Reviewing the ACER Iconia dual screen Windows tablet : Test 1 multi touching Cylons..

Ahh the irony thegameveda has been bawling about how few iPad 2 s are in existence and then dagnabit gone and bought a tablet that is even rarer than Steve's job..


And so it came to pass , I found  myself typing this blog entry on a dual screen Acer Iconia tablet. And presently I found myself  delighted by this tablet for crazy people . That is the right kind of crazy people , thegameveda kind of crazy people. 


Naturally I have to test the Acer Iconia through the medium of games , if you need an uber technical view please check .. notebookchecks review which is well worth translating from German to English .  


So today let's start  with Browser gaming : no not Flash in Facebook , but real core gaming courtesy of Bigpoints Battlestar Galactica Online : Time to  buzz Galactica's "tower" , you with me Goose?

You know this runs pretty well on a Windows 7 powered joojoo and the dual screen Toshiba Libretto , but on the dual 14 inch touch screens of the iconia it shines.  This bodes well for other Unity and Browser games .


Straight away you should be able to tell the Intel HD graphics combined with i5 are actually a pretty potent combination on this tablet . You can see Unity , therefore Flash and Java work fine , Chrome can be stretched across the 2 screens and , the wireless N is speedy enough to play a major online MMO, you can also use cable if you must  ! The sound on this machine is also superior to other tablet PCs , I have it turned down in the videos it is so loud! : 


What about productivity that bane of the tablet form factor ?
The Iconia has no problem with me typing this blog entry out in the top screen whilst Youtube uploads  and process the video you are about to see in the second touch screen ..

Preliminary thoughts


There are two worry points that many reviewers have focused on ,the battery life and the integrated  gpu .Let's get these out of the way 


The Acer Iconia ways a ton , you will not be carrying it anywhere , that say you would your iPad 2 , so ,no, don't even think of taking a 3kg dual 14 inch screen tablet into the lavatory.... This is a serious multitasking desktop adjunct. Not a netbook or laptop replacement. As such it is as likely to be used without it's power cord plugged in as your desktop is...


Used with skill the Iconia is a new way to work and play , but you have to learn new ways to accomplish old tasks.Once you do that worries like battery life are irrelevant in  the 10 hour battery span of an iPad 2 you cannot achieve the most basic tasks that the Iconia lets you in minutes. For instance typing this blogger entry in a Chrome browser . That's not even getting to fancy stuff of streaming movies in the top screen whilst Facebooking ,Youtubing and Flickring in the lower window ...


The second worry is the Intel gpu ,  consider this scores higher than any other Windows tablet with a 5.3 and it surpasses the desktop ion that I have been using play the likes of Dragon Age 2 on a joojoo tablet , and that only has an Atom CPU .So there are several thousand FULL games that you can play on the Iconia ,none of which are ever going to make it to iOS or Android. 


Another great Windows 7 tablet the  Asus ep121 slate scores less than 3 in business and gaming graphics but even that manages to play several thousand pc games without breaking a sweat including Starcraft 2 and Call Of Duty Modern Warfare ... 


The latest greatest games are going to be played on your MultiGPU desktop , so the missing discrete graphics really do no bother me  , I mean I am going to play Crysis 2 at 5120 by 1600 on a multi monitor set up ,with real gpu hardware  not on a cut down GPU in a £2000 macbook pro...unless some kind Apple soul donates one to me...


The draw of the Iconia is the evolutionary change in how it gets you multitasking  not the hardware or software  it packs  , the keyboard is the fastest touch screen input device yet created .And Windows fans you can even do Ctrl Alt Del !  as this is the first real multitouch Windows 7 device , with more than 2 point touch . The dual screens ,even when used with an external keyboard are a godsend for multitasking and multi monitor fans. The choice of OS Windows 7 is essential for multi monitor setups , whether it is to allow dual screen gaming ,multimedia,or productivity. The i5 cpu also allows true multitasking ,task it with 10 open Chrome tabs and it still does not slow down and remember you can throw those across two screens ! 


These are great times for people with exotic tastes in PC hardware ,  if you fall into this category you have the  desire to get one already. 


To follow , thegameveda will game on the Acer Iconia using  Steam , Onlive , Impulse and GAIKAI  .meaning I have been playing so many games already that I have had no time to blog about them by the way did I mention the Iconia looks gorgeous?

the Iconia is a glimpse of the tablet future , one beyond i7 , multiscreen  , with discrete gpu and running Windows 8 .. at that point Steve may himself be screaming for a  Mac Air tablet to compete . 


2011 is the year that Windows tablets  bring the cloud and with it desktop productivity ,real gaming independent of hardware ,  everything else is just a substandard camera or thinner version of last years model...




get your Acer Iconia whilst they are still around...


 

 

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