Review Acer Iconia TAB W500 (Part One, Iron)

Somewhere from the beginning of this year, I became interested in buying a tablet.
Requests are standard: Screen 10 ", watch battery for 6, price up to 20
000 rub . Requests are non-standard: Windows 7 on board, 2xUSB, external keyboard.


The choice fell on Acer Iconia TAB W500.

Box.

Box dimensions: 37.5x24.5x9.5 cm.
Weight: about 2 kg. The unpacking process is tedious, there are 3 cardboard “layers” in the box, but the equipment is immodest. The kit includes the tablet itself, a docking station (keyboard), an adapter with a nozzle, recovery discs with Windows 7 HP, a quick guide, a second quick guide, two warranty books (not pictured). The tablet and dock are initially wrapped in soft white fabric.

The tablet.

About the case and material.
Plastic is everywhere plastic. Because of the different colors, it’s immediately obvious that the tablet is “blinded” from 2 parts: front and back. The back wall is smooth, not very slippery (at 80 ^o glides, fact). The tablet is convenient. If I may say so, the tablet case is “warm”, there is no “cold” metal.
During bending and compression, the tablet did not creak even once - it suffered. Cogs not found.

I will be consistent - the review is conducted from top to bottom, from left to right. Front side.



In the upper part, two holes (a microphone) are noticeable, a hole for a latch above the camera (for fixing with a docking station) and the front 1.3 MP camera itself. The camera shoots well (expected the worst). The supported resolutions are 320x240, 640x480, 1280x720, 1280x800. The last two modes are needed, IMHO, only for photos, because the camera starts to slow down.
The screen is glossy, you can see yourself well, fingerprints are also good. Screen size 10 inches, resolution up to and including 1280x800px. The indentation on the left and right to the touch part of the screen is 2.8 cm, my thumbs (in the sense of the first fingers) calmly fit. To the right of the screen is a sticker on the properties, on the screen itself is a protective film. I recommend not to remove the film. Out of habit, I already had small scratches (either on the screen or on the film, but it’s insulting).

Despite the glossiness of the screen, the viewing angle is very good (screen brightness == 0). When used to proc eed brightness it is still better to be seen.


Comparison of the brightness of the screen (in the second photo, the camera could not cope with the light and lit up white): The screen is capacitive, so it’s possible to wield only with your fingers (well, or with a special pen, I probably don’t have one). There were funny cases when I just brought my finger to the screen, and the button was already pressed, although there was no touch as such. You just need to get used to it. Below the screen on the left is the Start button. It performs 4 functions: calling the start menu, waking up from sleep, together with the power button it makes the system Ctrl + Alt + Del; when restoring Windows after an emergency shutdown, it plays the role of the “Enter” button (when we select safe mode or normal).




During operation, the button lights up in blue; in sleep mode, it blinks orange. Blue is annoying only when the room is dark.
Slightly lower on the corners of the front side are barely noticeable 2 kruglyasha-magnets (maybe there are screws under them, I don’t know). With them (magnets), the tablet is perfectly attached to the docking station (plus a latch above the camera for greater safety). I put the tablet on the docking station, the magnets clicked and carried like a netbook - convenient! Left side. In order: Headphone jack 3.5. No comments. Charge indicator. Lights up in orange when recharging, blue when charging is complete. Blinks orange when battery is low.





Power button. Also, a single press drives the tablet to sleep. To turn off, you need to keep about 5 seconds. Regarding the case, the button is flat, it will not accidentally be pressed.
Further rocking sound. They also serve as up / down arrows when restoring Windows (safe / unsafe mode). To the right of the fan hole. The fan itself is quiet, "soft", does not vibrate. But warm air still blows in the palm of your hand when you hold the tablet with both hands. The last two connectors are for an SD card and an HDMI connector. The door for SD opens easily, but is inserted back with some grunt. It’s just small and uncomfortable with thumbs. On the other side of this door is the serial number and id of the tablet. HDMI, to be honest, did not test - there is nothing. Bottom end.









The leftmost connector is USB 2.0. Strange location. It would be much more convenient to place it on top of the right side (or on the top end), but I'm not the manufacturer. Next, a latch to block the rotation of the screen. The rotation itself is a bit strange: the screen goes blank for a second, then everything appears. Apparently this is a feature of Windows 7.
In the center are 3 holes for connecting the tablet to the dock. Extreme holes serve for plugs (for greater stability). In the center - the same USB 2.0 (here the place is at least justified, unlike the leftmost connector). The distance between the extreme holes (for the plugs) is ~ 4.5 cm. The
USB flash drive inserted into the USB connector is difficult, compared to a laptop (or the port is loosened here). Right end. The right side.






