 This video is brought to you by the Corsair Voyager Air, the high-performance wireless media hub for your connected life. Visit corsair.com slash voyager-air to learn more. So what was missing on Windows 8 or Windows RT devices compared to Android devices? You could make an argument for quite a few things, but I would say that one of the big ones was variety. Early on when Microsoft released Windows 8 and Windows RT, they only had a specification for how the operating system was supposed to work for down to a 10-inch tablet. So that's why you saw so many devices in that size range. The way that the menus were designed to work, the way multitasking was designed to work, wasn't made for smaller tablets. That's all changed as of around Computex this year, and Acer's first response to this need for smaller Windows devices is the W3 tablet. So we're going to go ahead and fire this bad boy up and see what we think of it. Now like some of my unboxings lately, you can see that the packaging has been removed. Also the device might look like it's been used for a bit because I have done that thing. So this is the packaging that you would normally find on it. Here is the do not discard thing with your product key, which I'm of course covering up for safety. And then we've also got a quick start guide, a power adapter. Let's see if I can get this out of there. There we go. Might have broken a little bit. And the piece that that goes into. So this allows Acer to easily adapt for different regions. So power adapter is pretty much what you'd expect. And I think that's pretty much it in terms of accessories. So physically the device shouldn't be too surprising if you've seen a tablet in the last five years or so. What can I say? It's pretty thin. Okay. So this is the iPad mini one for comparison, not by any stretch of the imagination as thin as something like an iPad mini, but it's a bit of a different device. It's meant to be more of a productivity device as opposed to the iPad mini feels more like an entertainment, you know, mobile gaming platform or mobile media consumption platform. Right here is where you'll see it compared to an HTC one in terms of screen size. So that's a five inch screen compared to an eight inch screen up on the top of the device. We don't find anything particularly surprising a volume rocker as well as a micro SD expansion slot. It should be noted that Google's moving away from micro SD. Apple has never really had any support for it, but that doesn't seem to be the case with Windows devices, at least at this point in time on the right hand edge. We find that this is a bit of an odd one. So there's two speakers, two stereo speakers here and here. And then we've also got power in as well as a headphone microphone combo jack on the back of the unit, we find a shiny Acer logo, just kind of a pretty slick, but it has a bit of grip to it. So it's not completely glossy and slippery. So a bit of a slick back as well as an Intel inside sticker and a Windows eight sticker. We also find a two megapixel webcam both here and on the front here. So this is sort of sort of weird because you look at the Acer logo on the back here and it looks like, okay, this is an intended to be used as landscape device. There's an Acer logo there. But then the Windows button is here. So that looks more like a portrait device. And then the stereo speakers are here and here, which makes it look more like it's intended to be used in portrait mode as well. And then your webcam is up there. So maybe Acer was kind of hedging their bets going, okay, well maybe some people will use it landscape. Some people use it portrait, and we're not going to put them into a box in terms of how they intend to use it. But it gives you some challenges because for me, particularly when I'm consuming media, I would hold it in landscape mode, duh. And both of my stereo speakers are now on the right. So I lose stereo, which is sort of the point of putting two speakers on one of these devices. And then if I was doing something like web camming with a relative, I don't know, maybe I would hold it like this and then I can sort of thumb type. So I guess I understand the orientation of the webcam up there. But just the whole thing still feels a little bit weird to me. Acer sent along a couple of accessories for us to check out while we were spending some time with the W3. So this one right here is a case, protective case. I think I joked about this on Twitter when I originally got the shipment because I had just dropped my HTC One. And I was like, really? You drop one phone and every manufacturer sends you a protective case for the samples that they lend you? Geez, come on. Anyway, so it fits in here pretty easily. Actually, it's similar to the W700 that I'm using right now over here to display my notes for this particular unboxing. So all it does is there's a spot for the webcam right there. It clips into the plastic shell piece. And then that gives you a couple of options in terms of whether you want to just close it. It's got kind of a pleathery feel to it overall. So you can do that or you can prop it up this way for more like sitting and typing. There we go. It looks a little something like that. No, I don't want to restart right now. I'm in the middle of unboxing Windows 8. Okay? Or you can put it all the way down and that would be more like a content consumption or a touchscreen sort of interface mode. Now I want to talk specs as well. So it has an Atom Z2760, 2 gigs of memory. So it's a 1.5 GHz base, 1.8 GHz boost processor. It's got 32 gigs or 64 gigs of SSD storage. So that's going to be EMMC. It's not going to be a full blown SSD, but it's fast enough for the sort of portable 8 inch touchscreen experience. They're quoting an 8 hour battery life, uses wireless N as well as Bluetooth 4.0 to communicate with various things such as the keyboard accessories. So this is actually a pretty neat little keyboard. It is able to do a couple of things pretty well. So number one is it's reasonably comfortable to type on, which you wouldn't expect for an 8 inch tablet keyboard. However, it's quite a bit larger than the keyboard. So it's not as portable. I think it takes away from the mobility of the device a little bit. But what's good about it is the fact that because the device comes with Office Home and Student, which I think is a really, really cool add on, it turns it into something that's more than just a way to watch movies on the plane, but something that you can actually get a little bit of work done on compared to most tablets, particularly in this size range. It actually clips onto the tablet itself just like this. There we go. So here, I'll show you guys how this works. So the two speakers down there, that might be part of the reason for the design there. Go there. And then it clips into place. So the screen itself is actually protected. And then you can carry around the whole thing like this, maybe stuff it into a bag or whatever else. But the weight and size starts to become more like something like a netbook class product as opposed to something like a tablet with a wireless keyboard that goes with it. Now I've made it this far in without criticizing it yet, but I have to do it. Unfortunately, the W3 uses a TN panel. And particularly in something like a mobile device where you're out and about and you can't necessarily guarantee that you're going to be viewing it from the optimal angle, I do find that to be a bit of a deficiency in this product. So I'll give you guys some idea of what the viewing angles are like here. I'm just going to go out of there so you can see that we start to see at probably around 60 degrees. We start to get inverted colors sideways. And then when we tilt up and down, yeah, we definitely see those characteristics of TN panels really shine through. With that said, it should be noted that IPS panels are more expensive. So it's a give or take. Do you want a tablet that's small and portable and reasonably powerful, comes with Office, or would you rather it had a nicer screen and you'll get your own copy of Office? Ultimately it's up to you. However, there aren't really that many options out there comparable to the W7 or the W3 right now. So yeah, there you go. Thank you for checking out this unboxing and first look of the W3 from Acer. Don't forget to subscribe to Linus Tech Tips for more unboxings, reviews, and other computer videos.