I recently purchased the Acer Iconia W4 last February 14, 2014.
After almost 2 weeks of use I'm thinking I'll do a review on my experiences with the tablet and give my insights for you on whether it would be a tablet to buy.
1. Appearance and Build Quality.
1.1 First Impressions
- Gwapa jud siya sa first impression ug ma "WOW" ka sa pag unang kita, samot na inig gamit nimo sa device, though lagi it's made out of a plastic body emulated to look like brushed metal but still it is definetly a looker but not compared to Apple's aluminum body found in their iPads and the Macbook line which you can't really expect at this price point.
1.2 Hand Usability, Comfort and Portability
- The grip is okay and it's manageable (sa lalaki tingale kay we tend to have bigger hands), but if gamay kag kamot I think there will be a challenge on holding the tablet and usage with 1 hand operation. The built in windows keyboard is probably the 2nd best touchscreen keyboard para nako (2nd lang sa Swiftkey for Android becuase of Swipe features). Portable sad kaayo siya masulod ra siya sa akong shoe bag nga Bench ug dili maklaro nga tablet siya.
1.3 Screen display
- The screen has a PPI of 188(?) pero I must say I own a nexus 7 2013 with a 338ppi FHD display pero wala jud ko naka notice ug difference sa ilaha, both the Nexus 7 2013, Ipad Air and the Acer iconia W4 uses IPS technology but mas gamay ang color bleed niya sa N7 but not less than the Ipad. Overall the screen is amazing and the light bleeding is minimal. Viewing angles are excellent and sunlight legibility is very good tungod sa Zero-gap technology sa Acer.
1.4 Screen responsiveness
- The screen responds as well as it should, however there are times where mag lisod kag pislit sa mga buttons labi na sa desktop mode tungod kay gamay siya ug display ma pislit ang d angay ma pislit, most of them are software and windows 8.1 issues.
1.5 Hardware Ports and Peripherals
- The tablet has 1 MicroUSB slot (same port is used for USB interface together with the OTG cable this also services as the charging port) ang disadvantage ani kay dli ka mka input sa USB devices nimo while charging kay naa man sila sa same port.
- Also comes with 1 MicroHDMI slot, kani kay gamit jud kaayo. You can purchase a mHDMI to HDMI cord sa CDR-King for 150 then you can connect your tablet to an external display such as projector, monitor and TVs.
- 3.55mm Headphone Jack
- 5MP Back camera, nindot siya ug kuha compared sa Nexus 7 2013
- 2MP front face, as usual tin.aw ug crisp ang kuha
2. Performance and Stability
2.1 The processing power
- Ang kani jud nga part ang pinaka naka impress sa ako.a, this tablet is powered an Intel Atom 4th generation "Bay Trail" Z3740 Quad-core clocked at 1.33ghz with turbo boost of upto 1.8ghz. Maka ingon tingale mog "Aie atom ewww" pero not in this case kay it's super fast and responsive - just to tell you how fast this thing is ang boot time from Shut Down to startup takes only 5 SECONDS my previous Intel i5 (1st gen) boots up windows 8.1 in 45 seconds! Wla pako kasuway ug lag sa mga apps, nya ayos kaayo sa multi-tasking. (except sa gaming kay dli mani siya gaming device)
2.2 The memory (RAM) and onboard storage
- Diri medyo naay issue, the tablet only comes with 2GB of ram (Dual channel @600mhz). Though dili siya hinay ang problema lang kung mag games ko labi na mag Civilization 5 - Brave new world ko kay usahay mo crash ang app kay ni-overage na ang RAM. Ang storage sad kay 32GB ra (naay 64gb version pero wla pako kita sa availability) gamay kaayo with only 19GB usable out of the box due to OS allocation, however the good thing is it comes with a MicroSD slot capable of expansion upto 64GB of storage (wla pay available nga 64GB sa cebu, import ka sa gawas if ganahan ka ang pinka.dako kay 32GB class 10) so together you could have 64GB (32 internal + 32 mSD) of storage which is decent for a tablet.
2.3 Operating System and App store.
- This is a FULL WINDOWS 8.1 x86 (32-bit) so meaning kung unsay imong mga programs sa imohang PC or laptop rest assured it can run on this tablet.
2.4 Battery life.
- Not just equipped with a 4950mA battery it is also powered by a passively cooled Intel Atom Bay trail processor with output of only 2mW. Battery life lasts 10 hours for light usage, 6-8 hours on moderate use and 4 hours on heavy and gaming intensive usage. It also has connected standby mode so murag imohang tablet ug smartphone nga if you press the powerbutton the system goes on deep sleep with a 1 second power-on unlike the conventional sleep mode on laptops. Charging time takes about 3-4 hours depending if you're using it or not.
