Acer is preparing to launch the Aspite M3 Touch with Windows 8. the design is based on a previous iteration of an Acer Ultrabook — the Acer M3. The M3 Touch is a 15.6″ touchscreen Ultrabook which competes with other big Ultrabooks like the Asus S56 and Vizio Thin and Light CT15 (indirectly however, as the latter two lack a touchscreen). Notebook Italia tracked down the M3 Touch for a brief hands-on and also uncovered European pricing.

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Nicole Scott of Netbook News tells me she isn’t too impressed. She has a point. Its hardly the most attractive device in the Tablet space. The thing is, this will come in at a very nice price. Ben has already highlighted a $300 price which means you have a better option than the Viewpad 7. You’re getting an arm v7 more which means significant performance implements with Android 2.2 and the ability to run apps like flash 10.1. I have a video which I’m going to upload as soon as I buy a new charger for my netbook bit at least I can give you some images from the showfloor here at MWC.
One of the images includes the specs and we’ll get this in the database for you as soon as possible.

In our experience, Expansys delivery dates have never been the most reliable indicators of when a device is actually going to turn up so we’re not surprised that the Huawei S7 [specs, info] is now available at the end of July. At least it gives us time to assess the device through the reviews that are starting to come in from around the world. We’re looking for showstoppers at this stage and apart from the disappointment that the S7 has a resistive touchscreen like the Archos 5, we haven’t found much to worry about just yet.

(Long) slide (on a resistive screen) to unlock!

We’ve got a Chinese review from Zol.com.cn and a Russian-language review out of Belarus from Onliner.by to go on and we’ve picked out the followig (my comments in blue.)

• Restive touchscreen not so pleasant. No surprise
• UI not optimised for 7 inch screen. (E.g. swipe to accept a call requires a full-screen swipe on the resistive screen)
• In general, voice quality good.
• Battery life in unused, connected state about 12 hours [onliner.by]
• Battery life in used state approx 1% per minute.  [onliner.by]  Sounds poor. Am expecting more
• Strong, good build quality
• Speakers good in landscape mode. Perfect podcatcher! Shame there’s no FM receiver.
• Stylus included. Confirms resistive screen.
• Video calling should be possible on final retail versions
• 720p playback possible. I suspect H.264 only.

The two review’s aren’t what we would call in-depth and are probably based on samples so it goes without saying that we’re going to have to wait for retail-package reviews before making a final assessment. We’re still looking forward to it but as time slips by, we’ve got one eye on Archos and their promised summer collection.

Outstanding questions –

• Docking station?
• Processor speed. (1 Ghz or 768Mhz?)

Got any more info/questions?

Following a slight set-back on a ultra mobile PC product that was due to turn up today I’ve decided to order something else to take my mind off the pain. It’s the Huawei S7 Android tablet.

Why?

Because this device impressed me at Computex. It’s the first 7 inch Android tablet to ship with a complete Google-certified Android build on it. That means Marketplace and Google-app-goodness unlike the disappointing experiences I’ve seen with the Archos 5 and 7, the SmartQ7, the Compaq Airlife and the tens of others tested at various trade expos over the last year. I’m not 100% sure that what I saw in Taipei is what I’m going to see after the unboxing (the ultimate shock will be come if it doesn’t have the Marketplace) but I’m fairly confident that I’m getting a capacitive 7 inch 3G/voice-enabled Google-approved Android device. It’s the finer points that I’m not sure about like GPS, upgrade to 2.2, battery life etc. Still, on a business purchase I’ve just paid about 270 pounds which I think is great value for this hardware.

Did I buy it for me? Not really although this could seriously become the coffee-table PC that the iPad was for a week when I had it. With SD cards that you can write to it will be the perfect image viewer. It’s no retina screen but will do a great job of showing a web page without having to zoom. It doesn’t have the book content that the iPad has yet but when Amazon’s Kindle application comes along, this will make a better reader than the iPad. How about that one-handedness? Only 500gm too! I really want to see if there’s a docking port/cable/accessory and if it has an electronic compass and GPS, Google Sky Map will be incredible. The main reason I bought it is to continue my testing with mobile operating systems on larger form factor devices. We’ve been through the Airlife 100 and the Dell Streak so now it’s time for something in the middle.

Do you remember Origami? The 7 inch slate devices were initially marketed at the young social user and were said to have a price of $500. When they appeared on the market they were $1000 and lasted for 3 hrs maximum before needing a charge. The UI was productivity and pen focused and there was no such thing as Twitter. The Huawei S7 is the Origami device done right….i think!

Delivery is due in just over a week but don’t hold your breath. Expansys have a habit of slipping dates so it could be a few weeks! Whatever happens, when it turns up you’ll find an unboxing here within hours. We’ll also run a live Q&A session for you too so you can come and see the device and ask questions.

Expansys UK order page is here [This is not an affiliate link and this article/purchase is unrelated to any Expansys advertising that you might see on UMPCPortal or Carrypad.]