There’s a rumor going around in Hanover, saying Acer is prepping new Iconia W5, W7 models

Mar 10, 2014 14:27 GMT  ·  By

One of the most important computer expo shows is under way in Hanover, Germany and we’re hearing some interesting information from that direction. According to a good source inside Acer, the company is gearing up to release new W5 and W7 dockable tablets.

There was a similar whisper going around at MWC, but according to UMPCPortal we’re going to be seeing the new models arrive in the wild.

More than that, we have recently brought you news of a mysterious new tablet, dubbed the Acer Aspire Switch 10, which has been spotted on a design website. Its style and functionality might fit the description of the new Acer Iconia W5.

The new W5 should come bundling a housing made of aluminum, which is in accord with the Aspire Switch’s characterization, that said the tablet’s back with be made of the same material.

Furthermore, we should see a magnetic mechanism in charge of connecting the tablet and the keyboard dock. That’s in line with what we told you about the Aspire Switch.

The Acer Aspire Switch 10 would boast a 10.1-inch display and run Windows 8.1 out of the box. There’s an extra mode added to the bill, in the form of presentation mode.

That's when the screen faces away from the keyboard, a feature that comes in handy when you want to watch a movie or show somebody something.

According to the first pictures, the keyboard dock will come with a smart hinge with hooks, but will be latch-less. In all possibility, the Switch could really turn out to be the new W5 tablets.

Moving on to the purported Acer W7, this is a slate bundling a larger 11.6-inch screen. There’s no surprise Acer, too, is planning to push towards slates with bigger screens.

The increased adoption of the phablet form factor is expected to prompt manufacturers to produce slates with more spacious displays, in order to be able to differentiate the category better.

The Acer A7 will have a more compact design and pack the latest standards. It would be nice if Acer bundled an SD card slot, more USB ports and maybe a more intuitive keyboard. It’s also possible that Acer will be implementing a digitizer with the A7.

The new Acer Iconia W5 and W7 tablets with Windows 8.1 are quite overdue, since the Iconia W510 was launched last year.

The model proved to quite popular as it boasted a long battery life (via an additional battery pack). Anyway, the Acer Aspire Switch 10 looks very nice and we hope it becomes a reality at some point.