Acer has upped its game in recent years, and it's easy to forget that
just two years ago the Taiwanese giant made its money peddling
identi-kit budget laptops by their millions. The company has since
turned around its reputation and is responsible for the glorious Acer Aspire S7 - one of finest Ultrabooks out there - and has also got chins wagging about the Acer Iconia W3 - the world's first 8-inch Windows 8 tablet - as well as the Acer Aspire R7 and Acer Aspire P3.
Ratings in depth
The
devices hit at a busy time, with most manufacturers releasing their
second bite at the Windows 8 cherry, with Samsung finally throwing its
weight behind the new OS with its Ativ range, Sony doing impressive things with the Vaio Duo 13, and Asus about to revamp its VivoBook operation.
The first of the new slew of Acer devices to hit the shelves is the Aspire P3, a Windows 8
slate with keyboard docking station which is not unlike last year's
Iconia W5. It's another attempt to woo buyers by offering the
convenience of a tablet but the usability of a full-blooded laptop, a
challenge that every manufacturer of Windows-based hardware has
attempted without success.
The reason for the continued struggle is that the inconvenient
constraints of that thing called "physics" mean that every feature
requires a compromise. Downsizing to make a tablet-laptop portable means
you sacrifice comfort, but adding the components necessary for powerful
computing adds weight, and miniaturising everything costs money. The
result has been a series of cumbersome devices featuring confusing
docks, which weigh the same as a laptop and cost a ruddy fortune.
Acer
has managed to answer one of these complaints immediately with the
Aspire P3. The £529 (around US$820 / AU$900) asking price for the
entry-level model is a fair deal, and makes it one of the best value
devices on the market. Surface RT is cheaper, but while that has enjoyed a price cut to just £250 / US$350 / AU$390 recently, the Windows RT operating system means it's in a lower division to the full Windows 8 Acer Aspire P3 altogether.
Despite
the low price, the Acer Aspire P3 tablet itself is actually very well
made. At 900g (1.98lbs) - or 1.25kg (2.76lbs) with the keyboard
attachment - it's certainly heavy compared to the 670g (1.48lbs) iPad 4,
but there's USB and HDMI ports, a good quality feel and great looks. Our
only complaint is the chunky design, measuring 258.5 x 167.5 x 18.7mm
(10.2 x 6.6 x 0.74 inches), especially since Samsung is boasting that
its Ativ Tab will boast a better spec in a case that's about 33%
lighter.
With a good price and excellent build quality, can Acer
solve the usability question and pack the Aspire P3 with a good enough
spec to make this a killer tablet?
Specifications
With
the entry-level Acer Aspire P3 model retailing for just £529 (around
US$820 / AU$900), compromises will have to be made somewhere. The first
result of Acer's frugality is found at the machine's heart.
Costs
have been saved by using a previous generation, entry-level processor.
The Intel Core i3 3229Y is the chip of choice, which is only a dual-core
chip (with four threads) clocked at a mediocre 1.4GHz. It's one of the
lowest powered Intel Core processors you'll find, but it's head and
shoulders above some of the Atom processors you'll find. Elsewhere there's 2GB of RAM, which is the minimum you'd need for a
good experience, and graphics are handled by the onboard Intel HD 4000
chip, which is the norm on hybrid tablets or Ultrabooks.
The
60GB SSD drive supplied is also minimal, and raises questions about
whether the Acer Aspire P3 could be used as a primary machine for your
business or family. With just 60GB available and no SD card slot,
storage is minimal here, and when we started the Acer Aspire P3 up for
the first time, we were told that only 21GB was free to use - which is a
perilously small amount.
The screen is also mediocre, with the
11.6-inch panel packing a 1366 x 768 resolution. Most of the Aspire P5's
more expensive competition now ships with Full HD 1920 x 1080 screens,
and when the display is 11 inches across you do notice the difference. As
well as the impact on clarity and picture detail, the Acer's panel also
lacked vibrancy, and colours looked pale and washed out - although the
high 400nit brightness does help. Those wanting to use their tablet for
movies or picture editing might want to consider spending more.
If
you don't believe us about the cost-cutting theme yet, the supplied
cameras are further evidence. The rear camera is just 5-megapixels,
which we'd consider to be a decent omission. However, the front-facing
camera which is used for Skyping and video calling only supports 720p
video, which will be sufficient for occasional users, but again, you
will notice the impact.
