Acer has announced that it will be releasing the first 8.1 inch Windows 8 tablet today at the Computex event in Taiwan during a press event where the company unveiled the Acer Iconia W3 to the world.
The W3 has been a poorly kept secret by Acer as the images and specifications for the tablet have leaked on numerous occasions, so its announcement isn’t a huge surprise. This doesn’t take away from the fact that the Iconia W3 is a great looking tablet which will come sporting an 8.1-inch LED-backlit screen that sports a 1280 x 800 resolution and supports 720p HD video playback.
The device comes in at 11.35mm thick so is nice and slender and inside is powered by a nippy Intel dual-core 1.8GHz Atom Z2760 processor. Features-wise the Iconia W3 comes with front and back 2 megapixel cameras, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi and a micro-HDMI port for connecting to a TV or monitor.
Acer will be selling the tablets in 32GB or 64GB variants, both of which can be expanded via the micro SD card slot by up to 32GB extra, and they will be priced at £280 for the 32GB and £340 for the 64GB version.
Acer has also created an optional full size QWERTY keyboard accessory that will cost £58, which will turn the device into a laptop-esq Windows machine.
The Iconia W3 will come running the Microsoft Windows 8 operating system with Microsoft Office Home & Student 2013 pre-installed and will be the first 8.1 inch tablet to do so. It will be available in the UK from June.
Acer has also announced a host of other new products including the Acer Aspire S7 and S3 Ultrabooks as well as the huge Liquid S1 ‘phablet’.