In typical Acer style, the second-largest PC manufacturer is entering the tablet market by trying to offer something for everyone. This means a few different tablets at varying sizes running on different operating systems. The W500 is the one based on Windows 7, and it’s coming to Canada this month.
The W500 closely resembles the A500, which runs on Android. They are the same size and aren’t all that different under the hood, but there are some key contrasts to note. The W500 can come with Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional installed. The difference in price between the two is about $70. The 2GB of RAM and 32GB solid state drive are in there regardless of your choice. AMD’s C-50 1GHz processor is the engine that runs this thing.
Acer is basically trying to offer this as a pure hybrid between a tablet, slate PC and netbook. The included keyboard dock does help provide that experience, but it doesn’t close up like a clamshell like any other notebook or netbook does. It’s a bit of an unusual design in how Acer decided to connect these two together, but if you can manage and not worry about it, then it’s probably nothing to think about.
The design is considerably different than some of the slider models that Asus and Samsung have unveiled since CES in Las Vegas in January. It may run on Windows 7, but Acer’s proprietary Clear.fi service is where media playback and file sharing takes place. It’s nicely laid out, and if you have other Acer devices (from 2010 and on), they can share stuff with each other easily.
In many ways, the W500 is the alternative to the iPad 2, BlackBerry Playbook and Android tablets that have already come out. This is the first Windows-based tablet based on current design trends because Windows-based tablets have been around a long time, but were always niche products with ridiculous price points.
Look for pre-orders on Future Shop coming in the next few days, as the W500 gets closer to hitting store shelves.
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