Laptop/tablet hybrids that can switch back and forth are the new rage. The Acer Iconia W510 is one such. Its a standalone 10” tablet and the keyboard (which contains the spare battery) is an accessory. It appears to be solidly built and looks good. There is an 8 mp camera with LED flash at the rear and a 2 mp camera in front. It is powered by a dual-core 1.8GHz Intel Atom processor with 2 GB of RAM and a 64 GB SSD (just 20GB left for the user) and runs Windows 8 Pro 32-bit.
At 20 seconds, the W510 boots slower than other SSD-based Windows 8 notebooks. Performance is brisk otherwise, and ergonomics are good except for the erratic touchpad. The screen has excellent touch response but it is glossy, not very bright and difficult to view in bright environments. The battery life is impressive – almost 6 hours under normal usage for the internal battery; both batteries together stretched it upto 16 hours!
Overall, the W510 is a built well, and a decent performer. The screen looks good and is very responsive. At 1.3 kgs with the keyboard, its slightly heavy, and the SSD will need to be augmented via microSD card. The battery life makes it practical to carry around. At Rs 48,600, this is possibly one of the cheapest Windows 8 hybrid devices available in the market and we think it is worth a buy.
[This article has been summarized from the original review by our Consumer Technology partner, Techtree.com. Read the detailed review here].
