The improved power management means that the 9800mAh battery is good for close to 18 hours per charge with use. The tablet has dual stereo speakers, 32 GB of storage space, a microSD port, and a five-megapixel camera. The tablet also has a SIM card slot allowing for 3G connectivity along with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

The new information we have is that the Wi-Fi only version will land in France and possibly the rest of Europe starting next month for €399. The tablet will come in black or silver and there’ll be a bunch of accessories available. That price is much more bearable than the original €499 that had been tipped last month.

[via Notebookitalia]

This device is given the CloudMobile name because of its ability to work with Acer’s version of the cloud as we were given introduction to at CES 2012. This device is set to bring a depth of less than a centimeter and a lovely “Sleeve DNA design” which includes comfortable wrapping contours, soft and smooth for a great experience in the hand. This device also features a stainless steel reciever on the front, a fabulous Dolby speaker plate on the back, and “tiny perforation” that bring a tactile experience to such tiny details as the volume button.

This smartphone has an extremely narrow bezel to make the device appear to slim down throughout, the display appearing large in its grand 4.3-inch size, fully laminated and HD. This device device is set to be shown at MWC but will be available throughout the world in the third quarter of 2012. There’s currently no word on whether this includes the United States or not, but given that we have had Acer tablets on US carriers as recently as last year, chances are good!

Have a peek at the phone above and get pumped up for Barcelona, following SlashGear each day through our [MWC 2012 portal]

Featured: Our featured stories today include a review of the Acer Aspire S3 (Core i7) as well as a review of Tweetbot for iPhone. Be sure to check them out. In addition, if you’re looking for some early analysis on this month’s upcoming Mobile World Congress, check out this column from our Chris Davies – Apple will dominate MWC and it won’t even be there.

Mobile: AT&T is doing some damage control as it tries to explain away is 2GB throttling of unlimited data plans. Meanwhile, on the rumor mill, we’ve heard a new report on the possibility of a 7-inch iPad being released this year. 2012 could finally be the year that two iPads are released; the iPad 3 is expected to come forth within the next month. Oh, and HTC fans should be please to see this scheduled of Android 4.0 ICS upgrades.

Other Stuff: Hey, here’s something we don’t get to say often – TiVo’s in the news. The company has released a new set of “DirecTiVo” boxes for DirecTV customers. And on a completely separate note, Sony has revealed everything you can expect in a PlayStation Vita First Edition bundle. And if nothing above strikes your interest, this surely will – Steve Jobs FBI file pulled with Freedom of Information Act. Well that’s all for today. Check back tomorrow at the same time for Friday’s evening wrap-up.

Hardware

For those of you wondering, this device goes by the code S3-951-6432. You’ll find that the display has a perfectly bright and sharp widescreen view for your gaming, processing, and video viewing needs, but beware the glossiness of the display if you’re planning on using this laptop outdoors. Of course you’re not the type of person to go galavanting around the park with a laptop, so you’ll only be worried about your ability to have a great experience on the run. This notebook is made for your ability to both carry it around all day and provide you the power you need to use it for all of your daily activities be you a student, a journalist, or a graphic designer, all the same.

The keyboard is one made for typing rather than gaming, and you’ll find that using the return key and the arrow keys will be a bit of a learning activity at first as they’re connected in space and not separated by the surrounding base of the notebook. On the back of the device you’ll find two USB 2.0 ports, a full-sized HDMI port, and your power port. On the right you’ll find a full-sized SD card port (that also has the ability to read MultiMediaCard (MMC) units) and on the left you’ll find a headphone jack. On the bottom left and right near the front of the laptop are speakers, each of them part of the Dolby-optimized speaker system which together create a surprisingly nice sounding experience for movie-watching especially.

On the other hand, don’t expect to watch a movie with a group of too many folks to you left or two your right as the viewing angles aren’t too fantastically great here. Watch the hands-on video to see a basic view of how far you’ll be able to see, but note that it’s certainly not more than 60 degrees in any direction from straight on. Straight on though, and inside everywhere 60 degrees looks just as bright and sharp as a Core i7 processor under the hood would suggest. I’ve heard reviewers speaking on how the color accuracy isn’t perfect, and I agree, but the difference between this display and a perfectly tuned display for graphic designers and photography majors is so small that I doubt anyone in the field will have a big issue. Those of you in the photography business should take note though – perfection is needed!

Inside you’ve got Bluetooth 4.0, the multi-gesture touchpad is precise and makes for an easy to control experience all around, and the webcam is alright – good enough for video chat certainly. You’ve got 3.86 GB DDR3 SDRAM at 666MHz controlled by your HD 3000 graphics control unit, and a partridge in a pear tree. And that’s just the hardware. The whole thing looks rather nice too, if you don’t mind the similarities to the rest of the ultra-thin super-powered notebook competition out there. Take a peek at this tower of laptops to see the difference between the units your humble narrator has been using lately – up top you’ve got an 11-inch MacBook Air, next the Acer Aspire S3, a MacBook Pro 15-inch, and a gigantic mother of an Alienware gaming notebook M17xR3 complete with lots o’ lights – each of these units has a different purpose, and the size shows their power here, as it were – note that the MacBook air is from a few years ago so isn’t as pumped up as the line is today, and you can check the Alienware machine in action back at Arkham City.

Software

You’ve got Windows 7 Home Premium right out of the box and Clear.fi for all your personal cloud needs. This machine is set to bring you a personal experience for, again, the student or the everyday average user – with the i7 under the hood you’ve got the ability to play some higher powered software if you wish, but for what the machine comes with – not one whole heck of a lot – you’ll be more than prepared to run the heck out of all of it. Take a peek at this hands-on with the machine and get a glimpse of how quick the machine starts up from being off completely, how the display looks, and the basic software set you’ll get with Windows 7 Home Premium.

Performance

You’re certainly going to see the S3 knocking out the benchmarks as any i7-toting machine should, and as far as the instant-on feature goes: it really truly does make the machine seem much higher class than previous models with a much slower wake-up time. This machine is speedy, hasn’t had a real rough time working with any of the built-in apps or functions it’s got out of the box, and is OK for some random gaming here and there. Again, this machine is by no means built for hardcore gamers, but if you’re just looking to play a racing game here and there, you’ll be set.

Battery

One of the most awesome bits in this machine’s bag of tricks is the Instant-On technology Acer is employing, this allowing you to pop your machine open and have it up and running in 2 seconds. The real magic here is when you close the notebook though, as once you’ve closed the machine it goes to one level of sleep, then after 8 hours it goes into a much deeper sleep which will preserve the battery for a total of 50 days — we’ve not had the machine for quite that long, so I’ll report in on that once the battery dies. Thus far we’ve seen this machine play video for 4 hours straight before dying, and with basic functions like typing and web browsing we’re seeing closer to 6.

Wrap-up

This machine is a great example of what the Ultrabook line is meant to be: relatively light, thin, and powerful enough to knock the netbook name out of the realm of reality. With the price on this particular setup being a bit more than the standard build, you’ll need to think about what you’re planning on using the machine for – if it’s home use for the internet and simple games exclusively, you’ll want the more basic Core i5 build. If you’re attempting to run some more impressive games and maybe a bit of the ol’ video processing, this i7 build is the one you want. Toss it in your backpack and be surprised at how little it ads to your daily weight, break it out at the coffee shop and impress the denizens of the generally Apple-heavy world of public browsing. Acer has come through with a winner here, folks, make no mistake about it.

