Acer Iconia W4 evaluate

The Acer Iconia W4 is the company’s back up stab by the side of a compact Windows 8.1 tablet, and it hopes to reach amends designed for end year’s disappointing Iconia W3. On paper, it does everything proper: The Iconia W4 packs in the field of a nippier Atom Bay Trail CPU, bundles a gratis disc of Microsoft function, upgrades the make an exhibition of with a gleaming IPS panel and slashes the penalty to no more than £252 inc basket.

Design and make an exhibition of

It’s the IPS make an exhibition of so as to instantaneously grabbed our attention; it’s a important upgrading on Iconia W3’s granular, washed-out TN panel. The 800 x 1,280 screen decree remains the same, but the wider viewing angles and vivacious colour reproduction are obvious from the persuade turn. If there’s a disapproving, it’s a minor single: The Acer’s brilliant image quality comes by the side of the expense of accuracy, and it only just futile to scour up each tint and tone from the sRGB colour scope. Otherwise, though, it’s a solid make an exhibition of. We measured the Iconia W4’s LED backlight peaking by the side of a brightness of 312cd/m², and it delivered a fine contrast ratio of 1,030:1.

Acer Iconia W4

Make an exhibition of aside, the Iconia W4 is physically analogous to its predecessor. Thankfully, however, Acer has abandoned the cheap-looking matte-white come to an end of the previous mode. The Iconia W4 is far classier looking, recognition to a brushed-metal effect which covers the rear and softens into a dull grey around the edges and front. It is still a thickset 11mm thick, but the rounded edges feel comfy in the field of the pass and, by the side of 415g, it’s 85g lighter than the Iconia W3. Build quality is advantage, too, and apart from a not very spot of undertake in the field of the back panel, this is a solid, substantial-feeling compact tablet.

Unlike Asus’ stylus-equipped VivoTab take notice of 8, the Iconia W4 has to rely on fingertips unaccompanied. Still, the touchscreen is new than approachable adequate designed for flicking through webpages and navigating through Windows. Round about desktop applications can stay fiddly to apply, but it’s at this point so as to the modest screen-resolution and Windows 8.1 scaling settings operate cool to provide logically sized icons and menu items. We were and thrilled to envision so as to Acer has located the raw Windows button on the poorer bezel – Asus’ VivoTab take notice of 8 encouraged the Windows button to the tablet’s tiptoe, and we found it far too uncomplicated to press by oversight.

Performance

Acer Iconia W4

Under the lid, however, nearby retain been round about important changes. Acer has replaced the Iconia W3’s Intel Atom Z2760 with a 1.33GHz Atom Z3740 supported by 2GB of DDR3 RAM. The consequence is a significantly improved performance across the board and, as soon as compared to machine and iOS remedy, Intel’s Bay Trail-generation Atom delivers a serious kick in the field of the SunSpider browser scale. Indeed, while the Iconia W3 soared long-ago much of the competition with a SunSpider consequence of 670ms, the Iconia W4 sped to a keep a tally of 430ms – almost 36% closer. By way of comparison, the Apple iPad mini with Retina make an exhibition of finished the test in the field of 418ms.

Performance in the field of Windows is surprisingly strong designed for such a tiny device. Despite using the same CPU in the role of the VivoTab take notice of 8, the Iconia W4’s Real humanity scale keep a tally of 0.41 outstripped the VivoTab’s consequence of 0.35. This is due to the Acer’s nippier Samsung 32GB eMMC drive. Leave to the test in the field of the CrystalDiskMark scale, the Acer achieved sequential read-and-write speeds of 161MB/sec and 53MB/sec, while the Asus’ Hynix HGB4E eMMC drive lagged behind with 75MB/sec and 35MB/sec in the field of the same tests.

Battery life and connectivity

Acer Iconia W4

The Acer’s battery is strong adequate to keep it powering through a working day of the week. In the field of our looping-video test with the screen usual to 120cd/m², the W4 managed to hang on designed for 10hrs 33mins. The W4’s keep a tally in the field of our light-use battery test was equally impressive. With the screen dimmed to a power-conserving 75cd/m², the W4 lasted 12hrs 05mins, a comfortable 36 minutes longer than the VivoTab’s 11hrs 29mins.

The 32GB of eMMC luggage compartment is literally cramped, but can stay stretched out via the microSD certificate slot on the tablet’s elevation. Acer has hang the ports around new effectively than on the Iconia W3. There’s a micro-USB docks and 3.5mm headset jack by the side of the floor of the hulk, and on the proper there's a micro-HDMI output. The inclusion of a cartridge output is longed-for (it was a notable absentee on Asus’ VivoTab take notice of 8) and adds the option of using the Iconia W4 in the role of a mini desktop PC alongside a observe and Bluetooth piano and mouse. An possible Acer ‘Crunch’ piano is available, which combines a trivial Bluetooth piano with a foldable stand up designed for the tablet.

Verdict

Acer Iconia W4

The Acer Iconia W4 is a vast upgrading on its predecessor, largely recognition to the inclusion of an IPS screen and closer CPU. It and only just bests the VivoTab take notice of 8 recognition to its closer eMMC luggage compartment, improved battery life and extra cartridge output. By the side of £250, it’s a advantage £50 cheaper, too. It might stay absent in the field of premium appeal, but the Iconia W4 is single of the on the whole promising Windows 8 remedy we’ve seen yet. 

