Acer Iconia W3: First 8-inch Windows 8 tablet

Billed as the world’s first 8-inch Windows 8 tablet, the Acer Iconia W3 is shipping this month and will be available for preorder starting yestarday, June 4.

Acer is attempting to differentiate itself in the highly competitive tablet market with its new Iconia W3. The company says the tablet, which debuted at the 2013 Computex show, delivers desktop PC capabilities and is the first 8.1-inch tablet running Windows 8. 

The W3 is compatible with all current Windows software, including productivity tools like the bundled Microsoft Office Home & Student 2013 suite.

Its Windows 8, not Windows 8.1
First, it’s worth pointing out that the Acer Iconia W3 will ship with Windows 8 and not Windows 8.1 as its arriving within weeks and Windows 8.1 won’t be finalized until late this summer.

Office
 As was hinted at the Amazon leak, the W3 ships with a free copy of Office 2013 Home and Student, presumably to make this offering more competitive with Windows RT. 

Size and weight
 The W3 weigh barely over 1 pound in weight and 0.45 inches thin.

Hardware specs

• The W3 utilizes a current-generation (“Clover Trail”) Atom Z2760 processor running   at 1.8 GHz, meaning the tablet is zippy enough to handle Windows 8 operations
• 2 GB of RAM, 32 GB or 64 GB of solid state storage.
• 8.1-inch 1280 x 800 LED display.
• 802.11 b/g/n wireless and Bluetooth 4.0 networking.
• Front- and rear facing 2 megapixel web cameras.
• Micro-SD (with support for up to 32 GB cards).
• One micro-HDMI port and 
• One micro-USB port. 

Notably, there is no full-sized USB port.

Keyboard
Acer Iconia W3 can be coupled with a full-sized keyboard base that looks like it was ripped out of an Ultrabook. This keyboard is wider than the W3, so the tablet sits on it in a kind of groove and connects via Bluetooth.
Unfortunately, the keyboard doesn’t have a wrist rest area or a trackpad/pointer of any kind.

Battery
The W3  gives 8 hours of battery life.

Price

• The 32 GB version of the W3 will cost $380 (Rs 21465.44) in the US
• The 64 GB version will hit at about $430 (Rs 24217.60) 
• The keyboard dock will cost $80 (Rs 4505.60) 
• A case will cost $35 (Rs 1694.64 )

Acer Aspire S7 and Aspire V3

Acer also showed off the second-generation follow-up to the award winning Acer Aspire S7  keeping all of the best design elements from the first.

The new models gain several new features as well, like a 

• Acer's dual-torque hinge,
•  Gorilla Glass covered lid,
• Retina-like high-resolution display
•  new dual-fan cooling system that runs nearly silent, 
• a keyboard with 30 percent more key travel
• a larger battery that boosts battery life by a third without changing the bulk-free super-slim design.

The updated Acer Aspire S7 will begin selling this fall, but no specifics were given for pricing or evaluation.

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