All-around Tablet and Decent Laptop – Cube iWork10 U100GT Hands-on Review
FOR
Powerful Intel Bay-Trail Z3740D processors
Sleek build and compact design
Support Full Windows 8.1
Over 6 hours’ battery Life
Eye-watering IPS display
Affordable Price
Micro SD card support
HDMI port
Brilliant Keyboard Cover
AGAINST
Small internal storage
USB Host requires dongle
BOTTOM LINE
The Acube iWork 10 is an affordable windows 8 tablet with good battery life and features. Just make sure you always have access to the Internet, as local storage is a little light on this tablet.
Key Features
10.1-inch IPS capacitive touchscreen of 1280 x 800 px resolution;
Intel Atom Bay-Trail Z3740D Quad-core Processor, Intel HD Graphic (Gen7) GPU
2GB of LPDDR3 RAM
Windows 8.1 (Need to be activated by the user themselves)
32GB of SSD built-in Storage
2MP front-facing camera/2MP rear-facing camera
Back-mounted stereo speakers
Wi-Fi 802.11
Bluetooth v4.0
USB 2.0 host (adapter required)
Micro SD card slot
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
HDMI V1.4
8,000mAh Li-Po battery
Want the functionality of a laptop with the speed and ease of a tablet? Don’t we all. Acube, along with many other bigger names in the PC and tablet industry, has taken another pass at that very windows 8 dream. The Acube iWork 10 is one of a slew of new 10-inch Windows 8.1 tablet that are starting to make more sense in these connected times. Three years ago, we would have listed this system as unacceptable, since it has very little local storage after Windows 8.1, Office, and system recovery files take up most of the space on the smallish 32GB drive. However, people have become used to almost constant access to the Internet, along with the virtually limitless cloud storage and entertainment streaming options therein. If you take the iWork 10 primarily as an Internet-connected tablet, then the remaining virtues of the tablet bump the system up to an acceptable, nay, recommendable status.
Still, we had our qualms about the many Windows tablet that appeared in the past two year, which were either burdened by the sluggish Intel Atom Z2760 performance, or struggled with portability and poor battery life.
This new Acube iWork 10 seems to have been dealt a better hand, as it runs the full version of Windows 8.1 and the Bay Trail chip is restoring faith in Intel’s tablet capabilities. At RMB1,699 ($281), it is really a worthy choice of both a laptop and a tablet.
Design and Features
Measuring about 258*173*10.4mm (HWD), the iWork 10 is quite svelte, only 1mm thicker than the Surface RT (9.4mm) and much slimmer than most of the Windows Tablet. For example the Acer Iconia W700 is 11.9mm thick, and the Surface Pro is at an even porkier 13.5mm. The front of the iWork 10 is dominated by a 10.1-inch display, with decent amount of bezel. And if held in the vertical orientation, the iWork 10 has a Windows Start key at six o’clock.
The hairline finished metal back panel has the Acube logos (both Chinese and English) and some other information we need to know about the device and its manufacturer.
The tablet has a 2-megapixel front camera and 2-megapixel rear camera, both of which can take pictures or interact with Skype sessions. The tablet has accelerometers, G-sensor, and vibration feedback (particularly when you use the Start button), three features that are almost must-haves for this type of product.
The tablet weighs in at a light 620g, even lighter than the Microsoft Surface RT. It is as easy to tote and use as many of the 10-inch android tablets, requiring much less labor than the Acer Iconia W700 (950g) or the Microsoft Surface Pro (903g).
All the ports and slots are hosted on the left side, you will find a headset jack, a micro USB 2.0 port, a mini HDMI port, a micro sd card slot and a DC port. Hardware keys are also kept to the minimum, besides the aforementioned start key, only a power/standby key and a volume rocker are in place. The magnetic connector used for connecting to the keyboard cover is in the middle of the bottom side, with one fixing dock on each side.
The micro sd card may be needed to supplement the skimpy storage built into the system. The 32GB SSD only had about 19GB of free space after we went through the initial setup. Thankfully, the tablet comes with very few pieces of pre-loaded software, only the standard Windows 8.1 apps like Skype are included.
For me, the disappointment mainly comes from the absence of a full USB host, we need to use an OTG dongle to connect the iWork 10 with mobile storage or input devices. Microsoft did manage to include a full-size USB2.0 port on the even slimmer Surface RT, it is really a shame that Acube fail to do the same to the iWork 10.
Display and Sound
The 10.1-inch IPS screen has a 1,280 by 800 resolution. Although it is not as High-definition as the displays found on the iPad Air and some of the android tablets, it still offers excellent color and contrast, as well as a very good viewing angle. You can even put the tablet down on a table to your side and still read text and view images clearly on the screen. Text is quite readable in Windows 8 UI-optimized apps, but if you view text on some apps in desktop mode, they may look small. That said, the screen is clear enough that you can still see the letters clearly. It’s not going to win any awards for screen vibrancy, and certainly never going to challenge Retina, but it’s good enough – and helps Microsoft keep the price down to a reasonable level.
Tapping, swiping, and prodding the screen was easy and accurate in on the Start screen and in windows 8 UI optimized apps. It took a little more precision in desktop mode, which is where you’ll use all the Windows programs that aren’t optimized for windows 8 mode. We had trouble tapping on small items and text on the screen before we got used to the sensitivity of the touch screen. This is par for the course for Windows 8 tablets, but if you’re uneasy about working without a pointing device, you can purchase a stylus, I used the stylus that I bought along with the Acer Iconia W700 and it works perfectly on the iWork 10.
Sound from the system’s speakers emerges through two apertures on the tablet’s back. While there is the right amount of stereo effect and desirable volume, the richness of the sound is far less excellent than that produced by the Dolby-enabled speakers featured by the Acer W700. Still, the iWork 10 betters my Surface RT in both display and sound.
Source : http://tabletrepublic.com
B.regards!
GeekBuying
