Acer W3-810-1600 leaks, world's first small Windows 8 tab

This leak is the closest to concrete evidence that smaller Windows 8 tablets are on the way. Read on for the full specs.

Joe Svetlik

Joe has been writing about consumer tech for nearly seven years now, but his liking for all things shiny goes back to the Gameboy he received aged eight (and that he still plays on at family gatherings, much to the annoyance of his parents). His pride and joy is an Infocus projector, whose 80-inch picture elevates movie nights to a whole new level.

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Joe Svetlik

May 4, 2013 4:00 a.m. PT

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Acer may have been busy bombarding us with laptop-cum-tablets yesterday, but behind the scenes it seems it's working on something far bigger. Or smaller, rather.

Because Amazon.com accidentally leaked the Acer W3-810-1600 -- the world's first small Windows 8 tablet, PCWorld reports. We've heard a fair bit of buzz surrounding smaller Windows 8 tablets coming our way, but this is the closest we've come to official confirmation. Look at it, you can almost taste it.

Amazon yanked the page pretty sharpish, but not before eagle-eyed Web sleuths nabbed a screengrab. The display is 8.1-inches, making it the first Windows 8 tablet under 10 inches. There's 32GB of flash storage, and the fact it says Silver in the product description hints it'll come in other colours too, but we don't know for sure. Under the bonnet is a dual-core Atom processor clocked at 1.5GHz, with 2GB of RAM, and a 64MB graphics card. It has one USB port, a 2-megapixel rear camera, and measures 8.62x5.31x0.45 inches (219x135x11.4mm).

It's priced at $379.99 (£244), but expect a more direct dollar-to-sterling conversion when it hits these shores.

Back in March, Microsoft relaxed its certification specs for manufacturers, lowering the minimum screen resolution, paving the way for smaller-screened slates. The firm has dropped a few hints about its plans too: when quizzed about the potential for titchier tablets, one exec claimed the company was ready "to respond to demand". Another exec previously went on record as saying Windows 8 was designed to run on all different screen sizes and resolutions.

Smaller and cheaper tablets like the Nexus 7 and iPad mini have been flying off the shelves, so Microsoft needs to respond somehow. Hopefully diddy devices will open up Windows 8 to those put off by unwieldy sizes and prohibitive prices.

Would you like to see smaller Windows 8 tablets? And what do you reckon of the specs of this Acer slate? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook page.