MWC 2011: Acer Tab W500 Windows tablet preview video
One of the more daring tablet designs we saw this week at MWC 2011 was Acer’s Tab W500 Windows slate.
Running Windows 7 , you’d expect the device to be a little less touch friendly than an Android equivalent, and you’d be right; Windows is still too clumsy an interface to comfortably use on a tablet, at least until they throw up a dedicated touch edition. Acer have got around this problem by including a rather smart docking system for the tablet, which offers a full size QWERTY keyboard and pointer nub, powered solely by the tablet’s own battery.
In some senses it’s an admission that the OS just shouldn’t be squeezed into tablet devices, but business users will definitely appreciate the flexibility of the device, which folds away with the dock like a notebook, or can be as portable as a tablet.
Powered by an AMD C-50 processor with Radeon HD6250 graphics, it also features Acer’s media ring, turned from a hardware feature of some of their previous laptops into a touch-sensitive UI control.
We get a quick demo in the video above.