There is only a power connector. There’s nothing more to look at.

Top end.
Also nothing interesting - one vent. Backside. At the top in the center is another 1.3 camera. Around the eye is a barely noticeable border. The camera touches the table. Therefore, I'm afraid the plastic in front of the camera will still be scratched. Below is the Dolby Digital speaker. Despite the fact that it is below, the sound is heard well. To the left of the speaker, there will probably be a 3G modem (for the W501 tablet). It seems that somewhere on Habré someone already shoved a 3G modem into their netbook. I think here is also real (if necessary).

Dock station.

The joy of the tablet would not be complete if not for the docking station. It looks like a regular keyboard. The buttons are located far enough from each other - you can’t accidentally press the wrong button. The docking station is brought into a “combat” position by simply tipping the horizontal door “away”. Two fasteners (pins) are visible at the edges and a USB port in the center. I'm afraid the Acer A500 will not crawl into this docking station. Yes, and I did not see that it was sold separately (maybe I was looking badly). The mouse is replaced by a joystick located between the letters “P”, “P”, “I”. The mouse buttons are located below, right at the end. It’s unusual, but after a day or two you completely get hold of this mouse. Although it says a person who has long been using the touchpad.



Funny: Instead of double-clicking the mouse, I got into the habit of poking a finger at the screen. When I moved back to the computer several times I poked it on the screen and stupid, well, it doesn’t press :) The left side. There are a USB connector and a LAN connector. You can plug in a USB mouse and get a full computer / netbook. Other parties. There is one USB port on the right side. At the bottom there is only a latch for fixing the tablet. Thus, there are two USB ports anyway. Either when the tablet is outside the dock (bottom), or when with it (on the sides of the dock). More photos:

Specifications.

Processor: AMD Dual-Core C-50 Ontario, 1000 MHz, 2 cores, 1 MB cache.
RAM: 2048 MB DDR3, 1066 MHz (1 bracket, only 2 slots, i.e. 1 free). Apparently up to 4 GB of memory is supported.
Hard drive: 32 GB SSD (but 13 GB is occupied by Windows + 100MB hidden partition). Unfortunately, I can not say anything about the replacement.
Screen: 10.1, 1280x800, Multi-Touch (understands up to 4 touches at once), LED, Glare (glossy).
Video card: ATI HD6250, 256 MB.
Audio: Dolby Advanced Audio, built-in speakers, microphone.
Wireless Communications: Wi-Fi (802.11b \ g \ n network formats), Bluetooth 3.0 + HS.
I / O Ports:HDMI, USB (2 pcs.), Line out (1 pcs.), Dock connector (uh, 1 pc, 3 holes), RJ45 (LAN) (in the docking station).
Camera: rear: 1.3 megapixels, front: 1.3 megapixels.
Battery: Li-Ion, 3260 mAh.
Work without recharging: up to 6.0 hours (for me, from 4 to 8 hours, in sleep mode up to two days).
Expansion Slots: Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard.
Operating system: Win 7 HP 32 / Win 7 Pro 32.
Dimensions: Width: 275 mm, Depth: 190 mm, Thickness: 15.9 mm.
Weight: 0.6 kg (tablet itself), 0.97 kg (with dock).
Color: The tablet is black in front, gray in the back, the docking station is gray above and black below.

More details (what Speccy shows):

Performance.

Subjectively:
OS boots up ~ 45 seconds. To me - tolerant. This is with a standard power plan without connecting to a network. In a high-performance plan, I did not test the power supply.
After downloading, everything works smartly, the pictures look, the video is seen. I am satisfied :)

According to Windows 7:
When you first turn on without additional settings: 1.0 (video card, Aero).
After picking at ATI CC and rechecking: 2.7 (processor), and the Aero video card showed 3.8.

Price.

The tablet can be purchased separately at a price of 16200r.
With a docking station from 19900r. .
It all depends on the store and the operating system.
What is indicated here is the minimum of what I found.

Thanks for attention!
The next part is about software (after 1.07.2011).

ps I really look forward to constructive criticism - after all, the first post.
pps About spelling errors write in private.