Google will be fully approved for the Motorola Mobility purchase they set out to take last year. Apple is facing some store protests today over ethics violations folks across the USA are saying they’re guilty of overseas. Take a peek at the Lytro camera from the insides out – at the FCC. Have a peek at the already fabulously popular Nokia N9 running no less than Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Once Google owns Motorola, they plan on continuing to run the drive to grab 2.25% of the iPhone in a patent suit. Meanwhile Google may well be opening a retail store in Dublin. Apple’s own iOS 5.1 will be coming on March 9th and insiders have tipped a first week of March iPad 3 event. Kodak has dumped digital cameras and Samsung Galaxy Camera is a tip that’ll bring Samsung phones in to cameras. Finally check out our review of the fabulous Acer Aspire M3 AM3970 and prepare for an Acer Ultrabook later today!

Hardware

Aesthetics are secondary for a standard desktop, but as they go, the AM3970 is decent. A steel chassis is surrounded by glossy black panels on the front and top, with only two subtle blue LEDs for power and drive status – a plus in my book. The power button is placed oddly on the upper left corner of the right side, making seeing and using it tricky if you place your computer on the floor or to the right of your monitor. On the floor is certainly where it’s intended to be, with four USB ports plus a headphone jack and line in on the top of the computer. The eject button is also on the right side, implying that the computer is intended to be beside or below the user’s desk and to the left, and leaving little choice otherwise. Once placed there, using the SD/MicroSD/Compact Flash/XD/Memory Stick card reader becomes a chore, thanks to the black-on-black inlaid slots.

Move around to the backplate and you’ll find all the standards, with a generous helping of USB ports. The four ports on the top are paired to ten (count ‘em, ten) on the back, leaving all but the most compulsive of plug-and-players well covered. Two of these ports use the new USB 3.0 standard – a nice touch. A pair of standard PS/2 ports are present for all you old-school Model M and Intellimouse enthusiasts. Our review configuration (AM3970-UR11p) came with discrete graphics and the on-board integrated VGA and HDMI ports disabled, with a DVI port and another HDMI taking their place on the expansion slot. Just below that you get a WiFi PCI adapter to compliment the gigabit Ethernet port, complete with detachable antenna.

Moving on to internals, the AM3970 comes with a 3.0Ghz Core i5 2320 CPU, 8GB of DDR3 memory (2×4 DIMMs) and a 1TB traditional hard drive. When compared to similarly priced desktop models from Dell and HP, Acer gives you identical components with an extra 2GB of memory. Along for the ride are a standard DVD-RW drive and a discrete AMD Radeon HD 6450 graphics card. Popping the access panel off requires a screwdriver (no thumbscrews) and while pre-built desktops like this one aren’t often made with expansion in mind, a reinforced back panel and a decent amount of room inside should make that easy enough for those who want to upgrade components later on.

A mouse and keyboard are included, naturally. It’s hard to mess up an optical mouse, but the keyboard deserves special attention – and not in a good way. Long travel on the keys combined with a glossy backing will make cleaning a nightmare, and the mushy feedback had me reaching for my spare Microsoft model almost immediately. This is rather disappointing, especially when compared to the quite respectable keyboards Dell tends to include.

Software

Acer includes the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium, the better to take advantage of that 8GB of RAM. Bloatware on basic desktops can be a problem, but on the AM3970 it’s better than I’ve seen elsewhere. Acer seems to be favoring static and easily deleted desktop shortcuts for a little promotional cash, which is fine by me. You still get a few extras that aren’t strictly called for, including the obligatory Microsoft Office trial and Bing bar, Norton Backup, Nook and New York Times readers, Evernote and Skype. With all that in there it would have been nice to see Chrome or Firefox, saving me a download.

With the exception of McAffee’s nagging reminders, auto-starting software is blessedly limited and mostly silent. The rather superfluous MyWinLocker encryption software, Norton Backup and Acer’s Clear.fi sharing service are the only other hangers-on in the Startup tab. All things considered, it shouldn’t take much for even intermediate Windows users to get the AM3970 running exactly as they want it, with a minimum of tinkering – though I note without surprise that neither an OS install disc or or restore disc is included.

Performance

The combination of a Core processor and plenty of RAM makes standard tasks basically effortless on any modern machine, and such is the case here. But thanks to a little extra memory and the discrete Radeon HD 6450 card, the AM3970 is slightly more capable than its competitors who lack one or both. It should handle processor-intensive talks up to and including some light video editing with ease, and HD video playback is smooth in both local and online playback.

That Radeon 6470 won’t get you very far with the latest PC games, unfortunately, and the combination of a single DVI and HDMI jack means you’ll have to get creative with cables and/or adapters if you want have more than one monitor. That said, less demanding games like Team Fortress 2 and such should function just fine.

Wrap Up

While there’s not much demand for the product category, the AM3970 definitely stands out in its limited field. Generous memory and discrete (if only just) graphics give it a performance boost that will satisfy most, and a ton of USB ports and a roomy interior make it suitable for hardware enthusiasts looking to expand. Software load is relatively light, and Windows regulars will feel right at home and unusually unburdened. The odd ergonomics of the case and downright awful keyboard are an issue, but should be easy enough to adjust to (or in the case of the keyboard, replace). All in all the Acer is a solid choice for those needing desktop-class power without breaking the bank.

Lanci left Acer in March last year, reportedly over disagreements around product strategy. He and the Acer board “placed different levels of importance on scale, growth, customer value creation, brand position enhancement, and on resource allocation and methods of implementation” the official statement claimed, with insiders indicating Lanci wanted to put more emphasis on mobile products such as phones and tablets.

“Gianfranco brings years of expertise and insights to Lenovo that will help us strengthen our growing global consumer business” Lenovo CEO Yuanqing Yang said of Lanci’s new role last year, though Acer apparently wanted him to keep those insights to himself. The Chinese firm has ambitious growth plans for 2012 and beyond, dependent on building more of a footprint outside of the enterprise market it has historically seen success in.

Neither Lanci nor Lenovo have commented on the lawsuit, which Acer has submitted to the Italian courts.

[via Google+]

According to Digitimes, Acer plans to focus most aggressively on ultrabooks out of the four major product segments. The company is set to launch four new models in the second and third quarters. While ultrabooks are currently rather pricey, Acer intends to introduce models priced more moderately in the range of $699 to $799.

However, the company plans to compete less on price and more on user experience and demand. Acer president Jim Wong noted that the high-end and low-end markets are dominated by Apple and Amazon, respectively. Therefore Acer intends to focus on the mid-range, which has an estimated shipment scale of 10-20 million units.

The company also plans to merge its netbook and ultrabook businesses within the next 18-24 months. Although developed countries are increasingly interested in ultrabooks, netbooks still can thrive and grow in developing countries and Acer intends to maintain its 45 percent worldwide market share in that space.

[via Liliputing]

“Apple’s Macbook Air represents a symbol of both the opportunity and challenge for the ultrabook… and while it has been very well received, the consistently high price point of the Macbook Air and other Macbook products have meant that they remain a niche segment of the market,” Juniper admits in its research note. However, the cost of entry will be scaled down significantly over the next few years.

As we all know, tablets are great but they are limited because they lack such peripherals as a keyboard or mouse, by default. There’s a reason that a market exists for Bluetooth iPad keyboards and the like. By Juniper’s predictions, 178.2 million ultrabooks will be shipped by 2016, with the bulk going to North America and Western Europe. The growth in this nascent segment will exceed tablets, the research firm said, so even though the word “ultrabook” still hasn’t made it into many people’s lexicons just yet, it will.

[via Consumer Reports]

Enter German website Tablet Test, which has listed a price of €549 for the entry-level 16 GB version of the device and €749 for the 64 GB model. In American currency, that works out to around $719 and $981, respectively. These are admittedly a bit steep, but the power that comes packed in these monstrous devices is worth it. The question is whether or not they’ll sell.

Obviously these are not official prices. Acer hasn’t confirmed pricing in any territory yet. To that end, it also hasn’t confirmed a release date. However, the company has slated a vague second quarter time frame. The A700 is perhaps Acer’s biggest push into the tablet market to date, and there are many eyes wondering how it will fare.

