Ports
Iconia W700 offers a fair number of ports
even though the space on the device is not much. On the right side we have a
micro-HDMI port, a USB 3.0 port, DC-in jack; 3.5mm headphone jack, power button
and volume rocker, which are placed on the right. Regretfully, the device
doesn’t have card reader.
Iconia
W700 offers a fair number of ports
Camera
The rear camera of the device has 5-MP
resolution but provides poor image quality. As we can see from the image
sample, the taken images look a bit grainy and washed out. The 1.3 MP front
facing camera seems to deliver better quality, but not much.
Test
shots from camera
Performance
Being equipped with 1.7-GHz Core i5-3317U
microprocessor, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD made by Toshiba, Iconia W700 provides
amazing results at benchmarks. Testing with PCMark 7, a benchmark that measures
the overall performance, the device reaches the score of 4,439. Though this
score lags behind the number of 4,948 of Aspire S7 (1.9 GHz Core i7-3517U, 4GB
RAM, 2 128GB SSDs), and the score of 4,683 of VAIO Duo 11 (1.7 GHz Core
i5-3317U, 6GB RAM, 128GB SSD), but when compared to other ultraportable
laptops, the performance of the Iconia W700 is pretty good.
The 128GB SSD made by Toshiba used by
Iconia W700 reach the high speed in the tests. In LAPTOP File Transfer test,
the device copies 4.97GB folder, including a media file, and this process only
takes 37 seconds, which means the average speed of 137.5 MB/second. Though this
speed is poorer than VAIO Duo 11 (145.4 MBps), but W700 offers a higher speed
than the average copying speed of the ultraportable laptop lines, which only
reach 77.2 MBps. Aspire S7, the high-end ultrabook model with 2 128GB SSDs,
RAID 0 configuration of Acer, delivers an enormous speed, which is up to 318.1
MBps.
Like the Aspire S7 siblings, Iconia W700
launches Windows 8 in only 10 second. VAIO Duo 11 also offers good startup
speed, with 13 seconds, much faster than the average startup speed of the
ultraportable laptops (running Windows 7 and use HDD) which normally takes 35
seconds.
It’s not surprise when W700 deals with all
assigned tasks smoothly. For example, when flipping the device from the
landscape mode to the portrait mode, the accelerometer of the device change the
orientation of the screen just over a second (some device such as Vaio Duo 11
normally takes over 2 seconds to handle this).
Graphics
Iconia W700 only uses integrated Intel HD
Graphics 4000, so it only delivers sluggish performance. With the 3DMark 11
test, the device scores a humble 412, lower than the number of 657 from Aspire
S7, 615 of Vaio Duo 11 both products also use the same HD Graphics 4000integrated
GPU.
Testing with the 3DMark Vantage test, a
benchmark measuring gaming performance, Iconia W700 also delivers a pretty poor
score: 1,838. The score of Aspire S7 is up to 3,050, and the average score of
the ultraportable laptops is 3,553.
It’s nothing to be surprised, with the poor
benchmark score; performance (frame rate) in the device’s game is very low.
When running "World of Warcraft" game with Settings set at
"Good", the native resolution set at 1,920x1,080, W700 offers 16 fps.
When changing the settings to "Ultra" level, it makes the frame rate
reduce to 8 fps. When lowering the resolution to 1,366x768 and Settings set at
Good, frame rate steps up to 21 fps.
Battery life
Thanks to the high-capacity battery, which
is up to 4,850 mAh, Iconia W700 battery almost meets a whole day working for
you with only one full charge. When testing with test LAPTOP Battery Test
(continuous surfing via Wi-Fi network with the screen brightness set at 40 %),
the device “last” for 6 hours 48 minutes before running out of battery,
completely defeat Aspire S7 (4 hours 10 minutes) and VAIO Duo 11 (5 hours 08
minutes).
Iconia
W700 battery almost meets a whole day working for you with only one full
charge.
Compared to tablets, battery life of W700
is far behind iPad 4 (12 hours 22 minutes), Microsoft Surface RT (7 hours 43
minutes) and a bit better than the ASUS Vivo Tab RT (6 hours 33 minutes). If
compared to Surface Pro, which Microsoft announced that the battery life is
only a half of Surface RT, it’s obvious that Iconia W700 crushes this rival
about battery life.
Configuration
The model mentioned on the article above
has the price of 999 USD. Besides, the device also has another model with the
price of 799 USD (Iconia W700-6607) using weaker processing chipset than
1.8-GHz Core i3-3217U, 4GB RAM, 64GB SSD.
Conclusion
Iconia W700 offers high processing
performance, colorful full HD screen, along with good battery life. The
aluminum design of the device is also attracting and delivers a solid,
luxurious feeling. However, the users will have doubts with the weight up to
over 1.5 kg including dock, along with the very high price, $999 of the device.
Compared to Surface Pro, W700 seems to
offer some strong points to the users: better battery, larger screen and also
the resolution. However, Surface Pro proves to be more suitable to those who
have needs to move, because the separate keyboard of Surface is more
convenient. Dock and the keyboard of Iconia W700 will almost make you work at
your desk, which is just like a PC.
Despite having the luxurious design, high
performance, but from the actual respect, Iconia W700 is not worth for the
price that is 2-time expensive compared to iPad. Anyway, Acer is the pioneer in
bringing Windows experience on the hybrid device, and that’s something to be
happy. However, if you have a budget about 1,000 USD for a Windows 8 device,
IdeaPad Yoga is a more suitable hybrid device.
Strong points
·
Solid and attractive aluminium design
·
Nice screen
·
Sold in pack with dock and keyboard
·
Good performance and battery
Weak
points
·
Expensive
·
Heavy and thick at tablet mode
·
Dock is not convenient for users who are always on the move
·
Poor-quality camera
Solid and
attractive aluminum design
|
Iconia W700 technical specs
·
Operating System: Windows 8
·
Processor Manufacturer: Intel
·
Processor Type: Core i5
·
Processor Model: i5-3317U
·
Processor Speed: 1.70 GHz
·
Processor Core: Dual-core (2 Core)
·
Cache: 3 MB
·
64-bit Processing: Yes
·
Hyper-Threading: Yes
·
Chipset Manufacturer: Intel
·
Chipset Model HM77: Express
·
Standard Memory: 4 GB
·
Memory Technology: DDR3 SDRAM
·
Memory Card Reader: No
·
Solid State Drive Capacity: 128 GB
·
Solid State Drive Interface: Serial ATA/600
·
Optical Drive Type: No
·
Screen Size: 11.6"
·
Display Screen Type: Active Matrix TFT Color LCD
·
Display Screen Technology: CineCrystal/ In-plane Switching
(IPS) Technology
·
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
·
Screen Mode: Full HD
·
Screen Resolution: 1,920x1,080
·
Backlight Technology: LED
·
Color Supported: 16.7 Million Colors
·
Touchscreen: Yes
·
Multi-touch Screen: Yes
·
Graphics Controller Manufacturer: Intel
|
