tablet

Acer Announces 8" Iconia W3 Tablet, S3 and S7 Haswell Ultrabooks

Computex is always a big stage for mobile device launches, and Taiwanese manufacturers always seem to bring a little bit extra to their home technology expo. Acer’s press event at Computex 2013 took place earlier today, where they announced some interesting new Windows 8-based devices. 

The most notable has to be the Iconia W3 tablet, the first sub-10” device we’ve seen running the latest variant of Windows. We’ve known of the W3’s imminent arrival for some time now, but its no less significant of a launch because of it. It’s a Clover Trail-based Atom slate with Windows 8, an 8.1” 1280x800 display, and a bundled copy of Office Home and Student 2013. Internally, the W3 runs on Intel’s 1.5GHz Atom Z2760 SoC, which we’re very familiar with at this point after dealing with it inside a number of different Windows 8 tablets in the last six months, along with 2GB of DDR3. It’s also got a 2MP rear-facing camera (at that resolution, why even bother?), a single USB port, and 8 hours of battery life. It’ll hit store shelves later this month priced at $379 for a 32GB model, which also makes it the least expensive Windows 8 tablet we’ve seen thus far and undercuts the street pricing of the 64GB ASUS VivoTab Smart by about $50, plus the added cost of Office. The 64GB W3 comes in at $429. A Bluetooth keyboard accessory will also be available. 

The W3 is an interesting return to the days of UMPCs, when pocket-sized Windows devices seemed like a legitimate possibility. Back then, the devices were thick, slow, and had terrible battery life, but with the advent of low-power x86 chips, the hardware concerns have been fixed. The W3 comes in at a light 1.1lbs, though the 0.45" thickness is a bit more than we're used to seeing in modern tablets of this size (it's about 60% thicker than the iPad mini). Obviously, the Bay Trail version is the one to wait for, and we already have concerns about the display - it’s not an IPS panel, and reports have pegged it as “needing work” - but the W3 represents a step forward for Windows tablets. 

Acer has also updated their flagship Aspire S7 ultrabook with Haswell processors, a WQHD touchscreen display, and improved battery life. It’s had a mild industrial design freshening, with a new unibody aluminum chassis (still a Gorilla Glass lid), along with revised cooling design and a newly refined keyboard with an updated layout and deeper keystrokes. It’s still a remarkably thin computer, at just over a half-inch thick and 2.86lbs. Haswell and WQHD touchscreens are going to be template for ultrabooks going forward, and we’ve already seen ASUS announce the Zenbook Infinity with similar specs. The 10-point capacitive multitouch 2560x1440 IPS display is undoubtedly going to be a very high quality panel, though the Windows experience will be a question. It wasn’t particularly good on Toshiba’s KIRAbook, and I’m skeptical of how Windows responds to UI scaling at high DPIs in desktop mode. The 11” model has been dropped, and the S7 will ship in July at similar price points to the original S7 (MSRP, not current street pricing). 

There’s also a new Aspire S3 Haswell-based ultrabook, basically a lower end version of the S7 with similar design language, a completely aluminum chassis (no glass on the lid), and a slightly thicker and heavier chassis - though at 0.7” thick, it’s still pretty slim. The 3.67lb weight is pretty high for the ultrabook class of notebooks, but that can likely be attributed to the optional GeForce GT 735M dedicated graphics. This will not be the only instance in which we’ll see an OEM go with Haswell plus a low-end dGPU for ultrabooks instead of a Crystalwell Haswell GT3e part. The S3 comes with a 1080p IPS display panel and hybrid storage, offering a large storage drive and a solid state cache in place of the purely SSD storage of the S7. Price points are appreciably lower at around the $1000 mark, with the S3 also shipping in July alongside the S7. 

We’ll have more to say about the new Acer systems in the coming days, along with much more coverage of Computex 2013. 

Hannspree Working up Android 2.2 Tablet with NVIDIA Tegra 2 Inside

Android 2.2 and Tegra 2. That is what it now takes to stack up in the Android tablet game, and Hannspree is saying, “Yes please,” on both accounts. Their proposed tablet will feature a 1GHz Tegra 2, 16GB of internal storage expandable via microSD card, and a 1024×600 capacitive touchscreen. Throw in some micro HDMI and micro USB ports and you have yourself a media machine capable of playing back smooth 1080p HD video, which, beeteedubs, can be viewed for up to 8 hours on one charge of the Hannspree tablet’s3,500mAh battery. Other connectivity includes WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1.

The newly announced tablet is priced at €399 (~$507), but no word on a release date. Hey, at least we have gone from 10 trash Android tablets popping up a week to 10 promising ones, right?

[via Engadget]

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Samsung launches Galaxy Tab S3 in India with 9.7-inch Super-AMOLED display

Samsung launches Galaxy Tab S3 in India with 9.7-inch Super-AMOLED displaySamsung launches Galaxy Tab S3 in India with 9.7-inch Super-AMOLED displayAfter launching it at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, in February, Samsung Electronics on Tuesday brought Galaxy Tab S3 to India, featuring an advanced S Pen.

The Rs 47,990 Galaxy Tab S3 with Quad speakers tuned by AKG and HDR-ready display delivers superior video and gaming experience along with multi-tasking capabilities.

The device will be available in black and silver colours across retail stores, starting June 20."The powerful Galaxy Tab S3 is built with premium technology that offers a productive and versatile experience to consumers, designed for users at home, work or on the go," Vishal Kaul, Director, Mobile Business, Samsung India, said in a statement.

The S Pen does not require any charging or pairing and boasts a fine 0.7mm tip.

For a safe and secure login, Samsung Flow feature uses biometric authentication to login and can wirelessly tether compatible devices to transfer documents from a mobile device to a tablet.

It comes with Quad speakers tuned by AKG, fast-charging capability and 6,000mAh battery which supports 12 hours of video playback.

The speakers' intelligent Auto Rotate Stereo function allows the tablet to redirect sound based on its orientation.

With a 9.7-inch Super-AMOLED display and 6mm thin metal frame, the device is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor (Quad Core 2.15GHz + 1.6GHz), 4GB RAM and has 32GB internal memory that is expandable up to 256GB.

The device runs Android 7.0 Nougat. The device is powered by the Vulkan API and GPU for superior graphics and Game Launcher with a 'Do Not Disturb' mode for uninterrupted gameplay.

The tablet houses a 13MP auto focus rear camera with flash and a 5MP front camera and supports Pogo keyboards that require no separate charging or pairing.