[via Tablet Test]

For CES 2012 collections, we’ve got the almighty Ultrabook Round-up at the head of things, then a Smart TV Round-up to keep your displays wishing they had some more intuitive bits of software behind them. The tag team of Tablet Round-up and Smartphone Round-up brings the mobile to the party, and our gigantic Best of CES 2012 will let you in on the top excellence. I also invite you to come with me on a journey through the week with your humble narrator and his gear (my backpack included) in a column called My CES 2012.

Our week this week then started with an announcement of sorts from Microsoft that Skype on Windows Phone would finally be hitting the public – soon – and it may be their wild card, so says Chris Davies. Meanwhile there’s a brand new Nissan self-healing iPhone case on the streets, and Android lovers had a field day with Steve Wozniak’s comments on what he thought was better than iOS in the Google mobile operating system.

In hacking news there was one whole heck of a lot to be had, starting with the Zappos break-in, moving on to the 6pm break-in, and our subsequent PSA SlashGear 101: Basic Password Security. We saw $6.7 million USD stolen in a cyber bank robbery. We then started relatively early in taking on SOPA and PIPA with an explanatory post by the name of SlashGear 101: SOPA and PIPA explained in plain English. We also took a very clear stand in SOPA and PIPA are the Wrong Way to Tackle Piracy and the video by Clay Shirky for TED tells it like it is as well. As it turns out, the Internet won and SOPA and PIPA were delayed indefinitely.

The next bill by the main SOPA sponsor is 1981, and is much scarier.

The next hammer to fall was Megaupload being knocked out amid piracy indictments. In response to this, Anonymous DDoS attacked the Department of Justice, the RIAA, the MPAA, and Universal Music. The Megaupload team spoke out, followed by Anonymous becoming more vocal on #OpMegaUpload.

Apple was the first tech company to join the Fair Labor Association, the “Icons” Steve Jobs action figure was completely axed, and it’s looking like Scott Forstall is aiming for the CEO spot soon. There’s been a bit of a tip that the iPad 3 will come February while the iPad 2 remains on sale. There’s another rumor out there that says the iPad 2S is up next while the iPad 3 gets pushed back.

Another tablet out there this month that will be no competition for the iPad at all whatsoever was the Hongpaiyihao Chinese “government official” slate which costs more than any other tablet on the market and has next to nothing appealing in or on it. A more real competitor is continuing to take shape in the Windows 8 Tablet space, Microsoft releasing hardware requirements for manufacturers to start the year off right. The Acer Ultrabook lineup is also set to take off.

The education world was hit with a few announcements from Apple with iBooks 2 and textbooks, the price point of $14.99 for textbooks, and iBooks Author – free for download. We got hands-on with iBooks Author, iTunes U, and iBooks 2. You can get the whole Apple education roundup at once. Also read up on what Philip Berne has to say in The Problem with Tech and Teaching.

Microsoft also came correct with an early preview of System Center 2012 which will be hitting your private cloud sooner than later! Michael Crider reviewed the new HP Folio 13. Alienware revealed the fabulous Alienware X51 crossover device. The folks at Scientology are creating a new Super Power Building with their followers’ cash, the fifth oldest tree in the world The Senator spontaneously combusted, and the Costa Concordia cruise ship fell on its side and went halfway under off the Tuscan coast. You can see it from outer space or from under the sea.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is being pushed to tablets. BlackBerry got told by Chris Davies in a column called RIM should think Type not Touch for the new PlayBook. Samsung is walking a narrow road with their update to Ice Cream Sandwich with their Galaxy devices, keeping with a Value Pack instead of a full upgrade for older models. Samsung is also working on a bada / Tizen merge that’s not yet final. Microsoft and ZTE gave each other a high five and us a preview hands-on with the ZTE Tania running Windows Phone. Meanwhile there was a strange silence from Microsoft on Windows Phone in their quarterly financial results announcement.

There was a bit of a change as AT&T amped up their prices and T-Mobile followed suit. The social network Facebook updated its Timeline to spread to everyone. Kodak went bankrupt. Resident Evil 6 was announced. Don Reisinger columned about the next PlayStation and how HBO Go is the next Netflix.

Music keeps getting more and more serious in the mobile realm, especially with iPad, starting with the Auria 48-track recording system app. There’s a set of three Behringer iPad mixers out there now, and the Akai MPC Fly turns your iPad into a portable beats center. The Numak IDJ PRO DJ Controller sits your iPad at the center of all the fun. Gotta catch em all!

The Aspire A0722 packs a 1GHz AMD Fusion C-50 dual-core processor with Radeon HD 6250 graphics, 2GB of RAM, and a 320GB hard drive. It’s six-cell battery offers a long battery life, although the specific rating was not listed. It also comes with a webcam, three USB ports, VGA, Ethernet, and HDMI.

The A0722 is available now via www.att.com for $449.99 without an annual contract. But with a two-year service agreement that requires a 3GB monthly data plan, the netbook can be had for $39.99.

[via AT&T]

There are three Ultrabooks that are rather important to Acer’s success this year, that being the Aspire S5 and the Acer Timeline Ultra in both of its iterations, the 14-inch and the 15-inch. These three models plus the fact that the Acer Aspire S3 will have its price slashed by “as much as $200,” should make for quite a killing in the seasons ahead for Ultrabook sales by Acer. As Acer chairman and CEO J.T. Wang says, as quoted by Digitimes in Taiwan:

“Sales of Acer’s first Ultrabook, the Aspire S3, totaled about 250,000-300,000 units in the first quarter after launch, and the company expects sales for its new Aspire S5 tablet PC will be even better. … Acer’s notebook shipments are expected to drop 10-15% sequentially in the first quarter of 2012, but total shipments for all of the year will still post an on-year growth of 10%, said the company.” – Wang

These notebooks are all really nice machines, as you’re about to see. First have a look at the Acer Aspire Timeline 14 and 15 in hands-on photos from that faithful day over a week ago, then check this video out:

What you’re seeing is the Acer Aspire S5‘s most magical feature, that being a bit of a mechanism working with a motor that pushes the back out and down, this revealing a set of ports that otherwise would increase the size of the notebook by a significant amount. This way you’ve got the option to stay thin in the backpack. Will it and the rest of the full packages Acer has to offer this year be enough to clobber the competition in the Ultrabook world? We shall see!

[via Digitimes]

The Galaxy Note is what Samsung is placing in its own category, saying that it’s not exactly a tablet, yet not exactly a smartphone either. What it does amount to is a pretty neat little in-between complete with Gingerbread, a built-in stylus, and the promise of Ice Cream Sandwich early on in 2012. There’s currently a white as well as a black version, both to be released soon. Another device we’ve got to look forward to soon is the ASUS Padfone, this device having now gone through a couple of iterations since its first announcement and set to be officially unveiled for release at MWC 2012.

For readers there wasn’t one whole heck of a lot of differentiation to be made between the masses, but the Kyobo Mirasol eReader did catch our eye with its unique method of lighting, it’s logo reflecting the butterfly-like feature of the display. There was also the Jetbook Color eReader, a CES award winner, whose maker we got to sit down with and have a talk about.

As for the Windows 8 world, groups like Qualcomm and their S4 chip showed off what WILL be possible in just a few weeks or months. We’ve already also had a look at a developer tablet running Windows 8 inside 2011, but will be looking forward to the full real deal in early 2012.

The team at Acer came to the show swinging, it’s early Sunday showing of their newest Android-based Acer Iconia Tab showing us what it means to rock with a fabulously high definition display and the NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core chip inside. They also re-showed a slightly less impressive tablet/laptop combo by the name of Iconia Tab W500, this showing us that they’ve more than likely got better concepts in the works for Windows 8, or we can hope! Toshiba brought with them a couple of slight upgrades from their already released line, one being the smaller version of the Thrive we’ve already reviewed in the Toshiba Thrive 7, bringing then the lovely thin and fully functional Toshiba Excite x10 as well for a real contender in 2012.

