Acer Iconia W501 3G - Review

Written by: Lloyd Gallagher LLB.
Date: 10 July 2011

The new Acer Iconia W501 hit the market in New Zealand last month and retailers have been slow to take up its sleek offerings. We suggest that this is a mistake. At a recommended retail price under $1000 NZ Dollars this hybrid tablet has a lot to offer. We purchased one earlier this week and ran it through its paces to provide you with the pros and cons of this new technology.

To begin the New Zealand version comes in both Wifi only and Wifi/3G. We obtained the 3G model to provide you with the best test results. The unit comes straight out of the box with the tablet face and docking keyboard both sporting a sleek black look that dazzles the eye. At first look the unit has two cameras, one front facing and one rear, to allow for full video conferencing through Skype or other communications software.

Stock standard the unit comes with 32GB of memory on an SSD drive. However, it also has a memory slot for an SD card that can give you additional drive space of upto 32GB at 2mb/s transfer speeds. Sorry the new 64GB chips will not work in this unit as yet. It comes pre-packed with Windows 7 32bit Home Premium (can run 64 bit) and other packages which takes up approximately 20-29GB of your available space. This is why we recommend the additional 32GB SD card so you can store your documents and work without reducing your main drive.

It is noted that some of the pre-packaged software may be un-required so first of you should remove that which you will not use. This will help reduce the drive usage and increase performance from unwanted software loading in the background. While we applaud Acers inclusion of this software it would be nice to have some of it set to install on first use. Acer have, however, seen fit to include McAfee Anti Virus with the unit so if you do not have virus protection you can be assured of coverage.

Specs

Processor and memory
The unit sports an AMD C-50 dual core processor running at 1Ghz with DDR3 memory of 2Gb (NZ Standard). The video controller is an ATI Radeon HD6250 Graphics chip that shares memory from the main DDR3. It has an external HDMI port that allows you connect straight into a TV hassle free but does not come with the cable so make sure you purchase this before leaving the store if you wish to use it.

Display
The display consists of a 10.1 inch WXGA LCM running at 1280x800 maximum resolution. Its screen responsiveness to touch is comparable to any apple ipad or iphone that I have used.

Webcams
The webcams (front and rear) run at 640x480 resolution for video calls. This makes it perfect for Skype and has tested well under use.

Microphones
The unit sports dual mics to increase performance and noise reduction. In use they perform well and allow the use to wander around freely without the need of a headset. However, the sound comes across a little tinny to the receiver so we recommend the use of a bluetooth headset or wired headset for better quality. In saying this, however, conversations where readily understood and, despite the reduced quality, posed no problems.

An additional note, however, when using wireless users may experience clicking and popping sounds in the background. To minimize this (it will never disappear 100% due to the wireless framework) go to the sound options in control panel, then recording tab, properties of the microphone, then click the levels tab and turn the microphone boost to 0. This will reduce the popping to a mild background noise. The issue is only present on wireless connections so Ethernet is the best way to go when you have it.

Connectivity
The 3G bluetooth and Wifi connections are easily turned on and off through the Acer Ring. The unit supports a Huawei EM770W 3G module that supports GSM/GPRS/EDGE/HDSPA and UMTS/WCDMA so most countries are covered. The bluetooth module is v3.0 and includes EDR. Wifi is IEEE802.11 b/g/n standard and the docking keyboard also has a cabled fast ethernet port for those that want it. And while we tested it, we found that the wifi provided just as clear use for Skype and video playback.

Dimensions
The unit is 275 (width)x190 (height) x15.95 (thickness,) the thickness being needed as it ports that HDMI and two USB ports. Its weight is 970g for the hand unit and an addition 670g for the dock. The main unit is comparable in weight to an 800 page book making it comfortable to carry.

Heat
The unit has a cooling vent on its top (or right side if you have it in portrait) which the user is able to feel warm air flow from. This, however, creates no concern as it is usually away from the hand. Left handers, however, may need to watch their hand placement as covering the vent is not a good idea.

Usability
We found the unit to be extremely user friendly with its touch. However, Microsoft still have not quite got touch screens designed well in windows seven as the resizing of windows takes some practice. This, however, does not take away from the fun of using the device. The touch screen sports multi touch so zooming in and out is a breeze.

As the unit is windows 7 we have been able to use all our favourite software without hassle, noting, however, that it is a small processor so using high ended programs such as Adobe Premier is not practical.

Overall
Overall we found the unit to provide a great supplement to your main computer without the need for a full laptop. This suit seems well suited to students and business people to run their office on the go. It supports full office applications from Microsoft or open office and there is enough space to keep things moving well. We tested office 2007 and found it took only an additional 1Gb of memory leaving plenty of space.

The device, in our opinion, is a rival to the Apple device and beats it when you need proper Office editability and compatibility. We were able to connect to any of our network drives and use one note with ease for office sharing.

Our rating for the device is 9/10 based on its design and functionality for personal and office use.

The unit is now available from our store having passed our 100% guarantee test.