We just sat down for Acer's Computex press conference in Taipei. Today it's unveiling two x86 Windows 8 tablets: the Iconia W510 and W700. 

The W510 features a 10.1-inch IPS touchscreen and features a keyboard dock similar to the ASUS Transformer series. The keyboard dock can rotate into presentation mode, making it more flexible than conventional docking tablets. Acer claims up to 18 hours of battery life on a single charge. The W510 falls in the ~$400 to $799 price range. The W510 is based on an Intel Clovertrail SoC.

The W700 features an 11.6-inch full HD (1920 x 1080) touchscreen with a tilting cradle:

The W700 is based on ultra low voltage Ivy Bridge silicon, and Acer claims 8 hours of battery life on a single charge. Pricing appears to be in the $799 to $999 range. Acer implied but wasn't clear whether the cradle and keyboard are included in that price.

More on specs and details as we get them.

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  • BrazenRain - Sunday, June 3, 2012 - link

    That's two of them. Coincidence? Will they follow up with the W510?
  • aryonoco - Sunday, June 3, 2012 - link

    I can't help but wonder, what does a Windows RT tablet provide that an Android one doesn't?

    On x86, Windows will have a significant application and backwards-compatibility advantage. But on ARM, it will be at least 2-3 years until there are as many Metro applications as there are Android ones.

    Android, with its liberal lisensing terms is allowing price points to be pushed down all the time, to the point that a perfectly usable $200 is now completely viable. Windows RT tablets have to be priced higher, which will put them head to head against iPad.

    What's the point of a Windows RT tablet? Does anyone have more infor or can someone can shed lights on this?
  • mavere - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link

    Judging from the videos I've seen of demo WinRT tablets, saying that Android tablets can do everything WinRT ones can is missing the point because WinRT does things *differently*. The user experience is different enough that WinRT isn't simply a 'me-too' competitor to Android.

    In the short term at least, WinRT will directly take on the iPad in the high-end tablet market while Android finds its foothold in the sub-$300 spectrum.
  • Krinosy - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link

    Office
  • OoklaTheMok - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link

    First off... compatibility. With Android, compatibility is a crapshoot. Some apps work on somde devices, and some don't... That problem doesn't exist on Windows.

    Usability... Android's usability is dreadful compared to Windows in general, including Windows 8.

    All in all, Windows 8 is just a massively better product than Android ICS.
  • davepermen - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link

    having one (the samsung one they gave out at built, just not from built), i can say it with two simple words:
    user experience

    i can not even touch an android tablet anymore, after having had first contact with win8. the user experience, the simplicity, the logic and the beautiful design makes you want to throw away anything android.

    but yes, for some, 200$ is the way to go. i would not even pay that for android anymore.

    wp7 + win8, and you feel like you're in a totally different league.

    and, yes, it's an x86 tablet, and a core i5 with 4gb ram, so it replaced even my desktop (thanks, docking).
  • Visual - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link

    Confused me for a bit there... you must mean the MS BUILD conference, and the model probably was the now old series 7 slate, XE700T1A. A nice model indeed, but launched so late that it missed its chance to shine.
    I would have bought one near the start of the Sandy Bridge era, but it got launched too close to the end instead.
    It is pretty much what I was hoping the Asus EP121 would be, back when rumors suggested it could be using Sandy Bridge.

    The new generation in this segment, i.e. the W700, seems to be a very good improvement. Finally a screen resolution that can fit something in portrait mode, yay! Let's hope it does not lose the active digitizer support though, and that it does not use a HD2500 but a HD4000 GPU. I wouldn't mind an even better GPU, new Brazos maybe, or even discrete, but... ok, ok... I'll be content with a HD4000 too in this form factor.

    Some programmable buttons on the bezel and a mouse trackpad like what MSI had on its 110w would complete the picture quite nice... that's all I'm asking for in a similar device really, been waiting years for it. I hope they finally get it right...
  • IntelUser2000 - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link

    W700-Ivy Bridge based. ALL Core based mobile chips have HD 4000.

    W510-Clover Trail based.
  • Mike1111 - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link

    "Intel x86 SoC"? Atom?
  • Visual - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link

    Medfield or an update of it, not really Atom as we know it from past products.
    http://www.anandtech.com/show/5770/lava-xolo-x900-...
    http://www.anandtech.com/show/5554/intel-demonstra...

    It will be too cut down and incompatible with most old x86 OS-es or apps, so I don't really care for it.

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