Trade shows, conferences and holidays are always a good challenge for ultra-mobile devices and on my family holiday this year I decided to take just three key bits of computing kit. The Nokia 808, a MiFi unit and an Acer W510 Windows 8 detachable. Total cost is under $1000. Total weight, about 1.5KG.
The idea was to enable everything in as many scenarios as possible but to accept the trade-off that it might not be as fast as some dedicated solutions. After 4 days on my first charge, I’m 100% happy with the kit. It might not be the trendiest, but it’s got practically every base covered. Read-on for ‘what I did on my holiday’ and a detailed battery life analysis.
Windows 8.1 Preview was announced and released at Microsoft’s BUILD event this week and I’ve been testing it on an Acer Iconia W5 Clovertrail based tablet similar to the W3, 8-inch devices that were given out to around 3000 people at the event. I’ve also upgraded an Ivy Bridge Ultrabook and an AMD Temash subnotebook, all with touch but it’s the tablets that get the most out of the changes in the upgrade. Keyboard changes, windowing changes, 3G connected standby support, new Windows 8 applications and a range of application upgrades. If you’re on a non-touch laptop and spend most of your time in Windows 8 desktop, don’t bother with the upgrade yet as there are bugs but if you’ve got an Acer Iconia W5 or one of the other supported Windows 8 tablets or hybrids and you’re not using it for production purposes I would definitely recommend upgrading.
Just 10 minutes into the keynote at the 2013 Microsoft BUILD event Steve Ballmer has announced a focus on “small tablets running Windows inch and, for attendees, a free Acer Iconia W3. This is significant. This is the Newultra mobile PC being pushed forward in a very powerful way. For UMPCPortal fans and followers, it should make you happy.
We’re following the BUILD live stream and suggest you catch up with the sessions here. The Windows 8.1 download can also be found here (link not live at time of writing.) Note that some Intel Atom tablets/hybrids are not supported. The Acer W5 appears to be supported but we haven’t completed all stages of the upgrade yet. Update: Confirmed working and stable after a 2hr upgrade process.
Latest: Ballmer announces 100,000 apps in the Windows Store
The locals out in Taipei got early hands-on with the Acer Iconia W3 and the video is available below. You’ll see the Bluetooth keyboard and tablet ‘dock’ demonstrated along with Windows desktop and a look around the ports. Pricing in Europe is said to be €329 for the 32GB version and €379 for a 64GB version. We assume the keyboard is not included but can’t imagine it will cost too much extra as it’s only a Bluetooth accessory. Update: The keyboard costs 69 Euro.
Rumors started in April about this 8-inch Windows tablet but today we’re pretty happy to see it in a reputable retail channel in the UK. The Acer Iconia W3-810 is listed with 2GB RAM, 64GB storage in silver for £469 which, after removing tax, is the equivalent of about the same in dollars. Littlewoods, the online supplier, say they can deliver this by 17 June.
A full specifications list is not available yet but from the images it appears to be the tablet only and not including the interesting docking keyboard.
A 32GB version of the Acer Iconia W3 had shortly appeared on Amazon.com for $379 until it was removed.
Acer Iconia W3-810 Specifications, based on leaked info are as follows:
CPU: Intel Clovertrail Z2670 (2×1.8Ghz)
RAM: 2GB
Storage: 32GB or 64GB
Screen: 1280×800
Camera: Rear-2MP, Front-2MP
Micro SD Slot
HDMI out (we suspect micro HDMI)
micro USB (host capability unknown)
802.11a/b/g/n Wireless, Bluetooth 4.0+EDR
2-Cell Li-Polymer (3500 mAh) Battery (25Wh)
Size: 218.9 mm x 134.8 mm x 11.43 mm
Weight: 500 grams
Click to see large images
We’re expecting this to launch at Computex in a few hours after this posting so check back at UMPCPortal for more info.
This post is both a keyboard test and a power test for the AMD A6-1450 Temash-based Acer V5 122P. I’m currently typing on the Acer Aspire V5 in Windows Live Writer and will be writing for about 10 minutes with the system in a low-power state. The energy saving power profile is keeping the CPU clock down to 1Ghz max and with a 50% screen brightness, WiFi off, keyboard backlight off and Perfmon running in the background I should be able to see just how long a typist could get out of this sub-notebook. It’s a test I did on the Samsung Series 5 recently and it’s a great one to see just how much ‘background’ power is used in a system. On the Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook test I saw an average system power usage of 6.4 Watts. Are AMD Temash products going to be better than that and good enough for some Ultra-Mobile products? Let’s find out.
I’ve been testing the Acer Aspire V5 122P, a subnotebook based on the new AMD Temash platform. As part of my testing I’ve been doing some CPU and GPU-specific tests that will give people and idea of the processing power and efficiency of the A6-1450 platform. You are invited to request a test if you feel it will add something to the assessment.