Then it was Asus all the way – bringing the fire with not one, not two, but three new tablets that all had a bump over not only their own previous models, but the competition as well. Not to be mistaken for one-another, Asus brought forth two 7-inch MeMO devices, one designated 171, the other called 370t. The first one, the Asus MeMO 171, is rolling out with a Qualcomm 8260 1.2GHz dual-core processor and Honeycomb, also bringing with it a built-in stylus for note-taking glory. The other device, the Asus MeMO 370t, is the real gem of the show as it’s got an NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor, comes out with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and costs a mere $249. That’s an industry changer, if you did not know.

NVIDIA then stole the show again with Asus’ upgraded Transformer Prime 700 series, complete with a massive display, updated casing, and a bump in the front-facing camera for fun. NVIDIA showed that the Prime (in either its first or second iteration) was capable of using the Tegra 3 processor to the fullest, running Skyrim via Splashtop, moving on to play the first multiplayer mobile shooter in a brand new upgraded version of Shadowgun for Tegra, and displaying the fact that it will be first with Ice Cream Sandwich, officially.

Look like a good showing to you? If you could have any one of these devices in your hands right now, which one would it be? Better yet, when these devices are released to the market, which one are you most likely to buy?

BONUS: Don’t forget the Fujitsu Arrows Tablet, complete with waterproofing, and the Pantech Element, an AT&T-bound tiny tablet with waterproofing as well!

Several odd bits hold this device back from any kind of potential winning it was going to do in this market: first of all, it was launched much, much before Windows 8 came around. With Windows 8 touch-friendly interface right around the corner, tablet makers are taking care to make sure their devices work with this brand new system. This Acer device does have a hearty construction, but the second big folly is that it’s got three features in direct opposition to the features most people love about the Transformer Prime: the Tab does not fold down into a laptop, it does not have a trackpad (relying instead on a Lenovo-esque nubbin,) and it’s running an operating system that was never meant to be working with a touchscreen.

This device is already out on the market in several sectors for the absolutely ludicrous price of $848 with the keyboard dock included, though you can certainly find it cheaper if you look hard enough. Check out our hands-on video courtesy of Acer, and make sure you note their much more updated line of devices that will, indeed, be sticking with the times as far as working with a more mobile-friendly set of hardware and software. Check out the Acer Iconia Tab 2012 refresh on the Android side of things to see the ideal setup before Windows 8 comes to the consumer market in bulk.

Smartphones

We certainly saw our fair share of smartphones on the floor this time around, the major bulk of them running either Windows Phone Mango or a modified version of Android Gingerbread or Ice Cream Sandwich. One of the more interesting devices was Huawei’s Ascend P1 S, it being the new thinnest phone on earth, and its slightly fatter brother the P1, both of them strikingly thin. Next there were a couple of excellent value propositions, it would seem, from Pantech, they showing off two of the six new devices running on AT&T’s LTE network that’ll be up to speed by late this year – the Pantech Element is a waterproof tablet that, when you buy it, you basically get the Pantech Burst smartphone for free. Sony Experia came correct with their new set of Xperia devices with big specs and gigantic cameras: the Xperia ion having a 12 megapixel camera and the Xperia S being the one teased for so long. For Android phones the winner would have to be the Lenovo Racer-A, aka the first device to be running Intel’s Medfield chip – winning not just because it looks like a quality phone, but because it does indeed hold that record. Intel’s entry into the mobile market is likely going to have the longest lasting effect on the mobile industry while all these other phones get replaced – that’s for sure.

As for Windows Phones I’ll have to call a tie until we can review these devices extensively because they’re both so lovely: the Nokia Lumia 900 and the HTC Titan II. Both of these devices are bringing Windows Phone into the future, fighting head to head with the top guns at last.

BONUS: Since Samsung is insistent on saying this device is neither a smartphone or a tablet, here it is in the middle: the AT&T version of the Samsung Galaxy Note. All of its awesome features remain in-tact, it having a Snapdragon processor instead of an Exynos, and it comes in white as well as black, your choice!

- contributed by Chris “Burnsy” Burns

Tablets

As with smartphones, we’ve got a lot to be excited about in the hardware side of things, not least of all with Corning’s Gorilla Glass 2 for strength and touchability. As for future-looking devices, the newest iteration of the ASUS Padfone looked oddly enticing. There were also some lovely reader refreshes like the Kyobo Mirasol eReader with its unique form of lighting, it replicating the light bouncing off a butterfly. Windows 8 made a bit of a showing with groups like Qualcomm and their S4 chip showing the possibilities of a Windows 8 mobile world. Acer came back with a new iteration of the Acer Iconia Tab complete with a Tegra 3 quad-core chip. Toshiba made a showing with two devices you might find rather familiar, the smaller version of the Thrive in the Toshiba Thrive 7 and the Toshiba Excite x10, the latter being the one to keep an eye on through 2012.

Then there’s the big guns, both of them winners, both of them coming from no less than Asus and toting, again, the NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor. First there was the undeniably inexpensively priced $249 7-inch quad-core Ice Cream Sandwich toting Asus MeMO 370t, a value we’re sure one whole heck of a lot of people will not be able to resist. Then there was the big showing of not only the Transformer Prime, but the Transformer Prime 700 series with its upgraded display and hardware. We saw the Prime running Skyrim via Splashtop, playing the first multiplayer mobile shooter in a new version of Shadowgun for Tegra, and all of it on Ice Cream Sandwich as the Transformer is now the world’s first Google-licensed Ice Cream Sandwich tablet.

- contributed by Chris “Burnsy” Burns

Headphones / Earbuds

As always, there was a surplus of new headphones this year. Of them, our top three were InSound by Cygnett, the 5-minute Eeers Sonofit earbuds, and the HD700 from Sennheiser. The InSound had very decent ‘active’ noise cancellation and are extremely comfortable. Though easily portable, they are still not built as well as the Sennheisers. The HD 700 instead implements ‘passive’ noise cancellation, and offers a much cleaner, crisper sound. But at CES, people look for innovation – and that’s why Eers by Sonofit were the best headphones. With Eers, anyone can create a pair of custom-fit earbuds within minutes, all of it for a cool $300 USD.

BONUS: don’t forget the conceptual Parrot Zik by Starck and the wild contributions by Skullcandy in the Mix Master headphones.

- contributed by Sam Koutroulakis

Speakers

Though there were certainly one whole heck of a lot of speakers out there, we’ve decided to concentrate on the smaller world of portable speakers for all you mobile people out there. For that, there are a few gems that stick out. First there’s the SuperTooth Disco 2, an upgrade from the already great Disco 1 model, now with plenty of color and a vertical form factor. As for green representations, we had a talk with the makers of Eink who now bring us the Eton Rukus Solar powered boombox, so green it’s accented with the color green, imagine that! As for the tiniest speaker worth a peek at outside a smartphone, that was clearly the Harman JBL on-tour Micro, complete with Iron Man color scheme! The winner of our hearts in this category would have to be the high-blasting Altec Lansing 5000 series all-in-one speakers, these certainly commanding the hoards when it comes to all-in-one power.

- contributed by Chris “Burnsy” Burns

Laptops

Ultrabooks were the hot ticket for the computer side of CES this year, with every major brand introducing new models at or just before the show. While Toshiba’s Windows 8 prototype wowed us with software and the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga showed off some amazing innovation in form factor, the top prize goes to Dell’s more humble XPS 13. Far from Dell’s usual utilitarian design, the XPS 13 Ultrabook is downright stunning, with a combination aluminum-carbon fiber frame that’s 15% smaller than the MacBook Air. It manages to cram a 13-inch screen into a 12-inch body, and with 300 nits of brightness it should be a joy to use. With a Core i5 or i7 processor, an SSD drive, 4GB of RAM and eight hours of rated battery life, the XPS 13 will be a major contender when it becomes available.

