In our fifth 8-inch Windows Tablet review we’re taking a look at the Acer Iconia W4. Acer were the first to bring an 8-inch Windows 8 tablet to the market but the W3 really wasn’t at all an impressive device. The W4, however, looks a whole lot better and performs a whole lot better thanks to the upgrade from Clovertrail to Baytrail. We’ve also got 3G on board which makes it one of the first 8-inch Windows tablets to have the feature. Read-on for the full Acer Iconia W4-821P 3G 32GB review.
The 8-inch Windows tablet segment is pretty hot right now which is no wonder considering that these usable tablets are also fully-capable PCs. Microsoft have price reductions on three of the 8-inch low-cost Windows 9 tablets today and Amazon have an offer on the Lenovo Miix 2 8. Here’s an overview for you.
Dell Venue 8 Pro Tablet – 32GB $229.00 (was $299.00) save $70.00
You’ll find the Dell Venue 8 Pro 32GB for just $229. That’s probably the easiest Windows 8 tablet to recommend right now because of the price and the all-round quality of the device. There’s no HDMI which makes the free Office suite a little more difficult to take advantage of.
How about the Lenovo Miix 2 8. It’s $20 more than the Dell Venue 8 Pro right now but comes with GPS on board which might be attractive to those looking for a location-focused device. The Lenovo Miix 2 8 is the lightest Windows 8 PC in the world right now and also has the ability to do concurrent data and charging over the MicroUSB port. Our full review just went up this week. Click here.
Toshiba Encore WT8-A32M Touchscreen Tablet $299.00 (was $329.00) save $30.00
The Toshiba Encore WT8 is the big boy of the group. Large battery life, HDMI port and probably the best mics of all the Windows 8 tablets. With that HDMI port you’ll be able to take advantage of the free Office Home and Student license and, honestly, you’ll be surprised how fast it is at doing that. Our full review here.
Acer Iconia W4 Windows Tablet 32 GB $249.99 (was $299)
The Acer Iconia W4 is, again, a larger tablet with a a bigger battery, GPS, good screen and that all-important HDMI port for those wanting a mini desktop. We’ve just had the W4 with us for a three day trip and are pleased to report that it was on active standby (InstantGo) for the whole time and used just 60% of the battery. Acer have a range of keyboard and cover accessories and a 3G option making this the all-round mobile PC winner.
The 8-inch Windows Tablets all look similar but underneath the specifications there’s always one or two unique features. The Lenovo Miix 2 8 offers us the lightest 8-inch Windows 8 tablet build, GPS, a good price and some good looks but are there any issues lurking under the cover? We take a deep-dive in our Lenovo Miix 2 8 review.
The Acer Iconia W4 is a recent addition to the 8-inch Windows tablet scene and it brings with it a full line-up of specifications that include HDMI, GPS, large-capacity battery as well as an interesting set of keyboard accessories. There’s a 21Mbps 3G version available too and that’s the one we’ve got here. Thanks to Acer Europe for sending it over for review.
This robust tablet, obviously for vertical markets, was spotted on the stage at an Intel event here at CeBIT. It’s unique, but you just know it’s going to be expensive right? 1920×1200 screen, removable battery, waterproof and running on a new Z3745 Baytrail-T 64-Bit CPU. There’s a great selection of ports too.
In a walk-through of the building sites that will tomorrow be part of the opening day of CeBIT 2014 we spotted Ramos and some i8 Pro signage. 15 minute later the helpful employees had unpacked their transport cases and revealed the i8 Pro. It wasn’t a working sample but we got a good look, picked up the specifications and put together a video for you.
It’s difficult to see where anyone can be unique in the8-inch Windows tablet segment and the i8 Pro wasn’t any different to, say, the Lenovo Miix 2 8. The only was Ramos might compete is through lower pricing and that seems to be where they are heading with the i8 Pro.
The design isn’t bad and the specifications look OK. There’s even one specification that could give it an edge. The Baytrail-T Z3770D option would be a faster processor than the Z3740 we see in all the other ‘basic’ 8-inch tablets. A GPS and 3G option is listed.
A production date has not been set yet as Ramos are currently finalizing their i10 Pro (10-inch tablet) that is due mid-April. We’ll stay in touch with Ramos and bring you updates when we have them.
I’ve just unboxed two 8-inch Windows 8.1 tablets. The ASUS Vivotab Note 8 and Dell Venue Pro 8 both have digitizer layers but one has a Wacom layer and a pen compartment.
