Review: Acer Aspire P3 Windows 8 slate Acer's recent tablet bash in London not only showcased its latest A1 Iconia Android fondleslab but also on display was its forthcoming Aspire P3 Windows 8 slate. This model exists in the convertible-cum-tablet twilight zone, as it comes with a keyboard cover as standard. Yet Acer really wants you to forget it's a tablet and …
you can buy a traditional laptop pc for a couple of hundred quid. An android tablet for the same or less. Make some sort of tablet with a detachable keyboard. ( a sort of laptop pc) and now we are talking big bucks it seems.
While we are at it why are only the pricey windows 8 laptops equiped with touch screens?. even a bog stock tablet under a £100 has one of those.
Fitting the spec of a laptop into something the size of a tablet is expensive, surely that is not a surprise. Lugging a tablet and a cheap heavy laptop around is also a PITA so this does genuinely fit a new use-case... not one for everyone but if you travel a lot it could be great - watch movies on the tablet, get some work done on your tray-table with the keyboard.
Question... if the keyboard is bluetooth does that mean you can use it when detached?
Lenovo Helix is exactly that, can be used as tablet, notebook or enhanced tablet (with the keyboard attached "convertible style") with batteries in keyboard and tablet unit. Not a Haswell (yet) but that CPU should be out before Q4.
The Sony Vaio Duo (the new 13 even more than the older 11) comes close (convertible but light)
The Q702 and Q572 might also be playing in that field and the Ativ 500/700 series are also there.
Win8 notebooks do not need a touchscreen. Nor do they (or desktops) benefit from that unless you are in a graphic design "heavy" enviromnent - and in that case you buy Cintiq monitors and a workstation (or maybe a T-Series / X-Series convertible)
"...actually provides a neat way to charge the Bluetooth keyboard from the tablet"
No, a 'neat' way to charge the Bluetooth keyboard from the tablet would be a hidden internal contact that trickle charges it all the time it's connected. The phrase you were actually looking for was "ugly kludgy afterthought".
Depends on
+ Mode of use (Pen or Finger)
+ OS used on other systems
If you do not care about touch as some of our customers do than Win7 works almost as well as Win8 (HWR in 8 is better but 7 ist still second best with a huge lead). So if all other units are Win7 - why not.
Now the interesting question is:
Does the P3 have a inductive stylus (some reviews say yes)? With one - interesting. Without - another useless toy like all iThingys, most Androids and all current Acer tablets so far
Can you explain why?
By which I mean - is this an aesthetic choice only, or is there something about Windows 8 that makes it unsuitable for you to work with?
If the former and you genuinely would sacrifice the speed, efficiency, utility, security and let's not piss about here, actual 32-bit operation at minimum and support for software written later than 1999, then I stand by my original statement - there's something deeply wrong with you. You're a twat.
A quick search reveals plenty of people who have successfully installed Windows 7 using a bluetooth keyboard, as well as several people who struggled installing Ubuntu.
The non-working keyboard is purely down to what drivers are loaded at that point in the installation process. An alternative distro (or newer Ubuntu release) that includes the correct drivers should work just fine.
I'm glad the reviewer noted the issue with Linux installation. I'm looking for a device just like this.... My requirements are an 11.6" convertible tablet/laptop with an Intel i5 or better chip that can run Linux.... I need occasionally code on the go and I haven't touched a windows PC (other than at the office) since windows XP was the big news. Even at work I use my Windows pc just to remotely connect to Linux boxes.... As soon as a reviewer confirms that one of these new devices actually works with Linux I'll be all over it.
Troy.
I'm sure you can get round this issue easily enough. Don't boot from a Linux image, but load onto the hard drive, then install from there. Or create a custom install image, and feed it drivers required for USB hubs or Bluetooth (although I don't know how easy that is). Or install over network.
Whether the correct drives for the hardware will all be available is another matter. Last time I tried playing with Ubuntu on an HP tablet I couldn't get the touch-screen or the hardware buttons to talk to it. Which was particularly annoying, as for some weird reason the sound defaulted to mute, and I couldn't get drivers to make the button go. Anyway I was just playing about, so didn't care.
"Does ubunutu have an unattended install option?"
Yes, but without just simply answering "yes" to all questions, it's a bit of a bitch to set up. In a nutshell, you create an install script that decides whether to answer yes or no (or what username, other input fields and such) to things as they come up.
Sort of thing you only need to do once before rolling out to N huge number of workstations I guess, but it's a ballache to do that once.
Try your luck with a Fujitsu T730/T731 or the 900 series siblings. Older units in 12 and 13.3 inch so the base hardware should have support. And Wacom digitizer (unlike the T580) so IF the touch/pen (pen only in the 730 IIRC) is supported then there.
Worst case you end up with a very powerful and long-endurance notebook with fully user-serviceable / upgradable hardware and a still good support from the manufacturer
With a 1080 screen I would agree with you. I'm also still wary of the battery situation. I get that they aren't user replaceable but I'd like a guaranteed way of replacing the battery as 18 months down the line it's likely to be pretty knackered. It's one thing binning a cheap android tablet due to the battery, but a 600 squid slate? Plus the first time anything else goes (ram \ ssd) you are stuffed. Same for a 200 quid droid tab, but it's a third of the cost. Perhaps I'm just showing my yorkshire roots :-)
a lower resolution can be an advantage when it comes to tapping: small full HD screens can be imprecise, making small checkboxes almost impossible to prod
Seriously? Have Microsoft still not got this sorted out: higher pixel density does not have to mean smaller objects. Even though Apple still haven't got this sorted, as the I-Pad Mini demonstrates, they have at least understood how to handle normal / retina displays for apps by only offering one or the other.
Non-adjustable angle of the screen when using they keyboard? Colour me unimpressed.
This is pretty unfair, given that they're the only tablets NOT to have the huge compromise of, "Not able to run their desktop equivalent's software".
I don't want one yet, but they are doing something pretty awesome. Comparing their battery life to an iPad's is like comparing an iPad's to a Kindle's, which have even fewer compromises.
"Even so, the caps lock key is the only really fiddly bit here, being so tiny, and has no status indicator; a must for passwords."
Really? I seem to manage just fine without looking at the Caps Lock LED on my keyboard, mainly because I so seldom need to use Caps Lock at all.
Could it be that the author is one of those who presses Caps Lock, types one letter, then presses Caps Lock again? That's quite common for some reason...
If you want to tear the caps lock key out with a screwdriver, be my guest. I'd rather tear the power button out of the too-many keyboards that have a power button on them. Whose stupid idea was that? Ah yes, the Apple Mac was the first with that little insanity wasn't it?
Some people find caps lock useful, for instance, for typing things like MEMORANDUM or IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ.
Plus if you have your caps lock on while setting your password, it adds an extra layer of confusion for shoulder-surfers.
Given that caps lock is used then, it helps to have an indicator to show whether it's active. That or to have a proper old-skool clicky pushbutton switch that holds the caps lock key down when it's on.
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