The Acer Aspire P3 packs in a 5280mAh
battery, which is par for the course on modern tablets. We'd be
expecting around five hours of use from a battery cell that size, so
check the Performance section of this review to see how it fared. As well as the entry-level Core i3 model that we reviewed, an Intel
Core i5 version of the Acer Aspire P3 is also available, priced at
£699.99 / US$899.99 / AU$1,199 with 120GB of SSD storage and 4GB of RAM.
There's also a Core i3 version with a 120GB SSD and 4GB of RAM
available for £629.99 / AU$999 (around US$980).
US customers get an Intel Pentium processor on their entry-level Acer Aspire P3, plus 60GB SSD and 2GB of RAM, for US$599.99.
While
the price is right, however, Acer hasn't done such a good job with the
dock. While many keyboard accessories connect to the laptop physically
and even work as an extra battery to aid longevity, the Acer Aspire P3's
keyboard is simply built into the case and works using Bluetooth. This
is doubtlessly a cost-cutting exercise, but it makes the keyboard a
sticking point for us, for a multitude of reasons, which we'll outline.
Firstly,
it's thin and uncomfortable, flexing heavily even on hard surfaces and
often mis-registering key presses. Then there's the way it holds up the
tablet, propping up the screen at a steep angle that there's no way to
adjust and very hard to balance on your lap. Think that's our only
gripe? We haven't got started yet.
Acer says the battery will last
a week, but if you forget to long-press the power button to turn it off
you get a couple of days. If it gets low on battery, you need to dig
out a small cable to charge it from the tablet, which in turn will need
to be charged. The Bluetooth connection is prone to dropping, because
it's Bluetooth. There's no trackpad on the keyboard, which would still
be handy for documents and working in older programs even if you have a
touchscreen. As
you can see we didn't really like the keyboard, and we didn't even get
on to saying how difficult it is to remove the tablet from the bendy
plastic case or how boringly corporate it looks.
Performance
Benchmarks Cinebench: Open GL: 7.07fps. CPU: 1.11pts 3D Mark: Ice Storm: 20,449. CloudGate: 2358. Fire: 354 Battery Eater: 250 mins
The
Acer Aspire P3's Intel Core processor was never going to set any
records in our testing labs, and a score of just 1.11 in Cinebench
backed this up. This is one of the lowest scores we've seen from an
Intel Core-based chip, and is a direct result of both the lack of cores
the low clock speed. These two factors combine to make for disappointing
performance.
Benchmarks mean little without real-world testing,
but we did feel the lack of raw speed all over the Acer Aspire P3. It
wasn't stuttery - something those who own older Windows laptops might
have experienced - but there's a general lethargy across the whole
operating system, which regularly keeps you waiting. Apps take a long time to open, and menus would often sit for a couple
of seconds before springing into life. One of Windows' virtues is its
ability to run well on lesser hardware, and while the experience rarely
missed a beat, some users might be frustrated by the loading times.
Graphics
power on the Acer Aspire P3 is pretty much non-existent. All of the
graphics and pixel-pushing is left to the onboard Intel chip, and with
barely enough power to keep things running smoothly the Intel HD 4000
graphics chip was hardly likely to ace our frames per second tests.
Most
of our renders chugged along at around 10fps, dropping to below 3fps
for anything resembling an intense modern PC title. If you were wowed by
the idea of a Windows PC in a tablet form for playing games on the
train, you will seriously need to rethink your expectations. However,
for most people, the Acer's graphics capabilities will be sufficient.
Games from the Windows Store still played well, not that there's a huge
selection to choose from, and 1080p video didn't miss a beat during
extensive playback. A light smattering of app-based games and the
occasional movie or TV show rented from the Windows Store is all most
users will need.
With low power often comes savings in battery
life, and this is one area the Acer Aspire P3 prevailed. A score of 250
minutes in our tests, which involve looping high-def video and
simulating office tasks, show it's got the stamina.
This is the
kind of battery life we'd expect from newer fourth generation Intel PCs,
so to find it on this third generation tablet is pleasing. It means
you're getting next generation longevity for less, but the pay-off is
the pedestrian speeds.
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