Acer Predator 8 (GT-810), the 8-inch gaming tablet with Android will be launched in Asian and European markets starting in October, while it will launch in the US on November 6. For the first 2 weeks it will only be sold at Newegg says Acer. The price is $299 in the US, €349 in Europe, and ¥2499 in China. In other words, the same price level as “the other” 8-inch gaming tablet, the Nvidia Shield Tablet.
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Acer have always been good at putting some of the latest technology into tablets, and they are not afraid of doing something new, and the Acer Predator 8 gaming tablet is exactly one of those tablets.
What makes it the most interesting are first of all the tactile feedback, the 4 adaptive surround sound speakers, and the Intel Atom 8700 processor, in combination with the rest of the specs for a decent price of $299. Unless the build quality and firmware is poor, this is on paper a tablet worth considering. So let’s have a closer look now that Acer have announced more details.
Acer Predator 8 (GT-810)
Acer Predator 8 was first announced in April, but back then Acer would tease the tablet without specifying much. It was then benchmarked in May, and a few days ago it was said to have gone into production. So today was the first time that Acer unveiled the Predator 8 fully.
It’s definitely the most distinctive looking tablet of 2015. It’s impossible to mistake this tablet for any other tablet. It is a tough looking tablet in dark grey brushed aluminum, though Acer gave it “Grip Pads” on the back that are a lot softer, with the intention of making it more user friendly for gamers.
The four red mesh covered corner ears are the four speakers. These front speakers have virtual surround sound with Acer’s Predator Quadio technology, which even makes the stereo follow you from landscape mode to portrait mode, by automatically adjusting which speakers the sound comes out of. It also had Dolby Audio, and together with Acer’s MediaMaster app, the audio and video will adjust to the application of the tablet, like a deeper black when watching movies, and more color saturation and contrast, as well as different bass when playing games. But you can use this app to adjust these settings to your own liking too.
Acer Predator 8 also has Predator TacSense, which offers haptic feedback through vibration. The opinion of the worth of that varies from gamer to gamer. Some would find it almost essential for a gaming tablet, while others just thinks it’s neat, but don’t think too much of it. So it ultimately depends on the type of game and gamer. But Acer put two haptic motors inside of the tablet, so it will shake.
The 8-inch screen of the Predator 8 has a fully laminated Full HD 1920 x 1200 resolution display with IPS. But it also has some new Acer technology this tablet which is the ColorBlast display adjustment that supports 100% of NTSC color gamut.
Just like the Nvidia Shield Tablet, the Acer Predator 8 also has digitizer support. This is the Acer Precision Plus technology that even supports 2mm pencils, and not just dedicated digitizer styluses. This Precision Plus display input support is gradually rolling out to a couple of other of Acer’s tablets too after it was announced in April.
As for the rest of the specs, the Predator 8 has 2GB of RAM, and 32GB and 64GB options of storage with 128GB microSD card support. It will launch with Android 5.1 Lollipop in October. Wi-Fi bands supported are 2×2 MIMO 802.11 a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0.
The thickness of the tablet is 8.7mm with a weight of 350 grams. Acer says that they will produce several accessories for this tablet including covers, carrying cases, a stylus, travel adapter, SlimPort adapter dongle, and a gaming headset. Included with the tablet are the racing game Asphalt 8 and 320 000 game credits or approximately $50 USD worth.
During a press conference today Acer also briefly announced and teased a sibling product with the gaming phone Acer Predator 6, a 6-inch Android phone with a 10-core processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 21MP camera. We’ll hear more about that later.
Acer Predator 6 on the left, and Predator 8 on the right
– Tom Bowen
