An army of 8 inch tablet running Windows 8.1 with an Intel Bay Trail chip at its core is slowly in the making, and the newest to add strength to the brigade is Acer. The company is readying its Iconia W4 tablet device for a probable launch towards end January 2014. As has already been hinted upon, the Iconia W4 will be powered by an Intel Baytrail Z3740 processor while a separate Generation 7 processor also of the Baytrail line up has been included for handling graphics. This together with a 2 GB RAM promises zippy performance though that is yet to be experienced. The tablet is HD capable with a resolution factor of 1280 x 800 pixels while for OS, the tablet runs on Windows 8.1.
Other features of the tablet worth mentioning include the 10 point touchscreen that is based on LED backlit IPS LCD technology, with the latter ensuring wide viewing angles. Internal storage amounts to 64 GB though a variant offering 32 GB of memory is also being speculated. Total weight of the tablet is 15.2 oz and comes with a combination of ports that includes micro USB port for connecting other devices, a micro HDMI port for connecting external display units. There is also a micro SD memory expansion slot along with ports for headphone and mic.
For connectivity, the Iconia W4 is 802.11 a/b/g/n wi-fi compliant. Other features include an accelerometer and dual camera, with the front camera being of 2 MP along with a 5 MP camera along the rear. The tablet though does not feature a LED flash, which means photography in lowlight conditions could be a chore.
As for its price, nothing has been set in stone as yet to the word on the street is that the upcoming tablet from Acer will cost $379. This applies to the 64 GB model while the 32 GB version is expected to cost $330. In any case, others such as Lenovo and Dell have all launched 8 inch Windows 8.1 tablet price around the $300 mark while Toshiba Encore is priced at $330 for the 32 GB model.