Hands-on with the Acer Iconia W3

Acer has just unveiled the world’s first 8-inch Windows 8 tablet at the ongoing Computex event and we got to take a close look at the tablet. They key feature of the tablet is that it runs on full Windows 8, rather than Windows RT. This means that the tablet can run Windows 8’s Modern UI-based apps as well as legacy Windows x86-based applications in desktop mode. Check out our quick hands on video:

The 8.1-inch LED display has a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, which gives it a pixel density of 186 ppi. The tablet is capable of displaying videos at 720p resolutions just fine. It is equipped with two cameras – both being 2 megapixel shooters.

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The Iconia W3 has a micro-HDMI port that allows users to connect it to a TV or external display. There is also a micro USB port that allows connection to devices such as phones, MP3 players, USB drives and even a mouse. It comes in two variants—32GB and 64GB capacities. Both variants have microSD card slots with support for cards up to 32GB.

The tablet runs on an Intel Atom chip that is said to be optimised for mobile devices. All of this is kept alive by a battery with a quoted life of 8 hours. The device uses Connected Standby, which helps the battery life by turning the display off while the tablet remains powered on to perform other tasks in the background. Connectivity options on the Iconia W3 includes Wi-Fi.