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Microsoft spot takes on the iPad Mini -- dubiously

Even for an ad, Microsoft may be going out on a limb with its latest targeting Apple's iPad Mini.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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iPad Mini (L) and Acer Iconia W3. While the iPad Mini received plenty of stellar reviews, that's not the case for the Acer 8-inch tablet.
iPad Mini (L) and Acer Iconia W3. While the iPad Mini received plenty of stellar reviews, that's not the case for the Acer 8-inch tablet. Microsoft

The latest Microsoft ad may have the unintended consequence of inviting less-than-favorable comparisons to a Windows 8 tablet.

In an ad rolled out Thursday, Microsoft takes aim at the 7.9-inch iPad Mini with Acer's 8-inch Iconia W3 -- the first small Windows 8 tablet.

Windows enthusiast site Neowin doesn't think that's a good idea. "Microsoft targets iPad Mini by highlighting an awful Windows 8 tablet," its headline reads.

While a CNET review had some good things to say about the Iconia, it added that the tablet is "buggy and held back by shortcuts and lackluster features."

Other reviews have been less kind. Indeed, another Windows enthusiast site, Supersite for Windows, was blunt, saying the Iconia's "infuriatingly poor screen and surprising heft relegate this device to also-ran status."

Needless to say, Microsoft tries to put the Iconia, which sports a full version of Windows 8, in a positive light.

Here's an excerpt from the ad (in the voice of Apple's Siri). "Is that Halo? I did not see that coming...You have Outlook and full Office? Wow, you are a real PC."