Acer Iconia W700 review

The Acer Iconia W700 is a 11.6in tablet running Windows 8, but unlike some other tablets the W700 runs the full version of Microsoft’s latest OS rather than the cut-down RT edition. This means you can install any Windows application and control it using the touchscreen; you aren’t limited to using apps downloaded from the Windows store.

The front may be dominated by a touchscreen and a reasonably slim black bezel, but it’s the aluminium frame that catches the eye. The W700 has curved edges, speaker grilles and connection ports that have been machine-cut with precision, giving it a real high-end appearance. It’s sleek, despite being 13mm thick, and it’s comfortable to hold. It weighs just over 900g, but it’s still light enough to use as a tablet.

It has a single USB3 port, along with a 3.5mm headset audio jack and a Micro HDMI port, but there’s no card reader for adding extra storage beyond the internal 64GB solid state disk. If you want to use extra connections you must dock the tablet to its bundled cradle. Disappointingly, the cradle is built entirely out of plastic and has none of the tablet’s premium feel. The stand on the back can be adjusted to change orientation and the dock has three USB3 ports, but it’s a fairly tacky addition considering how good the tablet itself feels.

The bundled plastic Bluetooth keyboard is little better. The keys are Chiclet-style and have very limited travel, although they spring back into place quickly. We would’ve preferred a combined keyboard dock, such as those produced by Asus and Dell rather than have a separate keyboard.

It’s a shame, as the W700 is otherwise a great Windows 8 tablet. The 1,920×1,080-resolution display is ideally suited to watching Full HD video or editing high-resolution photos, and you’ll be able to use powerful photo-editing applications because it runs Windows 8.

The W700’s low-voltage Core i3 processor might be a Sandy Bridge model from 2011, but it still completed our multimedia benchmarks with an overall score of 24. The dual-core i3-2365M runs at 1.4GHz, supports Hyper-Threading and is paired with 4GB of RAM, so even though it was never going to compare well to the desktop-class Ivy Bridge chip used in our reference PC, it can still handle everyday tasks such as web browsing and word processing.

The i3-2367M uses HD 3000 graphics. As you might expect, this means the W700 isn’t suited to gaming; it failed our Dirt Showdown test with a jerky average frame rate of 12.1fps. You’ll be able to play Flash games and older, less demanding titles, but this tablet’s best suited to multimedia playback.

The W700’s Intel processor requires an internal fan to keep it cool, so you’ll have to live with a small amount of fan noise. The fan noise was never deafening, but it became noticeable when putting the system through anything remotely strenuous.

However, one thing you shouldn’t have to worry about is a lack of battery life. The W700 managed an incredible 10 hours and 20 minutes in our light-use battery test, putting it on par with many Android-based tablets. As long as you’re just typing or surfing the web, it should last an entire working day with the screen’s brightness set to 50 per cent.

In everyday use, we were impressed by the W700’s high-resolution display. It isn’t the brightest around, but the IPS panel has superb viewing angles and produces vivid colours. The screen’s glossy finish helped produce the stunning visuals, but it also created unwanted light reflections. It responded reasonably well to touch controls, with a small amount of flex in the glass and the occasional hiccup with registration, but we could easily navigate Microsoft’s modern user interface.

Unfortunately, the traditional desktop was a different matter. It’s incredibly fiddly to use at 1,920×1,080 and still not suited to a touchscreen, despite Microsoft’s Windows 8 improvements. Menus are troublesome and it can be very difficult to select icons in the default Folder view. It would be much better if Acer had raised the default scaling to 125 or even 150 per cent, or bundled a stylus with the tablet to make it just a little easier to use.

Until now, we’ve had a hard time seeing the point of putting Windows on a tablet, but the Iconia W700 is one of the first to do it well. Its full desktop version of Windows 8 makes it much more useful than Microsoft’s own surface when it comes to installing your own applications. The HD screen is a step above the similarly priced competition, and although we were unimpressed by its bundled keyboard and cradle, they don’t detract from the tablet itself. If you’re looking for Windows in a tablet and don’t mind having to carry a separate keyboard, the Iconia W700 is a good choice.