Acer Iconia W700 review

The W700’s Intel processor requires an internal fan to keep it cool, so you’ll have to live with a small amount of fan noise. The fan noise was never deafening, but it became noticeable when putting the system through anything remotely strenuous.

However, one thing you shouldn’t have to worry about is a lack of battery life. The W700 managed an incredible 10 hours and 20 minutes in our light-use battery test, putting it on par with many Android-based tablets. As long as you’re just typing or surfing the web, it should last an entire working day with the screen’s brightness set to 50 per cent.

In everyday use, we were impressed by the W700’s high-resolution display. It isn’t the brightest around, but the IPS panel has superb viewing angles and produces vivid colours. The screen’s glossy finish helped produce the stunning visuals, but it also created unwanted light reflections. It responded reasonably well to touch controls, with a small amount of flex in the glass and the occasional hiccup with registration, but we could easily navigate Microsoft’s modern user interface.

Unfortunately, the traditional desktop was a different matter. It’s incredibly fiddly to use at 1,920×1,080 and still not suited to a touchscreen, despite Microsoft’s Windows 8 improvements. Menus are troublesome and it can be very difficult to select icons in the default Folder view. It would be much better if Acer had raised the default scaling to 125 or even 150 per cent, or bundled a stylus with the tablet to make it just a little easier to use.

Until now, we’ve had a hard time seeing the point of putting Windows on a tablet, but the Iconia W700 is one of the first to do it well. Its full desktop version of Windows 8 makes it much more useful than Microsoft’s own surface when it comes to installing your own applications. The HD screen is a step above the similarly priced competition, and although we were unimpressed by its bundled keyboard and cradle, they don’t detract from the tablet itself. If you’re looking for Windows in a tablet and don’t mind having to carry a separate keyboard, the Iconia W700 is a good choice.