14 DAY TRIAL // It looks like those fabled tablet computers that have been the subject of leaks, rumors and official updates over the past few months have begun to actually sell, with Acer having sent out a certain model that could be seen as unusual amongst its so-called media slate peers.
Media tablets have turned out to be such disruptive devices that IT players have been axing CEOs and making management changes.
Acer, for instance, only recently got a new CEO and chose a Corporate President for the new business division it created.
Upon analyzing the situation, one might notice that the irony in all this is that many of the media tablets that were unveiled have yet to start selling.
Apparently, Acer figured it had waited enough, having now been revealed to have begun shipping the Iconia Tab W500.
The reason this model can be considered unusual is the fact that, instead of the Android 3.0 operating system (Honeycomb as it were) it runs the Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium OS.
Regardless, the product should now be up for order in the US and Canada, for the price of $549.99. There is also one with Windows 7 Professional, priced at $619.
For that much money, users will get the AMD C-50 APU (accelerated processing unit), based on the Fusion technology and clocked at 1.0 GHz.
2 GB of RAM complement it (the chip has its own Radeon HD 6250 graphics) and a SSD provides 32 GB of storage (a SD slot lets one add more).
Additionally, the expected connectivity and I/O options are present (802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth, HDMI and two 1.3 megapixel Crystal Eye webcams).
Finally, the product boasts Dolby audio and a 3260mAh battery that can keep everything running for up to six hours (web browsing) or 4 hours of video playback.