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Acer Iconia W510 review: Wide-screen tablet with a clever dock |
January 17, 2013
Acer's Iconia W510 is a 16:9, widescreen Windows 8 tablet with a nicely-designed keyboard dock. When sidled down and locked into said dock, the W5 appears and functions as a small, netbook-sized laptop. Alas, the W5 dock is a pricey option--the $750 W510-1422 and $800 W510P-1406 configurations that include it are $200 more than the otherwise identical dock-less models.
Widescreen tablet
The 16:9 aspect ratio of the Iconia W510's 10.1-inch, 1366 by 768 display is mirrored by the unit's 10.2-inch by 7.3-inch form --a form quite common in the Windows 8 tablet realm. The wide aspect is both good and bad news; While 16:9 is perfect for movies, it's considerably less so when held in portrait orientation to read books or surf the Web--one of the major reasons that 4:3 aspect units have ruled the marketplace. But if video is your focus, the W5's widescreen can be appealing.
Feature-wise, the Iconia W510 is largely your standard Windows tablet. Features include micro-USB and micro-HDMI ports, an SDHC card reader, a headset jack, plus a 5MP rear-facing camera and a 1.3MP display-side Webcam. There are a Windows button to facilitate alternating between the Windows 8 Metro and classic Windows interfaces, and a rotation lock to fix the image in portrait or landscape mode. Wi-Fi is 802.11 a/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 are both on hand for top-notch wireless connectivity.
Ho-hum looks
As conceived and realized as the W510's dock is mechanically, Acer could have done better with its appearance. The W510 looks nice enough on its own, but when combined with the docking station, the two shades of white (dock keys/tablet bezel), black, and silver color scheme give the unit as a whole a vaguely cheap feel. Neither part is cheaply made, but visual impressions can be hard to shake.
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Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2025290/acer-iconia-w510-review-wide-screen-tablet-with-a-clever-dock.html
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