- contributed by Michael Crider

Cameras

There were a few cameras at CES that caught our eye. Canon’s revived PowerShot Digital ELPH 520HS crams some amazingly powerful glass into its tiny body, and Liquid Image’s Xtreme Sports Cams brings some great new features into a growing market. But the obvious winner for the show wasn’t even announced at CES: Nikon’s new flagship, the D4. This monster DSLR sets the standard for its line going forward, with insane ISO capabilities and forward-looking support for QXD. But the real innovation is a major upgrade in video capabilities, with dynamic cropping on the sensor for “zoomed” shots even on prime lenses, and the ability to actively monitor audio and stream video over HDMI. The D4 may well be the benchmark when it comes to DSLR video recording, a segment that has nowhere to go but up. At $6,000 it’s a little on the pricey side, but pro photographers will pay any price for the best – and when it comes to high-definition video in a comfortable DSLR format, the Nikon D4 will give it to them.

- contributed by Michael Crider

Televisions

Televisions were one of the hottest categories at CES this year, but not because of size. Previous shows were all about who can get the biggest panel out, but this year image quality ruled. LG and Samsung both introduced 55-inch OLED TVs with incredibly thin, light bodies, stunning black levels and color reproduction that’s the best we’ve ever seen. The best television of CES is Samsung’s Super OLED HDTV – we’re giving it the top spot because the image displayed was just slightly more vivid than LG’s. It’s a close match, however, and LG has the edge (ba-dum TISH) on style thanks to its 4mm, 16-pound body. Sharp’s battery powered AQUOS Freestyle gets a third place nod, because it’s a handy idea that the market is ready for.

- contributed by Michael Crider

Automotive Concept

There were two stand-out contenders at CES 2012 for automotive concepts, Audi and Mercedes. While our main hands-on write-ups of these two titans are going to be published early next week, I can tell you this now: Audi brought some heavy fire with a setup called Audi connect that included all of their innovations of 2011 including voice commands and Google Earth integration and made it explode with a touch-sensitive dial and a setup newly powered by NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 quad-core chipset. Mercedes, on the other hand, had several concepts including a very similar in-car screen setup, this time connected to an iPhone, a couple of gesture-activated door demonstrations, and a box inside which a completely gesture-intensive console was shown. Both companies will have massively impressive vehicles in the very near future, that’s for certain.

- contributed by Chris “Burnsy” Burns

Accessories

Here at CES a large focus is also on accessories for all the electronics announced, and while we saw plenty of impressive designs like the new Wrapsol anti-slip pads we’ve decided on one. Cygnett is known for constructing well built, quality cases for phones and tablets, not to mention their durable tablet stands. Since the mobile phone market has exploded everyone has a few cases to offer but Cygnett’s offerings were one of the most memorable. With simple designs that are actually easy to both get on AND off while still protecting the product they were our clear winner.

For a video rundown on a few cases from Cygnett including their new Icon Art series by artist Nathan Jurevicius be sure to check out our Insider Talk with Cygnett Creative Director Sophie Swann.

- Contributed by Cory Gunther

Mobile Carrier

When caught up in the mass of tech news here at CES, we often forget that a team’s mobile collaboration is only as good as the signal they’re running on. There isn’t one, but more like two obstacles a team requires of its carrier to perform at maximum efficiency. The first is consistency; a reliable data signal that will always be there when needed. The second is actual data strength. Processing videos and uploading images over a fast connection is essential if you plan on delivering the best CES coverage. And for both requirements, Verizon 4G LTE was unbeatable for CES 2012. With speeds of up to 14Mbps on the showroom floor and a consistent signal throughout the Las Vegas Convention Center, other carriers couldn’t come close.

- contributed by Sam Koutroulakis

Our most used gear

When the topic of most used gear comes up it could mean anything based on what you did at CES. Some might just answer — my shoes. Obviously we used cameras just about every possible minute. Here at SlashGear we were busy looking for wall power outlets and churning out stories to share with our readers and have as a team came up with a final conclusion. When it comes to outright sheer production MacBook’s rule. When it comes to mobile production it’s actually the complete opposite and Android rules, with only one iPhone on our team with a whole hoard of Galaxy Nexus for the rest.

Apple’s Macbook Pro and Air gave our team most of the tools needed (not counting a few heavy cameras) and our Macs outnumbers PC laptops 6-to-1. When we change over to the mobile aspect it was completely the opposite and we had 2 iPhones compared to about 10 Android smartphones, and 4 LTE Android tablets. With large screens, big batteries and awesome wired/wireless tethering options with Verizon 4G LTE our Android phones were the clear choice — and winner.

- Contributed by Cory Gunther

CES 2012′s Top Innovation: No One

While there certainly have been some interesting bits here and there at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, nothing made us absolutely drop our collective jaws. You could take the winners from the categories above and choose your favorite, sure, but nothing blew us away to the point of saying it absolutely won the show. It seemed as though most companies came to the show as a matter of requirement rather than because they wanted to show off their biggest and best. Instead we’re hoping for quite a few individual showings throughout the year from manufacturers as it continues to be the thing to do when you want the most individual attention.

When Vincent Nguyen, SlashGear’s Editor in Chief, was asked what he thought represented CES this year, his response was simple “nothing.”

The fact that this isn’t the only time we’ve heard this response from not just our own staff, but many of the people we spoke with throughout the convention may well be the first indication that bigger shows like CES are on their way out – what do you think?

HP experienced the greatest decline in US PC shipments, dropping 26.1 percent, followed by Acer with an 11.4 percent drop, Dell with 4.5 percent, and Toshiba with 2.2 percent. Overall, the US saw negative 5.9 percent growth based on data taken from the fourth quarters of 2010 and 2011. Despite this, HP maintained its number one spot with over 4 million in shipments followed by Dell and then Apple in third.

The worldwide PC shipment drop of 1.4 percent included a 16.2 percent decline from HP and an 18.4 percent decline from Acer. Lenovo and Asus rose with 23 percent and 20.5 percent, respectively, while Dell managed a 7.8 percent increase. Once again, HP retained the top spot.

Ultrabooks quietly crept in during the fourth quarter of 2011, but didn’t make much of an impact on PC sales. However, with the abundance of new ultrabooks popping up at this weeks CES show, 2012 will likely be a big year for this new crop of MacBook Air-inspired notebooks. However, Gartner expects PC shipments to be temporarily lowered in the first half of 2012 due to HDD shortages caused by the October 2011 floods in Thailand.

Lenovo and LG opened proceedings, unable in their excitement to even wait for the CES preview days to spill the beans on the Lenovo ThinkPad T430u and LG Super Ultrabook Z330/Z430. Lenovo has been pushing ultrathin notebooks for years now, but with the T430u it shaves just enough off to fit into Intel’s sub-20mm category.

It’s likely to appeal more to road warriors counting on their IT departments to furnish their computing kit, perhaps, unlike the more consumer-centric LG Z330 and LG Z430. They offer the full gamut of Core i3, i5 and i7 processors and either 13.3- or 14-inch displays, and use a hybrid SSD/HDD setup to provide both rapid boot/resume times and capacious media storage.

So far so good, but LG’s machines were somewhat forgotten when Acer unveiled its waifish Aspire S5. A slimline mag-alloy chassis that tapers to a razor edge at the front, Acer’s machine has some neat design touches like the drop down full-width port panel on the back. Never one to shy away from spectacle, the whole process is motorized.

Acer in fact had more than one ultrabook to show, with the Aspire Timeline Ultra series stretching the category at the fringes. Larger displays and even integrated optical drives mean they’re not quite the ultrabook Intel intended, but perhaps better considered a hybrid of ultraportable and regular notebook.

