What is the difference between the Acer Iconia Tab

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After the official announcement of the Windows 8 operating system and its ARM version of Windows RT, we managed to introduce you to a 10-inch tablet ASUS VivoTab RT (TF600T) on a quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 chip and with a larger 11.6-inch model Samsung ATIV Smart PC 500T, Built on Intel CloverTrail Platform. Today we’ll talk about another new Windows tablet with energy-efficient Intel Atom Z2760 inside. a 10-inch model Acer Iconia Tab W510.

The tablet

Acer Iconia Tab W510 differs in a rather interesting design, designers showed ingenuity not only in the design of the “back”, but managed to revive the front panel, which is a noticeably more non-trivial task.

The back panel with a shape slightly rounded to the edges is made of smooth non-marking plastic “for metal”. Silver material looks good, but judging by a couple of noticeable scratches on the test sample, it requires a fairly accurate attitude. In addition to the manufacturer’s logo and the “Intel Atom Inside” sticker, the rear panel has a lens of the main 8 megapixel camera with flash and the antenna’s built-in NFC-module is marked with a characteristic logo.

Sidewalls at Acer Iconia Tab W510 two-tone, as they are “assembled” from the white fringing of the front panel and part of the silver back cover. A screen on / lock button with an LED charge indicator, a position sensor disabling slider and a 3.5 mm combined audio port are placed on the upper edge. On the bottom there are two holes for fixing the docking station and a proprietary port for charging the battery and transmitting data. The left sidewall is almost empty, only one of the two speakers is located here, but on the right, in addition to the second speaker, there are: a volume rocker, a micro-HDMI port, a micro-USB connector for connecting peripherals and a microSD card slot. There are no openings for active air exchange, since the tablet is equipped with a passive cooling system.

Dock station

To the Ukrainian market model Acer Iconia Tab W510 It will be delivered only complete with a docking station, “mono configurations” of the tablet exist, but they will not be officially delivered to the local market. Unfortunately, such a tablet fell into our hands, so we were only able to evaluate the docking station in absentia. The docking station is made in the format of the bottom of the laptop case, that is, it is equipped with a hardware keyboard, touchpad and additional ports and, when assembled, turns the tablet into a netbook. Note that its internal space is used wisely, it contains exactly the same battery as in the tablet itself. a two-section lithium-polymer unit at 27 Wh (3540 mAh; 3.7 V). At the same time, the weight of a 10-inch tablet Acer Iconia Tab W510 is 580 grams, the docking station weighs 100 grams more, so the total weight of the kit will be 1260 grams.

Judging by the photo, the docking station turned out to be no less “designer” than the tablet itself. The hinge-lock is made of textured plastic, a pair of protrusions are placed at the far edges of the working panel, one of which integrates a full-sized USB port. The second and last connector on the docking station is a proprietary port, with which you can not only charge the batteries, but also use proprietary adapters for standard ports. The docking station has another interesting feature. its hinge turns into an unnatural position for an ordinary laptop, as a result, the keyboard dock turns into a multimedia dock. The keyboard in this case is facing the table, and the emphasis for the front is the protrusions along the edges of the working panel.

Functionality

The tablet Acer Iconia Tab W510 runs on a 32-bit version of Windows 8, respectively, supports all the familiar x86 platform applications. The model is based on the economical Intel Atom Z2760 processor (1 MB L2 cache, 1.5-1.8 GHz, TDP 6.5 W) with integrated Intel GMA 3650 graphics (PowerVR SGX 545). The RAM capacity is 2 GB (LPDDR2 800 MHz), the data storage capacity is 64 GB (embedded MMC format), of which 46.6 GB are available to the user.

In this configuration, the tablet scored almost 1400 points in PCMark 7 and 3.2 points in the Windows performance index. From a built-in battery with a capacity of 27 Wh, the tablet worked for 5 hours in maximum load mode and 9 hours 40 minutes in read emulation mode. By connecting a docking station with a second battery of 27 Wh, you can double the battery life of this hybrid solution, that is, get 10 hours of stock at maximum load and about 19 hours in read mode.

