Acer ICONIA W500 review

Intro

Tablet or netbook? That's the first question to pop up when you see the Acer ICONIA W500. When you are dealing with a tablet that runs on Windows 7 and can be docked into a keyboard that also acts as a cover ensuring netbook like utility, there is bound to be some confusion in relation to category. Until the arrival of Windows 8, which will be more tablet specific, we will have to make do with the Windows 7 tablets trying to take a bite out of Apple's share.

Packaging and Contents

The 10.1-inch tablet comes in a briefcase style box with charger and manuals. The keyboard dock will be offered with the device as a launch offer only, after which it has to be purchased separately.


First Impression

In one word - heavy! The device is no lightweight, even without the keyboard dock. It looks bulky and feels uncomfortable in one's hands. However, overall, the build quality is good and it has a brushed aluminum finish.

Performance

The device works best as a netbook but it's not an ideal option. If you work on power point presentations, word docs and spread sheets, then the Windows experience is what will suit you best.

The response of the touchscreen is good when it comes to scrolling but icons such as minimize, close, maximize and the small icons on online video players of various websites are too small to touch accurately in the first instance.

You are most likely to lock the screen orientation in the landscape view and leave it there, because the interface tends to get tedious in portrait mode. Even typing is a chore. And if you decide to dock the device, the hinge will not allow you to move the screen to an angle of your choice.  Trying to close the tablet as a normal netbook with the dock is a learning experience in itself. You have to unhinge the device, sandwich the screen and the keyboard, lock the hook and then the device is closed. You actually have instructions on the keyboard dock telling you how to do it. If a physical keyboard is something you aspire to then a nice 10-inch netbook may prove to be a better option in terms of utility and user satisfaction.

Connectivity-wise, the keyboard dock has an Ethernet port on the left and one USB 2.0 port on either side. The dock is connected to the tablet via a USB port and two supporting grooves. The tablet itself has an HDMI out, SD card reader; volume rocker, power switch and headphones jack to the left and only the charging port to the right.

The bottom of the device has two USB 2.0 ports and the screen rotation lock. The dock uses one of these USB ports.

The keyboard is standard chicklet and quite comfortable to use once you get used to it. For its size, the keys are well spaced out.

A pointing stick rests between the G, H and B keys. Using it reminds you of how awesome a trackpad is because the pointing stick is quite disappointing. The left and right clicks feel very cheap as well.

The battery life of the device too is under par. With tablets offering up to 10 hours of battery life, the W500 will last you for two and a half hours if pushed to its limits and for a little over four hours if used conservatively.

Multimedia

The biggest advantage of owning a tablet is the multimedia performance it delivers to users on the move. The multimedia experience on Acer W500 was nothing short of frustrating.

Watching movies and listening to music is troublesome on the device as the touch experience of Windows 7 on a tablet doesn't work very well. The 1280x800 resolution is great for 720p videos but it's a struggle to get them to play properly. HD videos lagged very badly on the device. The .avi standard definition files ran pretty smoothly. Controls such as play, pause, volume feel comfortable when videos are watched through the Acer ring video app. Play the video in VLC and your experience touches a new low.

Browsing the Internet is a mixed bag. Even if the device is docked, you will still use the touchscreen more than the pointing stick, as the retro pointing stick is too cumbersome to use. The physical left and right clicks are too thin and inconveniently placed.

The Acer Ring makes an appearance on the W500. This feature is not as impressive as on the Acer dual screen laptop. Touch the screen with 5 fingers to launch the ring. You have the social jogger app, which integrates your social networking feeds and YouTube under one roof. The appearance is a lot like Tweet deck.

The TouchBrowser app is a web-browsing app. Like a Windows PC, it has full flash support but the tardy touch interface gets in the way yet again. There is a snipping tool, which essentially lets you click specific screen shots. It's like a simplified version of print screen.

There are games available on the games tab in the Acer ring. Most of the games come at a price but you do have the option to try them, more like a demo.

Verdict:
For the price point of Rs. 33,499, you're better off buying an iPad 2 or an Android based tablet or even a decent netbook.

Pros:
Keyboard dock is a savior from the touchscreen typing experience
  
Cons:
Everything else


Price: Rs. 33,499


RATINGS:
Performance: 2
Price: 2
Ease of setup: 3
Ergonomics: 2
Wow Factor: 1
Overall: 2

Specifications
Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit OS
AMD C-50 Processor 1 GHz processor
10-inch Display with a resolution of 1280x800
2GB RAM
Wi-Fi
Bluetooth
1.3MP front and rear facing cameras
32GB Storage
 
Benchmark Scores:
PC mark Vantage scores:
PC Mark: 1834
Memories Score: 1306
TV and movies score: 881
Gaming Score: 2120
Music Score: 2388
Communication Score: 1589
ProductivityScore: 2194
HDD score: 6212

Battery mark:
By test results: 2 hours 25 minutes and 17 seconds
Forecast Windows: 4 hours 1 minute and 17 sec