I’m a big fan of portrait-mode thumbing as a keyboard input method. I’ve used it for over 2 years on my Galaxy Tab and it’s been fast enough and easy enough that I’ve posted a large number of blog posts with it. The 10” Acer Iconia W510 with it’s light weight and 16:9 format screen offers something close although it’s not perfect. An 8.9” Windows 8 tablet might be the way forward due to smaller size and a potential sub 500gm / 1lb weight but for the time being, I’m prepared to accept this over the Galaxy Tab due to having the obvious advantage of having full Windows available if needed.
Here’s a video showing portrait-mode thumbing input that I made this afternoon. The video was made in a lower-quality 4:3 to test video editing on the Acer W510. Rendering speed for a 3.5Mbps output was 2X real-time which is acceptable for short videos. I’ll be testing Windows 8 video editing apps in the near future to see if I can find a process that is a bit easier on the finger too.
December 18th, 2012 at 1:44 am
Hi Chippy, Can you also comment on the IPS screen performance in the sun If you can find any at this time of the year or at least very Bright lights. I am outdoor user of tablets, and my Galaxy 7.7 works great in the sun. I was hoping the IPS screen that either the Acer or upcoming Lenovo Tablet 2 have enough NITS and contract to work in the sun. Thanks for another great review.
Cheers..
Mark
December 18th, 2012 at 2:31 pm
The acer w510 will be going back to the store, let me share a few things:
-No recovery Partition, and no way to recover easily, it took more than a few hours to wipe system
-Only one usb, means that at the recovery window you will need a USB hub, touch does not work.
-The sound issue, where the volume level and or the sound quality is so bad, original thought to be driver, is now hardware, I am returning it,
-I should also add I had the Samsung ATIV 500 and the Acer w700 the i3 version.
December 18th, 2012 at 7:30 pm
Did you return the ATIV and w700 too?
December 19th, 2012 at 9:24 pm
both, the w710 was unusable the without a stylus i have my old Asus ep121 and the nexus 7 to keep me company until the next offering from Microsoft surface pro