Acer Iconia W510 review

We’ve been less than enamoured with the recent flurry of Windows RT tablets, but, for less than £500, the Iconia W510 looks to have it all. This 10.1in tablet transforms into a laptop, and, thanks to its Intel Atom processor, has one particularly welcome trick up its sleeve – it runs full Windows 8.

At first glance, you’d have trouble telling it apart from its Windows RT rivals. Acer has squeezed Intel’s Atom into a tablet weighing 566g and measuring a whisker under 9mm thick. And, unlike the Windows RT models, Acer includes a matching docking keyboard as standard. Due to its internal battery, this adds another 686g to the weight. With the Iconia W510 snapped shut in clamshell mode, it measures 23mm thick – about the same as a netbook. Throw the tablet, the docking keyboard and the wall-wart PSU in a bag and the whole package comes in at 1.39kg.

It’s no style icon, though. The white and silver chassis both looks and feels plasticky and has the underwhelming air of a mid-range Android tablet. Granted, it’s well-made, but there is a little flex if you treat it roughly, and the matte plastic body quickly picks up scuffs and scratches. The docking keyboard is also underwhelming: it’s plasticky and creaks audibly if you flex it from side to side.

Functionally, though, it works reasonably well. The tablet slots into the keyboard dock with a muffled thunk, and, although it wobbles back and forth slightly in its moorings, the dock held the tablet securely throughout our testing. In laptop mode, the pairing feels top-heavy: this isn’t a problem on a desk, but on a lap it’s prone to toppling backwards.

Neatly, the hinge folds through 290 degrees, allowing the keyboard base to act as a stand: with the keyboard facing down, it’s possible to use the Acer’s touchscreen while sitting at a desk or using a fold-out table on a train. There’s no problem with accidental key presses, either: fold the keyboard past the 180 degree mark and it is automatically disabled.

Whether in tablet or laptop mode, we’ve few complaints about the Iconia W510. The touchscreen responds reliably to edge-swipes and gestures, and, while the keyboard’s shrunken Right Shift key took a little getting used to, the crisp bounce to the keys and Scrabble-tile layout make it comfortable for long periods of typing. The buttonless touchpad, however, is well below par. It’s either too sensitive or not sensitive enough, and no amount of fiddling with the settings allowed us to get it just so. It’s also far too easy to brush accidentally while typing. Thankfully, there’s a keyboard shortcut to disable it completely.

Thanks to the presence of Intel’s latest Atom technology, Cloverview, the Acer runs a 32-bit installation of full Windows 8. There’s a dual-core 1.8Ghz Atom Z2760 processor accompanied by 2GB of RAM, and 64GB of solid-state storage. Internet Explorer 10 is fluid and responsive, and pages respond instantly to every pinch and flick. Even web-based HD video now plays smoothly, something that was beyond the means of the previous generation of Atom devices; compared with Windows RT devices, it’s blazingly quick, whipping through the SunSpider browser benchmark in 716ms.

Intel’s Atom has emerged much improved, then, but it remains a lightweight in terms of absolute performance. The Acer scored 0.18 in our Real World Benchmarks, and the modest 2GB of RAM and slow CPU saw the multitasking score slump to just 0.12. Run more than a couple of demanding applications side by side, and the Acer slows to a crawl.

There are no such issues with stamina. In our light-use battery test, the tablet alone lasted 11hrs 43mins; with the dock attached, it lasted 21hrs 25mins, the longest we’ve seen from any Windows device ever. We also ran the same video run-down test we use on Android and iOS devices, and here the Iconia W510 lasted 10hrs 22mins; not as good as the third-generation iPad, but better than the fourth.

It’s enough to make the Acer highly appealing as a go-anywhere device. We took it on a long weekend, and, despite using it for video, music, internet browsing and word processing duties everywhere from the sofa to the train, not once did we have to think about reaching for the power supply.

The Acer’s 10.1in, 1,366 x 768 display is a solid all-rounder. Colours aren’t quite as rich and saturated as on the very best tablets we’ve seen, but, compared with similarly priced Windows devices, it’s excellent. Brightness peaks at an ample 285cd/m2, and the contrast ratio of 678:1 ensures that videos and images pop off the screen.

The essentials are all present and correct. The tablet has micro-HDMI, micro-USB and a microSD slot, and the keyboard dock has a single full-sized USB 2 port. Wisely, Acer has also included a micro-USB-to-full-sized USB cable, so you can still use standard USB devices with the tablet alone.

Look closer and there’s a dedicated volume rocker, an autorotate toggle button and a capacitive Windows key embedded in the display’s bezel. Inside, Acer has crammed in the full complement of wireless connectivity functions, including dual-band 802.11n, Bluetooth 4 and NFC. There’s a competent pair of stereo speakers embedded in the tablet’s edges, and the Iconia W510 also has an 8-megapixel camera at the rear and a 2.1-megapixel snapper at the front, although quality is disappointing. The images are dogged with noise in low light situations and grain in brighter conditions.

We’ve been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Atom-powered Windows 8 tablets, and, despite a patchy performance, the Acer demonstrates exactly why. The OS is the big issue here: while Windows RT is hamstrung by its lack of apps and inability to run x86 software, Acer’s Iconia W510 is limited only by the power of its Atom processor. Within reason, you can run whatever Windows applications you like. It’s sorely lacking in premium appeal – the plasticky hardware is uninspiring at best – but, for those hoping for a halfway house between a Windows netbook and Android or iOS tablet, the Acer Iconia W510 may prove just the ticket.

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