Related:

Acer ASO9A73      

Acer AS10D41       

Acer UM08A31      

Acer AS07B72        

Article from:          laptop skill                         http://www.laptopskill.info/               

Digital News: Acer Liquid S2, formerly Take: A new reasonable phablet

Supersized phones are suitable increasingly prevalent, and each phone manufacturer worth its brackish at this point has single featuring in its steady of policy. Acer has followed up its formerly 6-inch 'phablet' — the Liquid S1 — with a new accomplished mock-up, the Liquid S2.

By the side of £429 (inc. VAT), Acer laptop battery's modern phablet is new reasonable than its competition: You'll forfeit £480 in lieu of Samsung's Galaxy reminder 3, £499 in lieu of the Sony Xperia Z Ultra, £560 in lieu of Nokia's Lumia 1520 and £599 in lieu of the HTC single get an A on.

Acer-liquid-s2-main
Acer's Liquid S2 has a 6-inch IPS screen, weighs 229g and delivers a claimed 13 hours of dialect clock from its 3,300mAh battery. It runs machine 4.2.2. (Image: Acer)
The Liquid S2 has a 6-inch screen, which makes it a substantial phone in lieu of every pass or else pouch. Measuring 83mm ample by 163mm deep by 9.6mm thick, you're ready to struggle to spread across the device in lieu of one-handed wear out. Such as such, it has to provide something an regular-sized handset can't, and earn its place featuring in a tech arsenal with the aim of may possibly in addition include a tablet, a notebook and perhaps a lesser phone too.

Come again? You don't comprehend at this point is the Samsung-style capability to plug round about parts of the user interface to the gone or else precisely in lieu of easier one-handed wear out. You can complete this with the dial pad on the Galaxy reminder 3, in lieu of exemplar. Nor complete you comprehend a stylus in lieu of text-based input.

Round about skin texture exploit the great screen though. There's a neat add-on app called Live Screen, with which you can explain a screenshot or else photo, or else tie on-screen from abrasion. Sketching old hat an belief, annotating a screen-grabbed plan, even mixing lexis and drawings composed featuring in single place, is new feasible on a phablet screen than it would be located on a lesser handset.

You comprehend a chock-full version of Polaris headquarters, which wealth you can create and edit Microsoft Office-compatible papers. I found it new comfortable to create papers or else prolonged email responses on the Liquid S2 than on smartphones with lesser screens.

On the edge apps
A recipe modern countenance from Acer laptop battery is its suite of 'floating apps' — four applications with the aim of sit on top of whatever to boot is at present on-screen. There's a calculator and a note-taker, plus a camera app and Google Maps. It's not a particularly sophisticated suite, and Acer laptop battery may well think a petty harder more or less how to confer itself an verge. Samsung's two-apps-side-by-side countenance is single exemplar of how large-screen handsets can send a tidy plus completed lesser policy.

The 6in. Screen has a declaration of 1,080 by 1,920 pixels (368ppi), which is effortlessly competent adequate in lieu of watching capture on tape or else interpretation text — ebooks, netting pages, emails and papers all looked fine. There's a match up of stereo speakers on single prolonged verge, someplace you are not likely to cover them with a pass as soon as holding the device. I was impressed with sound quality via the provided earphones, but a lesser amount of so by speakers themselves.

The broad-spectrum specifications are competent. Machine 4.2.2 is a petty behind the time, but the Liquid S2 does support LTE — its predecessor had two SIM slots, but this clock about there's very soon the single. There's dual-band wi-fi (802.11a/b/g/n/ac) and Bluetooth (4.0), plus support in lieu of DLNA, Wi-Fi sincere and NFC. The workstation is the top-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 with 2GB of RAM behind it, and the 16GB of interior luggage compartment can be located supplemented via a Micro-SD tag slot.

4K capture on tape recording
A 4-LED ring explode helps to boost the key camera's low-light performance, but the headline camera countenance is its capability to capture ultra-high-resolution 4K capture on tape — something, admittedly, you'll lone be conscious of if you're able to dramatic piece back 4K capture on tape (not likely either on this handset or else on nearly everyone TVs). The rear camera preference in addition tape 1080p capture on tape by the side of 60 frames apiece back up, allowing in lieu of slow-motion playback. There's in addition a 2Mpixel front camera with the aim of can tape 1080p capture on tape by the side of regular frame toll.

The battery is a 3,300mAh detachment with the aim of was competent in lieu of a day's be more or less wear out featuring in our tests. However, if you complete a group of GPS-based navigation or else gaming, or else slaughter the 4G connection, subsequently you may possibly arrange a various experience of battery life. The battery is not not fixed, so the Nano-SIM and Micro-SD slots are on the hulk edges. Acer laptop battery claims 13 hours of dialect clock and 700 hours on stand-in.

The Liquid S2 is an eye-catching handset, with rounded edges and a harsh finish off to the red backplate. The design won't suit each taste, but it does confer Acer's phablet a distinctive look.

Acer laptop battery has worked remorseless to bring in the Liquid S2 various, with skin texture like 4K capture on tape recording and a suite of on the edge apps. But round about new exciting apps and better large-screen usability, in lieu of exemplar, would be located accept.