2.5 Gaming performance
- So kung nag expect mo ug dagan sa latest games, ayaw nalang. This cannot handle high-end games.
So far mao ning compatible games nga running smoothly nga akong na testingan:
- COD 4 - MW
- Left for Dead 1
- Warcraft 3
- World of Warcraft: Lich King (Med-low settings)
- NFS: Most wanted (1st generation)
- NBA 2k11 (Med-low settings)
- Civilization 5 (Med settings) (Crashes when there is too much going on pero if wla ka nag multitask smooth siya)
- Torchlight (High-Med settings)
- Elder Scrolls 4 - Oblivion
2.6 - Synthetic Benchmarks
Sunspider (lower is faster)
- 410ms - Acer Iconia W4
- 920ms - Samsung Galaxy S4 (S800)
- 931ms - LG G2
Mozilla Kraken (lower is faster)
- 4686 - Acer Iconia W4
- 9837 - Samsung Galaxy S4 (S800)
- 10066 - LG G2
Passmark CPU (higher is faster)
- 1334 - Intel i5 U 470
- 1126 - Intel i3 U 330
- 1071 - Intel Atom Z3740 (Acer Iconia W4)
- 1065 - Intel Core2 Duo E4300
- 982 - Intel Pentium D
3Dmark (higher is faster)
- 14303 - Ipad Mini Retina
- 12456 - Acer Iconia W4
2.7 Bugs
- There is no perfect device naa jud nay bugs.
These are the following bugs nga na notice nako
- Screen flickering issue (Update firmware to 1.13 will fix it)
- Bluetooth mouse lags when used together with BT Keyboard (Not quite sure if its the tablet's fault since some users report the same issue online with different devices)
3. Software, Accessories, Support and Price
3.1 Software
- This tablet comes with a free Microsoft office 2013 (a Php 3000 value) so sulit kaayo imong kwarta.
- Comes with full windows 8.1 OS (Php 4500) value pero d ko sure if naa na ni sa patong
- Acer Cloud storage (ambot di man ko ganahan ani, I still prefer DB or GD)
3.2 Accessories
- Comes with a free Acer Keyboard Cover (wala ko kabaw sa value) but in other countries they don't add the keyboard cover like sa US. Naa sad free OTG Cable to connect your USB devices such as external HDD, USB mouse and keyboard.
3.3 Support
- So far 2 firmware updates have been released since it's production so that's a sign of Acer is taking issus seriously but it's too early to tell the extent of Acer's service on this device (Acer has had a shady reputation when it comes to customer service)
3.4 Price
- Mao jud ni ang
#1 factor para sa atoang mga pinoy kasagaran, it retails for an SRP of 19900 according to Acer's website pero pag palit nako it's only 16,990 if straight cash. I have to say that the price per benefit ratio is definetly higher compared to iPads and slightly higher compared to the Nexus 7 2013. Needless to say it's a great value for your money.
Conclusion:
This tablet is the company's second attempt sa 8-inch tablet market and they have done it very well this time compared sa last W3 nila. HOwever this tablet is not for everyone so carefully decide what you need from a machine before buying.
The good:
- - Battery life
- - Screen display
- - CPU Performance
- - Free Microsoft Office 2013
- - Low price
- - Has MicroHDMI port
- - Free Acer Keyboard cover
The bad:
- - Gaming performance
- - MicroUSB is used as a charging port and peripheral port at the same time
- - Screen sometimes is too small for the desktop interface
Recommended for:
- - Students
- - On-the-go professionals who travel or on mobile a lot.
- - People who need a portable and hassle free tablet-laptop hybrid.
- - People who perfer windows instead of an Ipad or Android tablet.
Not Recommended for:
- - App/Software Developers (compilation for Visual Studio or VTS studio takes a long time)
- - Serious Gamers (ayaw nalang jud)
- - People who dislike small screens
- - Mga lolo ug lola
- - Geeks who prefer a "real rig"
Competition:
- - Dell Venue 8 Pro
- - Microsoft Surface 2
- - Asus Transformer Tab T100
- - Lenovo Pad Miix
- - Toshiba Encore
- - Ipad Mini Retina
- - Nexus 7 2013
- - Samsung Galaxy Note 8 / Tab 8 / Tab 3 lite
Full Specs
Acer Iconia W4 specs
Photos:
Kung naa mo further questions, clarifications or comments ask lang
[REVIEW] Acer Iconia W4 - Full Windows 8.1 Tablet PC
Originally Posted by SyniTh
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