Acer Iconia W510 Tablet: A Tale Of Intel Vs. ARM And Acer Vs. Apple

[DanCorleone]

A longtime reader of this site, I was moved to register due to the excellence of this article, and the inanity of some of the comments. Priox, that was possibly the stupidest comment I have ever read online. bystander, second stupidest. Mr. Dang, thank you for a great article. Having somebody like you write an article for public consumption is giving me one component of the team of engineers and physicists I need to evaluate my investment portfolio! It looks like Intel needs to find a worthy partner to put its chips into great products. It looks like Acer just is not that company. However, there is that report that the Mac Pro 13" is the best Windows computer, and an Acer is in the second spot. Intel has Apple for the desktops and laptops, but Apple quite rightly sees the competitive advantage in being able to customize its chips, and apparently they are not going with Intel for that reason. Not sure what company it will be. Seems like even Microsoft has given up on a partner that can implement vision. Maybe that's why they did the Surface themselves.

 

[Bron]

Well, it's about time someone in the press takes these companies to task for their crappy, non-existent customer service and support for their products. And it's not just Acer. I consider most product "warranties" today to be basically worthless. Just trying to navigate their customer support maze is usually enough to discourage one from even seeking support - perhaps their true intent all along.

It's a travesty and something should be done about it. And let's not even talk about replacing brand new items with refurbished, scratched, worn product as sometime happens these days as well. I totally get where the author is coming from and was glad to see this article published! The original "Tom" (who I knew) would have been even tougher on them.

 

[alextheblue]

The SGX545 is incompatible with XCOM: Enemy Unknown, resulting in a crash.

Correction, Intel's drivers are incompatible, not the hardware underneath them. Intel graphics drivers are still notorious for such issues. They make AMD and Nvidia drivers look bug-free by comparison. The worst part? This is AFTER they've made vast improvements. Not that long ago they were unstable even in relatively mundane hardware-accelerated tasks.

 

[w8gaming]

[Yes, legacy support. Windows 8 programming is meant to be done in Metro, but the desktop supports old software that doesn't work in Metro.

Whether you prefer legacy software or not is up to you, but that doesn't change what it is.]

If this is what Microsoft has in mind, they would need to built a version of Visual Studio that runs in Metro environment. Seeing that they still could not figure out how to have a version of Office running in pure Metro environment, I do not think this will happen anytime soon. This so called "legacy" mode will be with us for a long long time to come.

 

[damianrobertjones]

[citation][nom]DanCorleone[/nom]However, there is that report that the Mac Pro 13" is the best Windows computer, and an Acer is in the second spot.[/citation]

That report is complete and utter rubbish! Can you buy the mac machine with Windows 8 pre-installed? No. So how did it end up there? Clean fresh install. The article referenced running processes and other installed wares so OF COURSE THE CLEAN INSTALLED SYSTEM would win.

 

[DanCorleone]

@damianrobertjones: I agree that the Mac rating relates to a clean install free of bloat ware. PC makers should take a cue from that.

 

[Unperson]

This article is embarrassing; to both the author and to the site. I started reading the article under the belief that it was solely related to the title, but it splintered into separate topics.

Topic A: Intel Vs. ARM And Acer Vs. Apple

Topic B: Acer offers poor service and support.

Somewhere between Topic A and B, Acer's review on the capabilities of their hardware gets slashed because the author was frustrated with a faulty device (which happens too frequently in this industry, but still happens) and decides to punish Acer by reducing their grade from what might have been a decent one?

I don't usually comment because I am comfortable with what I read here on Tom's, but when an article causes me to *facepalm* part way through and then plod through the rest of it with complete befuddlement, then I reply.

First, this article should have stuck to the subject (as listed in the header). Using one subject to drag in readers only to take them down a different path is poor journalistic behavior. It doesn't matter if both topics are worthy of attention. It's misleading and often self-defeating since you are targeting the wrong groups and using up their time on issues they may not care about.

If you felt attention should be drawn to your difficulties with Acer's service and support, then create a separate article that focuses solely on that topic. Maybe list other companies, their policies and your experiences and form a comparison. In THAT article, the second half of this article would've been right at home.

Saying that you "would" have given Acer a higher review, but "didn't" because of your personal experiences with them seems petty and immature. Especially in the way you presented it. You had a faulty device. You had a poor experience getting it fixed. That sucks.. ..truly! However, that doesn't mean that "all" users will have the same issues. Your review should be based on working hardware functioning as intended. It makes no sense to condemn the entire product because one keyboard was faulty. By that standard, if you buy a car and the windshield wipers fail (but they work for everyone else), then that make of car should be labeled a lemon? Leave an editorial note or cliff-note that you had a faulty device and had it returned (if you really need to press that point), but keep it out of the main context of the article.

