Windows Tablets

[ptrkhh]

Are you the one who asked the same question on tabletpcreview?

Here is my (same) answer (this might help other people in this forum too)

WiFi issue - Some early products are lemons, if you buy it now I think there will be no problem. However, the signal is not as good as other devices. I tested with several devices including VAIO S, Nokia 820, and Samsung S3. The W700 performs worse than them, but still acceptable.
Usually when the WiFi signal on other devices are still at 1, the W700 is disconnected already.

Throttling - Unless you game on this tablet or pushing this tablet to its limit, you wont notice it anyway.
The CPU never goes below throttled below 1.7 GHz but the GPU suffers from throttling.
The GPU performance result is similar to normal HD3000 laptop (tested with i5-2410M on VAIO S)

Windows 8.1 - works perfectly on my W700, although I performed clean install instead of upgrade
Fan Noise - Just a slight hum, you wont notice it unless you sit in a quiet room

With Haswell tablets around the corner, I would suggest you to wait for Haswell tablets. Acer itself is rumored to release an ultraHD tablet running Haswell.

If you use Core processor for your daily life, and you expect Atom to come close, then I would say Atom will disappoint you. Atom is perfect when you expect Android/iPad-like performance

For use in sofa, bear in mind that some W700 has neither laptop dock nor keyboard cover. Some W700 have Bluetooth keyboard integrated in the case, but that extremely thin keyboard could not replace real keyboard in my opinion.

I find the significant difference between Surface Pros and W700 are just Wacom capability and battery life.
If you prefer to have Wacom capability instead of long battery life, I suggest you to get the Surface Pro 1.
If you want both, theres no better choice than Surface Pro 2 (for now).

[nevetseel]

No I sm happy with my W700 the only draw back is the hard drive because I only got the 64gb model thetefore restricted to memory . Needless to say I have all the apps and programes I need and still have some free memory.The only time I struggle is when I have some films recirded then find a few more I want.I have invested in a 1Tb usb hard drive to solve the problem.

[Irrelevant]

Thanks for the response - and yes I posted on a few forums to try and get some feedback. ( i wasn't sure which one was the most active, looks like this forum got the most replies). 

In the end I decided not to wait for Haswell devices but went for an i5 W700, 4GB RAM and 128GB mSATA drive. 

Dell and Microsoft offer some nice Haswell tablets, but this is really just a bit of a xmas treat, so I was stuggling to justify their high prices. (I already have a powerful laptop, so this is just a companion device - to replace an aging iPad 1). 

With Acer offering cashback against these now, the price is just too competitive. It works out only a little bit more than I would have to pay Asus for a T100 (which only has Atom CPU, 2GB RAM and 64GB RAM). My last option was going to be a Toshiba Encore 8 inch tablet - a bargain at £250, but I think a little bit small.

It should arrive tomorrow so I will post my findings. 

Many thanks

[ptrkhh]

Congratulations on your purchase. Honestly, its an awesome device. Its battery life is comparable to Haswell tablets, which is unbelieveable for Ivy Bridge tablet. The screen and speaker are awesome for its class, definitely better than the Surface Pro 2 (yes, two), therefore making it a better multimedia tablet than the Surface Pro 2. The only shortcomings are no Wacom and no keyboard. The W700 with a bluetooth keyboard basically replaces my VAIO S as a laptop and my ICONIA A100 as a tablet. I dont have a reason to touch those devices now. Since it has Haswell-class battery life, I even have no reason to spend another $1000 on a brand new Haswell tablet.

Wow, You got a jaw-dropping deal on your W700, especially when I read that you get the 128 GB model. Where did you buy it?

Let us know when you need help with your W700.

[Irrelevant]

I've got my new W700 (in fact I'm typing this reply on it). 

Seems like a great device, really like the keyboard and case. i Can't believe how sharp the screen is.

I've updated to Windows 8.1 and updated all my drivers, and everything seems fine. 

i even gave Half Life 2 a quick go - I can't believe this thing runs it at 1080.

Unfortunately one of the speakers is loose or broken and making a nasty vibration, so i suspect this will be going back to amazon, and I will get a replacement. But pretty sure this is going to be a great ipad replacement. 

the £250 was for the toshiba encore, the acer w700 wasnt quite that good a price.

i bought this from amazon for £640, but should get that down to £450 with the cashback deals acer are offering. 

[nevetseel]

Read that you have installed win 8.1 had any problems with bluetooth keyboard.I tried it but couldnt get driver to work on keyboard so went back to 8.0.Also miss tile desktop on 8.1 having 2 desktops the same is not that useful.

[ptrkhh]

Works perfectly fine here. Im using a Perixx 804 bluetooth keyboard.

Try updating your driver, because my bluetooth mouse stuttered before the update, and it works fine now.

Here is the latest driver http://www.station-drivers.com/index.php/articles/563-qualcomm-atheros-wifi-version-10-0-0-270-bluet...

Dont forget the standard procedure to uninstall the old driver:Remove all connected bluetooth devices from 'PC Settings', uninstall the drivers from 'Programs and Features', restart, open device manager, uninstall every bluetooth and wifi related drivers, restart.

[Irrelevant]

Just after I posted that message, the bluetooth keyboard went, and stated driver error when reconnecting.

I think this was due to me updating some of the drivers, but having not done the Qualcomm one. 

However uninstalling and installing the latest Qualcomms allowed me to get it back. 

I've also seem to have lost the option under 'Intel Dynamic Thermal Management' under power options, one of driver updates seem to loose it. (uninstall and installing doesn't seem to bring it back). But I resolved the Windows 8.1 laggyness by uninstalling 'Intel Dynamic Thermal Management'. Battery life seems excellent without it anyhow, but next time I shall record what steps I did (and make a few system restore points) next time.

Not much point me messing with this one much more as I'm going to return/replace because of the broken speaker.

Also the fan noise seems to have gone when idle, when I got it Fans where always on, now they are completely off. I think all the windows updates had been keeping the tablet busy.

[deeperblue]

I have found the fan noise also effects skype calls. The microphone picks up the fan noise so it sounds like its raining.

I have had my W700 tablet now for 5 months and I'm still very happy with it. When I updated to Windows 8.1 I had quite a few driver issues, especially the intermittent bluetooth driver issue. It was such a pain I reverted back to Windows 8. I eventually found a way to solve all my issues, by installing a fresh clean copy of Windows 8.1 (not an upgrade - see my other posts for how).

[nevetseel]

Think I'll stick with Win 8 have just done full Win 8 reinstal and everhthings working fine.Since getting 1Tb usb hardrive no problems with storage. Pain in the ass swapping content s of old hard drive to new one .