HP hasn’t been shy about ultrabooks in the past, though it’s arguable whether the 14-inch HP ENVY 14 Spectre quite counts. Still, with a choice of Core i5 or i7 processors, both HDMI and Mini DisplayPort video outputs, Beats Audio and a sub-$1,400 starting price, there’s no shortage of things to like.

Samsung already had an ultrabook-a-like in its back catalog, and so the Samsung Series 9 merely refined the proposition in its second generation. Clad in an eye-catching “stone metal” finish, it’s under half an inch thick and short of 2.5lbs, yet still manages to pack backlit keys.

It’s joined by the Samsung Series 5, a 15-inch almost-ultrabook in the same manner as the Acer Timeline Ultra. The LED display is a particular stand-out feature, managing to look clear, vivid and crisp even in dodgy trade-show lighting, and its sub-$1,400 tag will undercut the Series 9 too.

So far so good, but Dell through a spanner in its rivals’ works with the late launch of the Dell XPS 13. The company’s first ultrabook – though a machine with ultraportable heritage in the shape of the Adamo, among others – the XPS 13 turns to carbon-fiber for part of its construction, allowing Dell to fit a hefty Core i7 processor inside without worrying about overheating. “It’s the world’s best ultrabook” Dell insisted to us.

Then there’s the ultrabook pipeline, and both Toshiba and Intel stepped up with possible products we could expect to see late in 2012. Toshiba‘s 14-inch prototype relied on Windows 8 for its appeal, though had a slickly curved aluminum casing so that you could still catch admiring glances in the coffee shop.

Intel, meanwhile, pushed the boat out with a sliding, tilting concept that packs a 12- to 13-inch display – potentially a touchscreen – with a full QWERTY ‘board and the flexibility to use it either flat when walking around or notebook-style on a desk. Intel is hoping its OEM partners decide to adopt the design for future models, probably when Windows 8 brings its finger-friendliness to market later in the year.

Most eye-catching, though, had to be Intel’s Nikiski concept, an ultrabook packing a transparent, full-width trackpad that could be used as a preview display when the notebook was closed. Sadly the likelihood of the Nikiski reaching the market is around about zero.

Of course there’s another big name in ultrabooks, even if the company itself isn’t calling its ultraportable that. Apple‘s MacBook Air arguably helped shape each and every one of the machines mentioned above, and stands as the notebook to beat in the extreme-ultraportable segment.

Last refreshed in July 2011, with new Core i5 and i7 processors along with Thunderbolt connectivity – still only matched by the ASUS Aspire S5 this week – rumors late last year suggested Apple was already looking to bring out an updated model sometime in Q1. That’s likely to set the cat among the pigeons once again.

Convinced by Ultrabooks? Standing by with credit card in hand? Let us know in the SlashGear poll:

[poll id="24"]

The 15-inch version is the clear winner between the two, thanks to its full number pad. This is an unfortunately rare occurrence in the larger side of the laptop world, and a refreshing change in the Timeline Ultra 15, especially since the keyboard remains full size. Other than that and the obvious changes in screen size, the two models are identical.

The Timeline series has always focused on a thing and ligh frame with no compromises on expandability, and in that case both of these laptops deliver. Calling them ultrabooks is a bit on the generous side, but they’re still extremely slim for Intel Core laptops with DVD drives. High-end options like SSD rives should help make them competitive to similar models, as Acer’s machines tend to be.

The magnesium shell helps to make typing feel good, with no serious flexing or bending of the keys, which unfortunately lack a backlight. The screens on display are that standard 1366×768 fare, but bright and sharp enough to be comfortable for extended use. Acer’s media software is complimented by Dolby Home Theater and an HDMI out. But if you’re considering a timeline Ultra over something else, it’s probably because of that built-in DVD drive. The drive is there on both models, which should be enough for most, though one of them stuck on the model I tried and had to be physically moved.

There’s a lot going right for the latest entries in the Timeline series, even before we get a chance to try out that much ballyhooed 8-hour battery life and Acer’s new cloud software ourselves. The Timeline Ultras should be available at retailers sometime in the first quarter of this year.

What this device essentially represents is the next generation 10-inch tablet for Android. It’s display is massively impressive, working “like” IPS, they note, but delivering such HD quality that “Hollywood wont like it.” How about that? Look like the tablet for you inside the second half of 2012?

This device has been previously leaked just last month, and all of the specs appear to have stuck: a gigantic 9,800 mAh battery, back-facing 5 megapixel camera, micro USB and microHDMI ports under the lovely little cover on the side, power port near the power button on the left-top, and a cool stylized back. This looks to be a definite step up in all categories compared to Acer’s last effort, especially int he display department, but twice as nice with both Ice Cream Sandwich and quad core under the hood. Lookin good, Acer!

The 13-inch ultrabook is an incredible 15 millimeters thin, just shy of .6 inches. The entire body – top, insides and bottom – is encased in a black/grey magnesium allow, giving it a very rich feel. Despite this, it’s still incredibly light. Though we didn’t have a scale handy, it’s definitely one of the lightest ultrabooks we’ve tested. The body tapers to a razor edge at the front end.

The star attraction is the flip-out port panel on the back, which both expands and retracts via a dedicated key next to the keyboard. The mechanism is motorized, giving a satisfying “whrrrr” on both motions. USB, Thunderbolt and HDMI ports are hidden within the panel, as well as a fan exhaust, which gets a dedicated grille eve in the closed position.

The whole unit feels solid and surprisingly tough for its tiny size. We’ve got some reservations on the moving parts in the port section, but there’s no denying that it’s a slick looking and feeling little laptop. Acer’s standard screen and keyboards are present – take ‘em or leave ‘em. There’s no pricing or availability info at the moment, but Acer expects to begin shipping the Aspire S5  in the second quarter of this year.

AcerCloud, they say, will allow different devices across many different form factors connect with ease, they noting that while Microsoft takes care of PCs and Google takes care of Android, they will be taking care of the in-between. Acer Cloud will be compliant to “green trends,” they noted, and will be the “peace of mind” personal cloud, at the same time, all users will want to use.

The set of AcerCloud apps comprises of Clear.fi Photo, first of all, an app which pushes a photo you’ve just taken to the cloud, then available in your Clear.fi Photo app on any other device you’ve got connected to the internet. As fast as your device can upload the photo, that’s how fast you’ll have the photo online and available through your Clear.fi Photo app on any machine. This app works with PicStream and is DLNA compatible.

Clear.fi Music is a cloud of music which connects to the web and indexes your music for playing from any of your devices. Your computer can be asleep, they note, and your music will be available since it’s not your computer where it’s all stored, it’s Acer’s cloud. AcerCloud Docs essentially works the same way with docs.

This is without a doubt just a whisper of the ways businesses traditionally in the manufacturing world will be expanding from just one group (consumer or business,) to the both of them. The hardware behind Acer’s move has also been revealed this week at their first press conference, and we’ve got all the hands-on you could ever want. Stay tuned!

The S5 ultrabook is the showstopper here, for two reasons: one, that ultra-slim body, and two, a Macbook Air-style pop-out port section, which includes a bevy of standard ports that are easily accessible from the back of the laptop. The pop-out ports can be activated from the keyboard section, making for an extremely slick look for the svelte laptop.

The other major announcement was the “next generation Iconia Tab”, which we’ve seen leaked as the A700. This is the first tablet confirmed to run at a full 1920×1200 resolution, about the same level of sharpness as a 24-inch PC monitor. The tablet has a quad core processor, almost certainly Nvidia’s Tegra 3 system on a chip.

Acer is making a big push into the cloud space with AcerCloud, a new take on products already dominated by the likes of Google and Apple. Photos, music and documents will update across all devices, and can be remotely accessed from a home computer, even if it’s hibernating. New computer purchases will inlcude AcerCloud for free, and it will support any Android or Windows Mobile device.

