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Over the past few weeks, I have got familiarised with Windows 8, and after initial hiccups of getting used to the operating system, it is relatively easy to use. With much anticipation, I was looking forward to Acer's first Windows 8 tablet, the Iconia W3. It didn't take much time for the excitement to turn into disappointment.
For starters, the Iconia W3 is a heavy tablet. It weighs 500 grams, and seems a bit difficult to carry around. Compare it with the iPad Mini (312 g), and it is certainly heavy for its size. It's not an attractive tablet either, with a plasticky feel to it. However, after a couple of hours of usage, you get used to the feel. While 12.2 mm sounds thin, it's a bit chunkier than similar-sized tablets.
One thing people look for in a tablet is the display and, quite frankly, the W3 is far from dazzling. In fact, it's pretty average. Despite having a 1200x800 resolution, the display always looks a bit grainy. In the sunlight, it's really difficult to use the W3, so it's strictly an indoor tablet.
With its 1.8-GHz Atom Z2760 CPU and 2 GB of RAM, the Acer Iconia W3 offers decent performance. Web surfing is good enough, watching movies is also a decent experience and Microsoft Office works quite well.
The standout feature of the W3 is the battery life. You can surf the internet, watch videos and the battery performance is far better than many others. More than five hours of constant usage and the battery gets drained by less than 50 per cent, quite impressive. There's a micro-HDMI video output, a micro USB slot, a micro SD card slot, headphone jack and two speakers on the bottom edge. The sound quality is adequate. The W3 comes with the option of plugging a Bluetooth keyboard, you can rest the tablet in a slot on the top of the keyboard. Since the keyboard doesn't come with the tablet, we couldn't try that particular feature. But it does sound like a welcome addition to the W3.
Since the W3 is the first Windows 8 tablet, it is its biggest unique selling proposition. The user interface on a machine of this size is surprisingly very good. The apps work fine, as long as you're used to Windows OS, and the user interface is more than decent. The tablet comes pre-loaded with apps like Bing News, Maps Skydrive and those work absolutely fine.
Is the display good enough for surfing the Web? It's not outstanding, but certainly good enough. The camera, however, does disappoint but that could be also down to the not-so-good over display of the tablet.
The other problem with the W3 is the touch responsiveness. You literally get annoyed tapping the screen multiple times. For the big icons, it works well but for small icons, like closing a tab or widgets, it gets frustrating. The other problem is to get the cursor exactly where you want but again it takes some time to get used to that.
Priced at Rs 30,499, it is not exactly a budget tablet. For its size, weight and display problems, it's certainly not worth the price. However, if you're looking for a change from the iPad and the dozens of Android tablets, this Windows tab is a decent option. There are reports that Acer is in the process of launching an upgraded version of W3 in a few months. We suggest you wait for the upgraded version and see if the problems, especially with the display, are addressed. For the first Windows 8 tablet, we certainly expected better. Maybe the upgraded version will live up to the expectations.
ICONIA W3
Thickness: 0.45 inches
Weight: 500 g
Screen size: 8.1 inches
Operating System: Windows 8
Storage: 32 GB Internal storage
RAM: 2 GB RAM
Pros
Good battery life
Decent user interface
Cons
Extremely heavy
Display not good enough
Poor camera