The tablet Acer Iconia Tab W510 equipped with high-quality IPS-matrix with good color reproduction and excellent viewing angles. With a diagonal of 10.1 inches and an aspect ratio of 16: 9, the matrix has a resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels that is familiar to Windows systems, so the final picture in desktop mode is quite small. The brightness of the backlight is adjustable from 15 to 270 cd / m2, an automatic adjustment system is also available. Capacitive layer provides touch capabilities, supporting up to 5 simultaneous touches.

In addition to the Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth 4.0 modules familiar to laptops, the W510 is equipped with an NFC module, a gyroscope, an accelerometer, an electronic compass and an ambient light sensor. 3G version of the tablet with a designation Acer Iconia Tab W511 in addition to a cellular modem, it is also equipped with a GPS hardware module.

Exploitation

During operation Acer Iconia Tab W510 a very pleasant impression was made by the nice design and the relatively light weight of the tablet. A complete docking station looks good, but we can only draw final conclusions on it after an in-person meeting. Naturally, I was very pleased with the ability to install the usual set of applications and excellent autonomy in office mode. Despite the passive cooling system and x86 processor architecture, under load, the back of the tablet heats up no more than the bottom of a typical laptop.

On the negative side, we can note an excessively small image in desktop mode, which is not always amenable to optimization by system methods. As a result, you can easily work with the applications adapted for the Modern UI interface in the familiar touch mode, but when switching to the classic desktop, you should immediately connect the docking station, since it’s very difficult to get into the tiny interface elements with your fingertip.

Using a proprietary connector is far from the most successful, although rather common, move by tablet manufacturers. In this case, this port is used only for connecting to a charger and a docking station, there is apparently no data cable in a similar format, and full-sized USB and HDMI ports are obtained using adapters with micro-USB and micro-HDMI. The second option to use the USB port is to connect to the dock.

In the review you can clearly see the “thoughtfulness” of the system Acer Iconia Tab W510 during normal office use, however, as our experience shows, this is not quite typical behavior for atomic Windows tablets of a new wave. Several other devices based on the absolutely same Intel CloverTrail reference platform (Atom Z2760, 2 GB RAM, 64 GB eMMC) worked much faster, so the problem most likely lies in the considerable number of applications preinstalled by the manufacturer (and working in the background). As a result, after buying a tablet, you will have to independently remove a number of unnecessary applications that do not fall within the definition of vital ones.

review of the Acer Iconia Tab W510 tablet. Summary

Eventually, Acer Iconia Tab W510. Representative of the first wave of Windows-based tablets on the Intel Atom CloverTrail platform, which boasts a high-quality 10-inch IPS-screen, support for familiar x86 applications, good battery life, passive cooling system and a complete docking station. As you can see, the characteristics of the tablet are standard for its class, the design is very interesting, but as usual, everything depends on the price of the product. The tablet will appear on the Ukrainian market only next year, its recommended cost has not yet been determined completely, so that while we can build on the price tag in the US market, where Acer Iconia Tab W510 It costs 600 as standard and about 700-750 complete with a docking station.

To put it mildly, as for a netbook with a touch screen and the possibility of transformation (and, in fact, it is just worth positioning “atomic” tablets on Windows 8) the price is not very small, so first of all, you can recommend this product for purchase to enthusiasts who seek one of the first to try out a new hardware and software platform. The target group of consumers of this product can also include professionals who need a compact touch solution with support for x86 applications and decent autonomy (for example, to work on trips) but do not want to overpay for more productive solutions based on cost-effective Intel Core processors iX.

Liked
nice design and light weight tablet
keyboard dock with optional battery and USB 2.0
micro-USB, micro-HDMI connectors for peripherals
good autonomy
3G version available

Did not like
– lack of a full-sized USB connector on the tablet
– convenience of working with the tablet in the classic “desktop” mode
– “thoughtfulness” of the system in office mode