Acer’s website describes the W500 as “the latest, lightest and most enjoyable way of enjoying the best of both worlds” for it’s tablet form factor and optional keyboard dock. It’s a Windows 7 tablet running a 1GHz AMD C-50 processor, backed up with 2Gb of RAM, a 32Gb SSD, 802.11bgn wireless, Bluetooth, front and rear 1.3mp webcams, optional 3G and a 10.1 inch touchscreen running at a resolution of 1280 x 800.

Let’s get the 1GHz processor dealt with first, as Microsoft have been very eager to point out in recent weeks that the next version of Windows when it launches will run happily on 1GHz processors. To be honest I fully expected the experience of using Windows 7 on this chip to be horrible, but I was very pleasantly surprised at just how nippy and responsive it really was. You can read more about the experience of using Windows 7 on this chip here.

The internal storage of 32Gb is a mite small though. With Windows 7, Microsoft Office and the standard Acer software on board there was only 13Gb left. This is not really enough for files and certainly not enough for an image backup, so you’d want to buy yourself a high capacity SD Card. By contrast my ExoPC has 64Gb of on board SSD which houses Windows 7, a Windows image backup and files. I’ve got a 32Gb SD Card for it and almost never use the thing.

The W500 comes in two parts held together by magnets at the back and a small plastic clip at the front. The clip is quite poor quality plastic and had already broken by the time I received the device. That said, it had spent a couple of weeks being passed round at Microsoft events before I got it.

Despite looking like a netbook, when you seperate the two halves both come apart in your hands which is an extremely unnerving experience at first but, I have to say, utterly hilarious when you later watch other people fumbling with them.

The front of the unit has a hardware Windows key that illuminates when it is switched on. Along the left side is an HDMI port, an SD card slot, a volume rocker switch, the power button and a headphone jack. The right side houses just the power socket and on the underside are two USB ports (one of which is used for the keyboard dock) and a slot for the optional SIM card module.

Also on the bottom is a rotation lock slider, though anyone who has ever used Windows 7 on a tablet will know that auto-rotation is something that doesn’t really work. We can call this feature future-proofing the W500 for the next version of Windows then!

Overall build quality is mixed. The W500 is entirely made of plastic and the quality of this varies. The brushed-metal effect back is very nice, though the rest of the W500 is less impressive, feeling rather cheap and plasticky. The back houses the speakers which are quite good and the webcam gives a very sharp picture, I was actually surprised how good.

Internally there’s the “Acer Ring” touch interface software offering things like a touch web browser. Like most third-party touch apps however it’s limited in both functionality and usefulness. One curious addition is the Clear.fi media sharing utility. Useful perhaps if you have exclusively Acer kit running different versions of Windows, but it offers nothing that you can’t already do with Homegroup in Windows 7.

The machine is fast to boot and despite the plasticky feel is very sturdy. It’s very heavy though at 946 grams for the tablet, 610 grams for the keyboard and weighing in at 1.56kg overall. You’ll probably want to keep it together though as the keyboard acts as an excellent screen protector. It’s about the weight of a netbook from two years ago and too heavy to be carried around day to day.

The touch panel is excellent, one of the very best I’ve used in fact. It’s fast, responsive and only requires just the right amount of pressure. Sadly the touch panel adds a grainy look to the screen which, at 1280 by 800 is just too high a resolution to run on this size tablet with Windows 7, and still be able to use all the Windows functions properly. There’s also an odd double-frame around the screen. Im certain this exists for some purposeful reason, though to me it just looked like a smaller tablet had been shoved into a larger case for convenience.

The tablet can also be bought without the keyboard dock, saving around £80 ($100) but with Windows 7 on board you’d want the keyboard really. It’s quite a good and responsive unit with well-spaced keys. The mouse buttons are small and on the very front of the keyboard however. I frequently found myself pressing the space bar with my thumb instead. One other criticism of the keyboard is that the mouse nipple is a bit large and does intrude on typing the letters G, B and H.

The keyboard is angled to give a more natural typing position. This makes it fairly thick at the back though Acer sadly haven’t capitalised on this by adding an additional battery. Given the overall weight of the W500 though it’s probably a good idea. I would have preferred a flat-bottomed keyboard and some extendable feet however to make the W500 more portable. On the left side of the keyboard dock is an extra USB port and an Ethernet socket, and another USB port sits on the right.

A panel at the rear of the keyboard flips open to reveal the connector for the tablet. It sits well in the keyboard with no hint of toppling over. The angle of the dock however means the screen angle isn’t adjustable. It’s all too easy to try and close the W500 like a netbook. If you do this the dock connector could warp and break. This is a design oversight I’d rather not have seen.

With Windows 7 on board this tablet is quick, responsive and contains some great hardware, especially the touch panel and the webcams. Overall though the W500 is a very mixed bag and ultimately rather disappointing. It’s certainly quick enough but the design feels poor and at £530 ($650) it’s just not good enough to recommend, there are much better Windows 7 tablets out there for the price.