14 DAY TRIAL // We've seen our share of smart TVs, all-in-one personal computers, smart Monitors, all-in-one monitors, normal displays and even large-size tablets, but the new product from Acer doesn't exactly qualify as any of those.
Sure, it has a central processor, but for all we know, it could be an NVIDIA Tegra 3, the type used in 7-inch and 10-inch tablets of two years ago.
After all, Acer only says that the so-called all-in-one is designed with an "NVIDIA Tegra quad-core processor."
And since the storage space is of only 16 GB (even microSDs can go much higher), we can't really qualify it as a full PC.
Which makes the resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 pixels all the more surprising. Well above the Full HD that still reigns supreme.
Between that and the presence of the 2-megapixel webcam, as well as the USB 3.0, HDMI and DisplayPort inputs, there is enough cause to claim that this is just a monitor capable of running its own operating system.
Acer named the newcomer TA272 HUL and went as far as to install 10-point multitouch support on it.
Thus, most of the time, if you buy the item, you will likely use it as a monitor for your Windows 8 PC. The rest of the time, if you need to switch the PC off or feel you only need to go on the net, or check social networking, you can use it as you would a tablet.
Acer has given the TA272 HUL the price of $1,099 / €1,099, which is $100 / €100 more than a normal monitor.
We aren't sure what the use scenarios of something like this would be, except for, say, coming home and wanting to just get online fast, to check your e-mails or social networking updates and whatnot.
Other than that, the Android OS and hardware needed to run it are mostly there as a curiosity. At least it shows that the ARM-based PC market is not completely dead.