The folks of Staples started offering the Acer Iconia W3 8 inch tablet model yesterday and this is a premiere, since it’s the first sub 10 inch Windows 8 slate on the market. The product goes for $349.99, a price that’s not quite bad for a Win 8 device.

iconia

The product relies on a 8.1 inch 1280 x 800 display, it has a dual core Atom CPU at 1.5 GHz, 2 GB of RAM and a 2 megapixel front camera. There’s a 2 megapixel rear camera as well and the slate comes with microUSB, micro HDMI, microSD and a battery life of about 8 hours. The Iconia W3 model comes with preinstalled Microsoft software, such as Office Home and Student 2013.

Back to the screen, we’re dealing with a LED backlit TFT LCD with 10 point multitouch and Acer CrystalBrite technology. 32 GB of storage are also available here and I am ready to speculate that by the year end, this model will be priced below $300, in order to appeal even more to the masses.