Acer’s website describes the W500 as “the latest, lightest and most enjoyable way of enjoying the best of both worlds” for it’s tablet form factor and optional keyboard dock. It’s a Windows 7 tablet running a 1GHz AMD C-50 processor, backed up with 2Gb of RAM, a 32Gb SSD, 802.11bgn wireless, Bluetooth, front and rear 1.3mp webcams, optional 3G and a 10.1 inch touchscreen running at a resolution of 1280 x 800.
Let’s get the 1GHz processor dealt with first, as Microsoft have been very eager to point out in recent weeks that the next version of Windows when it launches will run happily on 1GHz processors. To be honest I fully expected the experience of using Windows 7 on this chip to be horrible, but I was very pleasantly surprised at just how nippy and responsive it really was. You can read more about the experience of using Windows 7 on this chip here.
The internal storage of 32Gb is a mite small though. With Windows 7, Microsoft Office and the standard Acer software on board there was only 13Gb left. This is not really enough for files and certainly not enough for an image backup, so you’d want to buy yourself a high capacity SD Card. By contrast my ExoPC has 64Gb of on board SSD which houses Windows 7, a Windows image backup and files. I’ve got a 32Gb SD Card for it and almost never use the thing.
The W500 comes in two parts held together by magnets at the back and a small plastic clip at the front. The clip is quite poor quality plastic and had already broken by the time I received the device. That said, it had spent a couple of weeks being passed round at Microsoft events before I got it.
Despite looking like a netbook, when you seperate the two halves both come apart in your hands which is an extremely unnerving experience at first but, I have to say, utterly hilarious when you later watch other people fumbling with them.
The W500 next to my ExoPC Slate
The front of the unit has a hardware Windows key that illuminates when it is switched on. Along the left side is an HDMI port, an SD card slot, a volume rocker switch, the power button and a headphone jack. The right side houses just the power socket and on the underside are two USB ports (one of which is used for the keyboard dock) and a slot for the optional SIM card module.
Also on the bottom is a rotation lock slider, though anyone who has ever used Windows 7 on a tablet will know that auto-rotation is something that doesn’t really work. We can call this feature future-proofing the W500 for the next version of Windows then!
What is battery life like running windows 7?
Battery life is around 4.5 hours, which is par for the course on a Windows 7 tablet.
Thanks for the answer – even though it saddens me! I really want a decent dual boot windows7/android option!
I’d want this tablet just to try out the AMD C-50 processor. I would like to see that processor on more Windows tablets. I bet with performance memory this tablet would be really fast. (for a tablet)
13gb free isn’t enough? What are you doing with this device anyway? Between skydrive and web apps do you really need that much space. How many spreadsheets and emails are you fooling with.
I’d say if you need more get a real laptop and all is well. Otherwise, recognize the instant-on mobile computing devices are for checking your TV listings while on the road. They aren’t computing devices they are DISPLAY devices.
Name some windows 7 tablets out there that are better for the price, because I’ve been looking for an ideal windows 7 slate/tablet out there and there are currently non. The Acer iconia w500 currently runs at literally $500 on Amazon.
Anything close to $1000 my as well buy a laptop.
I’m also tired of waiting for Lenovos P1(windows slate) which will probably run around $699.
Quite Biased, better stick with your IPAD chum.
plus u can get a 64 gb msata ssd that is 270/200 r/w for about $100
How bout the microsoft office can walk on that?