Acer W3 Early Impressions and Questions

wariscoming

Just got my new Acer W3 in the mail today.  I have a few comments then a couple questions if anyone cares to comment/answer:

 

Initial Impressions:

 

The Good:

• Device has a great form factor in my opinion.  I had the W700 and liked it a lot but it was just too big.  Waking up every morning to check the news, I found myself reaching for my phone instead of the W700 because it was a little unwieldy and I was too lazy to hold the thing up.  The W3 is much more manageable with full Windows 8.  That's hot.
• Build quality is fine. Not as "cheap" feeling as some reviews have complained about.
• My girlfriend said "what's that?  Is that full Windows on that?  Wow, that's cool."   Nuff said.

The Bad:

•  The screen sucks.  The resolution sucks and there is glare especially compared to the W700 which is gorgeous.  If this were a $150, that's ok.  But it's not $150, it's a $400 device that has the screen quality of a cheap Android 7" tablet made by some no-name company.
• It's not as zippy as the W700 that's for sure. Installing programs take considerably longer and chugs a little when pushed.

All in all though, I bought this to be a portable second device that I can browse the web with but still use Word or Excel in a pinch when traveling if needed.  That said, it fulfills its purpose wonderfully.

 

QUESTIONS:

 

1)  How do I enter the BIOS?  Every time I hold the Windows Button-Power button it boots to the light blue Window's Recovery screen.  I want to enter the actual BIOS and boot from a USB key. UPDATE: Enter BIOS holding down Volume Up & Volume Down and Power button simultaneously

 

2)  Can I use a 64GB microSD card with this?

 

padgett

Know you can use a 32 because I am. Did not have a 64 to try.

 

f you export the User's manual as a pdf it takes forever and becomes an 80MB file.

 

Screen resolution is OK for in hand or in car. Is a lot nicer with a real keyboard, mouse, and monitor.

 

Things will get a lot better, this is just the first one. I needed to develop a few things.  Expect under $300 by Christmas.

 

Sorry for the poor resolution - is on a 24" Dell monitor at 1920x1080