World's first 8-inch Windows 8 tablet Acer W3 shows up on official website

Looks like Windows 8 will soon be gracing displays smaller than 10 inches. Earlier this month, Acer’s 8.1-inch tablet running Windows 8 appeared on Amazon, increasing speculation that devices competing with the iPad mini and Nexus 7 will soon be out in various markets.

Of course, that Amazon listing disappeared as soon as it came and then Denis Kutnikov, of Acer Russia said that such a tablet would be announced on June 4th at Computex. However, it looks like Acer could not keep the secret till the event and now the tablet has shown up on the company’s own website as the Acer W3.

Acer W3, the first 8-inch Windows 8 tablet

The Acer W3 features an 8.1-inch WXGA (1280 x 768) display and is powered by an Intel Clover Trail Atom Z2760 processor. In addition to 2GB of RAM, buyers have the option of going for either the 32GB or the 64GB internal storage versions. A 2-megapixel webcam is included for Skype calls and of course, thanks to the x86 architecture of the chip, this tablet will come with Windows 8 Pro pre-installed, rather than Windows RT. The Amazon listing had attached a price tag of $379.99 for the 32GB model of the W3 and if that price is retained, the W3 will be one of the most affordable Windows 8 tablets in the market.

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Interestingly, the picture of the tablet shows it docked into a mid-sized keyboard, but it looks that will require a separate purchase. The docked combination looks slightly awkward due to the disparity in size of the keyboard and tablet.

The W3 is widely expected to be unveiled at next month’s Computex in Taiwan, where we expect many more PC makers to launch their 2013 tablets range.