Product of the Week: Acer Iconia W500 Tablet

I ran into this by accident while I was running between meetings last week. Most of us have been lamenting the poor performance of Android-based tablets, with the possible exception of the Samsung Galaxy, which is almost an exact copy of the iPad (and has been blocked by Apple in a number of countries because of this).

The funny thing is, there is actually another tablet that has quietly been selling in decent numbers, for a non-iPad. It won't scare Apple, but it has done well largely because it will run Windows applications and handle Flash (and you'd be surprised how many websites still use Flash).

It is the Acer Iconia Tab W500, which retails for as low as a modest $498 (at the time of this writing on Amazon) and fits into the general iPad usage model (on couches and in bed).

Unlike the iPad, it includes a keyboard dock, so you can actually use it like a laptop if you want. You are looking at a sub 5-hour battery life, but it has a keyboard option, it is priced in the iPad's range, and you don't have to learn a new OS. Plus, all of your Windows stuff works on it -- it will even run the full Windows Live client for games).

If you want to mess with the Windows 8 alpha product, this could be the ideal hardware for it (I haven't tried this yet myself). You know, I had to pick something that might work with Windows 8 as my product of the week, and the Acer W500 tablet makes the grade.