We had heard inklings that Acer was working hard to improve its ill-received Iconia W3, and today those inklings turned out to be true — with the company officially unveiling the Iconia W4.
The biggest difference you’ll notice straight away is the screen, Acer has kept the resolution at a rather low 1,280 x 800, but it has now been upgraded to an IPS display — so the colours and viewing angles should both be greatly improved. Acer has also managed to stuff in what is called “Zero Air Gap technology, which essentially just removes all the air between the panel and LCD display to reduce reflection and improve readability.
It’s not all about the upgraded display though, as there’s also Intel’s Bay Trail Atom 1.8GHz processor, and the Windows 8.1 preinstalled.
There are a few more ports on the update than its predecessor, with a Micro-USB port, Micro-HDMI, a microSD slot and even a SIM card slot.
Unfortunately the device is still rather cheap and plasticky, but at least it’s kept the small 8-inch size, and this could be the most compelling Windows 8.1 small and light tablet. At $299, it’s practically a steal.