Acer Iconia Tab W500

“The problem for Acer is its choice of operating system - Windows 7 wasn't designed for use on a tablet, and it really shows.You only need look at a tablet running Android or an iPad running iOS to see how it should be done - and it's nothing like this. We understand the sentiment, but if you need this level of compatibility, you should really be using a notebook, or a desktop and uploading your files onto a cheaper, more usable tablet than this.”

“The Acer Iconia W500 is a device that does the tablet cause no good. The keyboard dock is clumsily implemented but without it, using Windows 7 becomes a chore. After a few more passes from Acer's design bods it could have been closer to a winner, but as is it's too bulky to beat rival Android tablets and not convenient enough to worry ultra-portable laptops.”

“The Iconia Tab W500 wants to be the best of both worlds, in the end it's one of the nicest Windows tablets we've seen so far (barring the small size of the on-screen keyboard) and that's both praise and complaint. Windows 7 does do touch pretty well, but it's always going to be an afterthought for all but a few apps. There's a lot you can do well with touch on Windows, from browsing to playing all of your media (especially in Windows Media Center which works as well for fingers as it does for a remote control). It's the other apps that you want Windows for in the first place that don't always work well enough with touch. You have the keyboard as a fallback, but that's not quite ergonomic enough to really make this the perfect combo. But if you have a tablet PC with a swivelling keyboard that you long to be able to rip off (and you already know what compromises you'll be making), you'll love the Tab.”

“On paper, a tablet with a dockable keyboard seems like the ideal combination for many business users, delivering full-blown notebook functionality and tablet computing in a single package. The Iconia Tab W500 is far from ideal, though: it has just 32GB of internal storage, it lacks an integrated optical drive, the processor is underpowered, and the docked tablet has an awkward weight distribution that makes it unwieldy. And although the Acer Ring overlay is easily ignored if its services don't appeal, Windows 7 just isn't finger-friendly enough to function well in tablet format. Whatever else it is, the Acer Iconia Tab W500 is not a replacement for a standard notebook.”