Acer Iconia W3 8-Inch Windows 8 Tablet Quietly Gets Official

Acer's Iconia W3, the first 8-inch Windows 8 tablet, has quietly cropped up at the company's site, confirming the smaller slate and promising a full eight hours of runtime. Rumored since April, the Acer Iconia W3-810 is now listed on the company's Finnish site, running full Windows 8 Pro on an Intel Atom Z2760 processor and with an 8.1-inch WXGA screen.

That chip is paired with 2GB of RAM and up to 64GB of flash storage. The Clover Trail chip has Intel GMA 3650 graphics, driving the 1280 x 768 WXGA multitouch display.

Connectivity includes WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, and a micro USB 2.0 port; there's also a microHDMI output for hooking up an external display. A 2-megapixel webcam is also included.

That Bluetooth connection could be used for hooking up a wireless keyboard, but Acer will also offer a detachable keyboard dock into which the Iconia W3 will slot. The snap-on 'board is wider than the tablet itself, which means Acer can include full-sized keys.

Acer will offer two variants of the W3, at least initially. The W3-810-27602G03nsw has 32GB of flash storage, while the W3-810-27602G06nsw doubles that to 64GB. Either way, that's not huge for a Windows 8 tablet; Microsoft's Surface Pro, for instance, starts off at the 64GB level, and offers 128GB as a more expensive option.

Exactly what the W3 will cost is still unclear at this stage. However, it's possible that the small tablet will make its official debut in a few weeks time at Computex, held in early June.

Thanks quadtronix!