured that there was no screen protector and we removed the one that came with the tablet). 

Other than this, text and images appear decent and videos look above average. We also observed that the screen was very reflective and under-sun visibility was not that good. 

Another downside of the display is the resolution as Windows 8 requires a minimum resolution of 1366x768 pixels if you want to 'snap' apps. The snap mode allows users to run and view two apps simultaneously. 

Camera

The tablet sports a 2-megapixel rear camera and a front-facing camera sporting the same resolution. The cameras take average quality photos in both daylight and artificial light. The rear camera doesn't feature a flash so you can't really click pictures in low light conditions. Even with decent light, pictures appeared to be grainy. The awkward placement of the front camera makes it difficult to use the tablet for video calling in landscape mode. 

The cameras support shooting up to 1080p resolution videos. Acer also offers its own camera app, Acer Crystal Eye, which offers a more intuitive UI.

Videos shot through the cameras were just about average in terms of quality, though.

While, we're not sure if a lot of users would click pictures with a tablet, it's nice to have a good quality option to fall back upon.

Software

The tablet comes with Windows 8 Pro, which is the most touch-friendly version of the OS. Mind you, it doesn't run Windows RT, which is Microsoft's OS for tablets that leaves out the ability to run legacy Windows desktop apps (or programs in Windows terms). This means you can run anything from Adobe's Photoshop to Apple's iTunes on the tablet, in addition to Microsoft's Modern UI apps that can be downloaded from the Store.

The tablet comes with some pre-installed apps including Acer Explorer (a services, apps and information destination), 7digital music store, Evernote Touch, Amazon, Kindle, newsXpresso, TuneIn radio, Skype, Acer Crystal Eye, AcerCloud and Social Jogger. 

Performance/ Battery life

The Acer Iconia W3 is powered by a 1.8GHz dual-core Intel Atom (Z2760) Clover Trail Processor. The tablet has 2GB of RAM and features Intel Graphics Media Accelerator GPU. In our usage we found that the tablet performed well in daily tasks including browsing the Web, playing some casual Windows 8 games, using a text editor, and watching HD videos. Casual games that are available on the Windows Store including Jetpack Joyride, Angry Birds and Cut the Rope run fine.

The tablet only offers Wi-Fi connectivity though you can use a 3G dongle with a Micro-USB to USB converter.

With Windows 8 Pro you can also download legacy Windows app along with Metro/ Modern UI apps that are only available through the Windows store. It's a little cumbersome to use legacy/ desktop apps and even the regular Windows settings through the touch screen.

Verdict

You can browse the Web with Internet Explorer, read ebooks on Kindle or just play casual games. Even India-focused apps like Zomato, NDTV or BookMyShow are available on the Windows 8 store. We do have to mention that app selection and the quality of apps still lags behind the iPad, though.

Coming to the tablet's hardware, we'd say that it's not ready to hit prime time, majorly due to its poor screen and bulky form factor. At a price of Rs. 27,999 (MRP is Rs. 30,499, we feel that the tablet is steeply priced, especially considering the quality of the hardware.With Windows 8.1 set to release later this year, the OS would see more refinements. We just wish Acer and other OEMs make hardware that does justice to it.