I'm starting to see this type of article appearing more an more. Engadget and the Verge are starting to do the same thing; using their audience base as a platform to vent personal frustrations and off-topic soliloquies. Now Tom's Hardware is losing its focus and that's a damn shame.

Please keep the articles on topic. Make separate ones if you have more than one issue. I won't accept another article like this. I'll just stop coming here instead.

 

[Thelma Isaiah]

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[Thelma Isaiah]

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[timon_tablet]

If you like using Acer PC (TPC), I would rather you bought the newest Acer P3-171 3229Y (Core i3 3229Y processor), which is with an SATA 3.0 SSD, but is not a very bad eMMC SSD to an x86 OS - all of the Atom z2760 tablets.

Acer P3-171 i3 3229Y tablet is now price 3200 CNY (520 USD) in China (does not include keyboard kit), 11.6-inch IPS screen, USB 3.0, weight 768g, battery 6 hours, cold boot time is less than 10-sec, very fast.
Acer P3-171 i3 3229Y tablet kit is 4300 CNY (695 USD), the keyboard includes accessional sub-battery 3 hours.

Acer P3-171 i3 3229Y tablet is far better than the Acer W 510. However, Acer P3-171 i3 3229Y tablet is also with non-interchangeable battery, and the fixed 2GB RAM cannot get a upgrade, (if who wanted to have a 64-bit Windows OS, the RAM to be 4GB at lowest), for its two obvious cons unsatisfactory.

(As for myself, I more like Dell, HP and Toshiba, not Acer)

If you wanted a really creditable Atom tablet, need to wait for Bay Trail Slides, will support SATA 2.0 (not 3.0) and USB 3.0. Also, 8 or 9 inches Windows 8 tablet would come soon.

Truly, Mr. Paul Otellini ought to retire. Up to now, the Windows 8 is not adequately active in tablet market, therein the problem in half actually showed from Intel Atom z2760. If with eMMC SSD, why we get to buy the expensive Atom z2760 Windows 8? iPad is cheaper with eMMC.

Even if the eMMC SSD Windows 8 Atom to drop down the price will be still inconclusive, the Android tablets are always with cheaper price and flooding, but the Windows x86 tablet's mainly advantageous conditions are not the lowest-end market, so, Atom in x86 Windows must support SATA SSD with better performance.

Kodak corp have ever had a lot of advanced digital image technologies, however Kodak only wanted to keep their film profit margin during faced to the raging waves of digital image market, sorry, people have seen Kodak finally speeded up died at himself. Today, could it be Kodak ghost would replay to Intel?

If others who - like AMD may hit in x86 mobile computing market, well then, Intel will have to do Atom to provide SATA 3.0 (no longer 2.0) and USB 3.0 with better performance. Regrettable, AMD is now very stagnant. In the current x86 mobile processor industry the competition is too lacking.

Recommend read:
(website tomshardware)
Samsung's ATIV Smart PC 500T: An Atom-Based Windows 8 Tablet
PCMark 7: A Look At Storage Performance
Benchmark Results: Photoshop, iTunes, And WinRAR

(website hothardware)
Intel Clover Trail Atom Z2760 Tablet Performance Preview
SunSpider, BrowserMark and PCMark 7

 

[Joshua Heising]

I am equally disappointed with the overall build quality of the W510. I often get positive comments on the laptop/tablet, but when telling people the virtues of the system I always point out to them that the build quality is sub-par, and I wouldn't trust it to survive a drop or semi-hard impact. After the last bios upgrade my keyboard works fine about 98% of the time... which is acceptable... mostly. The trackpad works better, but I agree that far too often it becomes unuseable until I dsconnect and re-connect the keyboard.

The screen is the perfect size though, it makes the system ultra portable and is large enough for all my operations with it. The extra battery in the keyboard is ingenious. I won't buy another tablet unless it has that feature. I'm currently a full time student in mechanical engineering, and some days I spend as much as 12 hours away from home. This laptop has NEVER ran dead on me, and I even forgot to charge it a couple times. I use it to do about 95% of my homework, everything from researching and writing papers, to Excel, PowerPoint, AutoCad and even SolidWorks. The latter two require an external mouse, obviously.

The tablet aspect (novelty) of the computer has worn off a bit though.. I *might* use the tablet without a keyboard about 5%-10% of the time. Mostly only when I'm playing Hangman RT with a friend or watching a movie in bed. I do use the touch screen features extensively, even when connected to the keyboard.

Overall, this convertible laptop/tablet is exactly what I need for portable computing, but I will likely upgrade to the first available option with two batteries and better build quality. If it would be a little faster as well without losing much battery life that would be a huge bonus. I haven't found any other company that offers a second battery in their keyboard up to this point though.

 

[oakcool]

You rubbed it off as I did, then you should go to the BIOS to get it (Power + Volume Down).
The serial number is under the information Tab