Prices and release dates were spare, but Acer says that it expects 30% of its sales to come from ultrabook laptops by the end of 2012.

Other than that, specifications are a mystery. From the low-res picture we can make out what looks to be a camera on the back, and we’re guessing it’ll be joined with a front-facing webcam for video calls too. OS is obviously Android, as per Acer’s more notable Iconia Tabs of the past.

Exactly when we can expect this new model to reach shelves – or even to be shown for more than a couple of seconds – is yet to be announced. So far Acer has satisfied itself with rather more mundane options, including the budget-friendly A200, but the talk of an A700 with a 1920 x 1200 display and Tegra 3 chipset, 5-megapixel rear camera and all three of 3G, WiFi and Bluetooth certainly has us interested.

More on the rumored Iconia Tab A700 here.

A combination of cloud and local storage is used – all handled automatically – to make sure your data is available as much as possible, Acer says. There’s PicStream, for shuffling photos from a smartphone to the PC, and then – Apple iCloud style – sharing them online temporarily for 30 days, along with AcerCloud Docs, to share Word documents and other work in the cloud with revision history.

Finally, clear.fi Media – Acer’s wrap around DLNA – can be used to stream content via the cloud or, alternatively, to download a track remotely to a mobile device for offline listening.

Acer says the system will require an Android phone initially, but it’s working on a Windows version later; it’s unclear if that’s Windows Phone or the desktop OS. It will be available in America, Europe, Asia and China.

Like the Aspire S5, there’s Acer Always Connect to continue polling your email, Facebook and Twitter messages while the ultrabooks are in standby. Instant-on means the notebook resumes in 1.5 seconds – but still promises a standby time measured in weeks – and you can wake the new Timelines remotely, from your phone.

Dolby Home Theater v4 surround sound promises to make the most of whatever tiny space Acer has been able to squeeze speakers into, and there’s HDMI if you want to hook up a larger display. USB 3.0 ports are also to be found, though sadly no Thunderbolt.

Acer’s PowerSmart long-life battery technology – promising a 3x longer life cycle than traditional batteries – is paired with a lap-saving thermal system that shouldn’t, so the claim goes, roast your delicate parts while hard at work. No word on price, but the Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra models will be on sale sometime in Q1 2012.

An Intel Core processor lurks inside, paired with an SSD, while a “MagicFlip I/O port panel” hides behind the screen hinge and – when pressed – pops open to reveal the HDMI, USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt connectivity. There’s also Dolby Home Theater v4 sound and a PowerSmart battery, which Acer says has a 3x longer battery cycle life than rival power packs.

Chicklet keys and an Onyx Black “delicately curved” chassis, along with a magnesium-aluminum alloy cover and palmrest keep things looking slick in your bag or on your desk. No word on pricing at this stage, but the Acer Aspire S5 will begin shipping in Q2 2012.

Update: Image added and live images here.

Measuring in at 10.2 x 6.9 x 0.48-inches and 24.6 ounces, the A200 uses its girth to squeeze in a full-sized USB port that can hook up to a keyboard or mouse, or to external drives. Other ports include microSD and microUSB, while wireless connectivity is the usual array of WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1. No word on 3G options at this stage.

Battery life is tipped at up to eight hours, and there’s a front-facing 2.megapixel webcam though no main camera so as to save money. Acer garnishes Honeycomb with its mildly-tweaked UI, including an “Acer Ring” quick-launcher and its Clear.fi DLNA streaming app.

Pricing for the Iconia Tab A200 is $329.99 for the 8GB model and $349.99 for the 16GB model.

Sources cited by DigiTimes claiming that both Acer and Lenovo will be launching Wintel tablets in Q3 2012. The tablets are going to use Windows 8, and the Intel Clover Trail platform claim the supply chain sources. The sources claim that while the Intel Medfield processor will be coming in the first half of 2012, PC makers are looking more to Clover Trial thanks to performance and power savings.

In devices like tablets power sipping is important since battery life is one of the most important things to many users. Business users are expected to flock to the Wintel tablets, though if that expectation turns into a reality remains to be seen. Apple is expected to keep about 60% of the tablet market in 2012.

[via DigiTimes]

Acer’s Aspire One D270 netbook will be the successor to the D260 (pictured above) and will feature a 10.1-inch display running on a faster 1.6GHz Atom N2600 processor with 1GB of RAM and 320GB of hard drive storage. It will come with either a three-cell or six-cell battery, currently priced at 250 euros or $324 USD for the three-cell model and 269 euros or $348 USD for the six-cell variant. The netbook will likely come in an assortment of colors.

The D270′s N2600 processor is built on Intel’s Cedar Trail architecture with a dual 32nm core. It features Hyperthreading along with a 400MHz embedded graphics core. The next-gen Atom processor was originally slated to arrive in September, but GPU issues have delayed its arrival, pushing new Cedar Trail netbook past the holidays to launch in mid-January.

[via Notebook Italia]

This tablet is appearing in photos today courtesy of Russian site NoMobile which also has its hands on some rather nice press photos of the A200 we’ve gotten a glimpse of before as well. This lovely machine will have a 10.1-inch display at 1920 x 1200 pixels, a 5 megapixel camera on the back, and again, a quad-core processor from NVIDIA. This is the same processor we’ve already seen in action on the ASUS Transformer Prime which we’ve already reviewed in full for your complete enjoyment.

The Acer A700 is also said to have a 9,800 mAh battery so you’ll essentially never ever run out of juice, a front-facing camera for video chat, microUSB port, microHDMI port for video out, and a headphone jack. There’s also Dolby Mobile sound in this machine, 3G capabilities, Wi-fi connectivity, and Bluetooth 3.0. Sound like the magic monster to make you feel like you’re king of the Android world?

Acer is shedding a bunch of its line though. It had previously announced that it would be cutting 2/3 of its product line moving into 2012. The company is focusing on products that are more profitable. Acer is also saying it has no plans to exit the smartphone business either. It hasn’t yet really competed in the smartphone realm.

Acer will not be downsizing the personnel related to smartphones and tablets either. I would assume with a 2/3 cut n the product line some workers will be let go. Acer is hoping that the cuts will allow it to expand in the tablet and smartphone markets.

[via DigiTimes]

The ultrabook with the 15-inch screen is being produced by Pegatron according to a DigiTimes source in the supply chain. Perhaps the best news about the 15-inch ultrabook is that the machine is said to be coming to market for $699 making it a cheaper ultrabook. Many of the ultrabooks so far have been closer to $1,000 or more.

Acer ultrabooks are made by ODM supplier Wistron. By the end of the year, the sales of the existing models are expected to be around 250,000 to 300,000 units. A larger screen ultrabook will help lure those that want portability with more screen space. Perhaps the machine will break cover at CES in January.

[via DigiTimes]

Chairman JT Wang said that it would take three years to complete the simplification plans Acer has in mind. Acer is expecting the products it leaves in the line to sell better than they did last year with a prediction of a 10% rise in sales for 2012. Acer does not that the downsizing of its range will not affect outsourcing to ODMs.

Wang was also boasting that he is very optimistic about Wintel. He noted that Apple, Wintel, and Android are the three major categories and that Wintel will be the single biggest driver of all three of the PC industry. Wand also noted that he is expecting the price of an Ultrabook to drop to $699 in 2012. That is a much lower price than we see in the Ultrabooks on the market so far.

Qualcomm is believed to have picked Samsung and Sony, with the Korean company’s strengths in component manufacturing – including displays, memory and other elements – singling it out for attention, along with the fact that it already has a solid presence in the tablet market. Texas Instruments selected Toshiba as well as also opting for Samsung.

