How does Acer’s budget convertible laptop stack up to the iPad and android lightweights?
Firstly, let’s clarify exactly what this machine is: it is a powerful netbook in the form of a tablet.
My objective is to hopefully find a convertible tablet/laptop as my daily driver. Is this the machine I'm looking for?
As soon as I held this PC in my hand, my palm was tainted with the unmistakable plastic housing with a faux aluminium finish, which is something I'm going to overlook considering this is a budget device in its class (£529 PC world UK). Although the build quality gives a sturdy impression I can't help but feel that the plastic housing could crack under a fair amount of pressure. This is true of any tablet made of plastic because of their large surface area - so this isn't anything out of the norm.
My objective is to hopefully find a convertible tablet/laptop as my daily driver. Is this the machine I'm looking for?
As soon as I held this PC in my hand, my palm was tainted with the unmistakable plastic housing with a faux aluminium finish, which is something I'm going to overlook considering this is a budget device in its class (£529 PC world UK). Although the build quality gives a sturdy impression I can't help but feel that the plastic housing could crack under a fair amount of pressure. This is true of any tablet made of plastic because of their large surface area - so this isn't anything out of the norm.
W510 Hands on Gallery |
Specifications
Having only an Intel atom processor and average sound quality, you wouldn't be using this for heavy duty multimedia purposes e.g film editing. Although it is powered by an atom processor, it is of the 32-bit flavour, which means that all the applications that you could run on your PC can run on here such as Photoshop and Microsoft Office with a slight compromise of speed. | "It’s a powerful netbook in the form of a tablet." |
2GB of RAM proves to be more than sufficient for powering the very efficient Windows 8 OS especially the metro style apps (Apps downloaded from the Windows Store), but as soon as I run an application in the desktop I start to experience its limiting effects. The lackluster performance in the desktop applications excludes Microsoft Office and pre-installed Windows 8 software, such as file explorer, which I found to perform almost flawlessly.
Display
The front of the device sports a 16:9 aspect ratio (very wide) 10.1" display, which may seem odd at first, but it does have its advantages. In landscape mode it is more suited to watching videos and films without the black strips along the top and bottom. In portrait, however, it becomes ideal for reading while holding the device in one hand. As oppose to this, the iPad: with its 4:3 aspect ratio, has no major advantages to changing its orientation.
It appears that the tablet is rear heavy; which means that if you were to drop it there would be less of a chance of dropping it glass first (not that I had tried). The screen is an IPS (In-Plane Switching technology) display which provides good viewing angles. The resolution being 1366 x 768, provides for a modest pixel density of 155 ppi (pixels per inch) - which is more than sufficient for regular reading without strain on the eye. However, I did noticed that the text became fuzzier when I looked a little closer...
It appears that the tablet is rear heavy; which means that if you were to drop it there would be less of a chance of dropping it glass first (not that I had tried). The screen is an IPS (In-Plane Switching technology) display which provides good viewing angles. The resolution being 1366 x 768, provides for a modest pixel density of 155 ppi (pixels per inch) - which is more than sufficient for regular reading without strain on the eye. However, I did noticed that the text became fuzzier when I looked a little closer...
Externals
On the outside, there aren't many ports. Along the top is the power/lock button, followed by the auto rotate switch. This is great considering Windows 8 has a long winded method to lock the rotation and a standard 3.5mm headphone/speaker jack.
The left side bears the Iconia branding and the left speaker. Notably, this follows the smartphone trend of placing all the buttons on one side and the other bare to save confusion. I also notice that from naturally holding the tablet, my hands had muffled the speakers - which made the speakers much quieter.
On the right side there's the right speaker; micro SD card slot; micro USB; micro HDMI; volume rocker and; a microphone. The lack of a full sized USB is redeemed with a micro-USB to female USB adapter that Acer has kindly included. This would mean that you'd have to carry the adapter with you if you don't carry the keyboard (which has a full sized USB port).
It was so quiet that I almost forgot to mention whether it makes any noise at all. | To my surprise there was not one vent or any form of cooling system which is a bonus as you don't have to worry about where not to place you hand when holding it in tablet mode. Because there isn't the need for fans; It was so quiet that I almost forgot to mention whether it makes any noise at all. |
Those who are used to typing on larger, spacious keyboards may find the W510’s keyboard slightly (very) cramped. The size of the keyboard is constrained by the footprint of the tablet. Unfortunately, this means that the track pad is also small thus making the palm rest area ridiculously minuscule as a result. Reminder: this is a budget device for its class. So there are going to be a few shortcomings in quality. It is fairly obvious to see that the symbols on the keys are “stuck on” like stickers. With its slim profile it was always going to be the case that there wasn't going to be a back-lit keyboard, as expected.
When connected to the tablet, it essentially becomes a laptop. However, using it on your lap is uncomfortable to say the least. This is due to the odd weight distribution when docked with the keyboard. While the tablet houses all the necessary internals, the keyboard holds only the battery making the laptop top-heavy causing it to lean backward easily, thus, making it prone to falling. It would be best used on a table top or other level surfaces. I particularly like that the display can be rotated to make the keyboard a prop to hold up the tablet on a surface. However, the screen becomes less adjustable in this phase.
There is an alternate input method; the on screen keyboard, where the only drawback is that it takes up a considerable amount of real estate on the already small display.
Speaker
The speakers are placed on both sides on the lower half of the tablet as oppose to being on the keyboard as well. Notably, this is a clever placement method because your hands cup around the speakers to direct the sound toward you while holding the tablet naturally. This is an alternative to them being on the display panel causing the device to lose its beautifully apparent, undisturbed, sleek surface. It is on the loud side which is great for showing content in noisy conditions but, unfortunately, falls short in quality.
Camera
The 8.0 MP rear camera produces fairly decent quality pictures for a tablet in the correct conditions. This can be said for any tablet/phone camera but the W510 suffers in average indoor lighting conditions by producing a lots of noise in images. The noise is easily corrected by turning on the flash which helps produce vivid colours with an accurate level of saturation from usual distances. However, the issue with using flash in close up shots is the unrealistic, super-high levels of saturation.
The Good...
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Conclusion
The convenience of a tablet and laptop in one machine has the potential to replace your current PC. However; this isn't the one. With my time using the device I noticed several performance issues especially in desktop mode. Even in the Windows 8 touch screen interface there were lags and glitches which caused quite a fair bit of frustration. I found that casual usage like web browsing, music, casual games performed like a charm. While this tablet is a brilliant work tool with the ability to run applications like Microsoft Office and packs an insane amount battery life; I wouldn't recommend this tablet for heavy usage that involves games and high-res video playback because it simply doesn't provide for a fluid experience.