Finally, NVIDIA is said to have gone for Lenovo and Acer, with Lenovo selected as major partner for its heft in the Chinese market. Conspicuous by its absence is ASUS, despite the fact that the company is already believed to be working on Windows 8 tablets – albeit likely using x86 processors, not ARM-based chipsets – for release in the second half of 2012.

Exactly how soon we can expect to see ARM-based products from any of these companies remains to be seen, however. According to previous leaks, Windows 8 on ARM tablets aren’t likely to go on sale until mid-2013, a delay analysts are already suggesting will leave Microsoft significantly disadvantaged up against the iPad and Android-based slates.

The 260 x 175 x 12.4 mm slate weighs in at 720g and comes with either 8GB or 16GB of storage. There’s a 3,260 mAh battery, good for up to 8hrs of video playback or 400hrs of standby Acer reckons, together with 1GB of RAM and a full-sized USB port for connecting external peripherals like keyboards. A microSD card slot can be used to add to the storage, and the 10.1-inch display runs at 1280 x 800 resolution with a 2-megapixel front-facing camera above it (but no rear camera).

There’s the usual WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, GPS, a 3.5mm headphone jack, gyroscope and accelerometer, together with DLNA media streaming under Acer’s clear.fi brand. The company will preload a slightly customized UI, too, with the so-called Acer Ring offering shortcuts to the browser, gallery, volume, multitasking and other elements of the system.

Pricing is yet to be confirmed, though we’re guessing this will be in the bargain area of the tablet line-up. Acer is tipped to be bringing two Tegra 3 based models, the Iconia Tab A500 and Iconia Tab A700 to market imminently.

[via NetbookNews]

Though the new quad-core tablets should be much more powerful than their dual-core predecessors, the new generation may not fare much better against Apple’s upcoming iPad 3, sources say, as they potentially wouldn’t be “fundamentally different than their predecessors and would be trading mostly on their speed”. The sources also speculate that “since non-Apple players’ machines have no advantage to compete against Amazon or Apple’s tablet PC devices, non-Apple players will together account for only 10-15% of the total tablet PC market.” Ouch, the iPad is indeed still king.

The sources also noted that even though these players’ performance in the dual-core tablet PC competition were not quite as good as they’d want it to be, they’ll continue to advance and launch new quad-core devices to defend their brands, especially since they have the advantage of sheer numbers (Apple makes what, only one single tablet model?) and a mobile tablet operating system that keeps on getting better and better with every new revision (Ice Cream Sandwich just on the horizon).

[via Digitimes]

The display measured 27-inches and has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 for full HD 3D content and video gaming. The 3D chip tech will work with any video card as well. The display ships with a single pair of 3D glasses. Connectivity for the display includes HDMI. The other new product is the H9500BD projector that will support 3D tech from NVIDIA.

The projector also converts 2D to 3D automatically and has full 1080p resolution. It can throw an image up to 300-inches diagonally. The projector uses DLP tech and has a 120Hz and 3D software. It has 50000:1 contrast ratio and uses active shutter 3D glasses. It has 2000 ANSI lumens of brightness and supports 16:9 and 4:3. The projector sells for $1,999.99 and the display sells for $599.

Also among the hardware tipped is a 1280 x 800 display, Bluetooth 2.0 and a microSD card slot, while the video tips a USB port capable of mounting external drives to access media stored on them. There’s no record for an Acer Iconia Tab A201, the company’s usual nomenclature for 3G-enabled variants, which suggests that WiFi is the only flavor of tablet in this particular series.

Similarly unclear is OS version, with Acer giving no indication of whether the Iconia Tab A200 will run Android 3.x Honeycomb or 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Acer looks to have modified the US itself anyway, with different icon graphics. Earlier this month, the Iconia Tab A500 and Iconia Tab A700 series slates leaked, each running Tegra 3.

[Thanks Manuel!]

Hardware

You’ll immediately have a bit of a smile on your face with a status identifying colored set of lights around the power/sleep button in the center bottom front of the unit. This button is able to put your whole machine asleep, turn it off and on, and will let you know what mode your machine is in at any given time. The entire machine is ready to go out of the box on the hardware side, but will require that you click through a set of yes, ok, ok, yes updates once you turn it on for the first time. Once you’ve got the whole thing set up, you’ve really got the whole machine here in one, and if you’re not the kind of person who minds the most basic set of controllers (mouse and keyboard) on earth, you won’t even need those as they’re contained in the box as well.

That said, the keyboard and mouse are the most basic of the basic, clunky keys and lightest plastic available contained within. These should be assumed to be only for the setup of the machine unless this is your first personal computer, in which case you’ll have a great time upgrading when the time is right. The display does not leave one wanting, brightness and viewing angles superb and top of the line, and the built-in speakers are certainly enough to tide over a single person using the machine for movies, music, and other media on their own. You’ll need some 3rd party speakers if you want to use this device as a media center for parties and movie showings, if you know what I mean. That said, the entire unit works perfectly with the Warpia StreamHD unit we also received this week, an few clicks in a couple of setup screens and we had 720p video feeding into the HDTV without trouble. Read more about this situation in our full review of the StreamHD.

This computer certainly is not the king of gaming, but it’ll play all your favorites with basically no hitches in the least. The only drawback here is that you’ll have to use regular old 15-pin cable connector if you want to go up to a larger display — but again why would you want to when this computer will roll out with as much high definition on its own lovely display anyway?

Above take a peek at what we’re working with, then head down to the benchmark score chart from Geekbench and get your comparison on.

Software

You’ll be running whichever version of Windows (or Linux, or whatever other oddball OS you’ve got in mind) with total success, and as this machine does come with Windows 7 pre-loaded, you’ll be off and running right out of the box. Inside the set of applications you receive will be sufficient for word processing and any and all of your homework or basic office needs, and as this computer runs a perfectly sufficient set of hardware bits behind the scenes, you’ll be able to run whatever other 3rd party applications you need without trouble as well. For you gamers out there, NVIDIA is under the hood, so you know good and well that you’ll be able to roll out with any of the top games in the market right now with a top of the line graphics experience.

The interface is swift, never once have I had to force an application to close, and running multiple monitors with the methods we’ve got available here has been perfectly successful.

Versatility

For those of you that are wondering, I’ve not been working on a desktop computer now for several years. It’s a testament to the quality that Acer has cultivated here that I say that this all-in-one PC could easily continue to sit at the end of my desk and see daily use, even though I use my 15-inch notebook computer for most of my everyday work. The computer is by no means light, and certainly isn’t mean to be carried around with one to and from the office on the daily, but as the back bracket does fold down and the entire unit can be carried with two hands (cords and all), this isn’t the least transportable desktop computer on the block.

It’s an impressively designed computer that attains cleanliness and an overall nice look without the display even being on that attains such accolades without falling into the same trap many manufacturers often do these days: ripping off Apple. Instead Acer continues to keep their PC heads high making a modern machine which will impress even the most steadfast desires to look as good on the outside as it does on the in. That said, the inside does, again, work quick and nice, so no worries on that front.

Wrap-Up

This computer was out of the box and up and running inside 30 minutes, and I’m no brilliant mastermind when it comes to non-Macs. I use a MacBook Pro for my daily activities because it does exactly what I need it to do and I’ve been using OS X for coming on 10 years in a row now — but Acer, what have you done? You’ve played a part in convincing me that Windows machines, the ones that turned me off of the idea that owning a desktop computer was a good idea for what I thought was forever, have now come to a point where I don’t even really care what operating system I’m running, the hardware being enough to leave a good impression on its own.

While I’ll be waiting until Windows 8 until I can really give the whole Microsoft world another shot as a day-to-day primary OS, this machine is already at the forefront of my mind as far as how I’ll be running with the devil when the time comes. It’s too bad this computer doesn’t have a touch screen or I’d never give it back — Acer, can you outfit it? Windows 8 on the horizon!