With the Aspire P3, Acer claims it’s “redefining the computer”. It’s not, of course, but on paper at least the P3 looks like a pretty cool Windows 8 hybrid.

It offers all the usual features of this class of device – it operates as a fully functional Windows 8 Ultrabook, it folds flat to become a slate and you can also detach the screen completely to carry it around as a tablet. To transport it in a bag, the whole thing folds up into a faux-leather-bound case.

Weighing 1.39Kg and measuring just shy of 20mm thick, the physical dimensions of the P3 are hardly earth shattering, but they’re good enough to fulfil the Ultrabook criteria. It feels perfectly light enough to carry around, but it’s certainly not a Weightwatchers champion.

The keyboard is technically full sized but felt a little cramped to us – if you’ve got nimble fingers you won’t have a problem.

Duality is the future?

Acer reckons that “duality” hybrid devices are the hottest ticket in town this year, and has forecast a doubling in shipments of these products in Q2 this year compared with Q1.

Can we see the P3 being a major player in this revolution? Well we’re not entirely convinced, frankly. We had a good play with the device – the Ivy Bridge Core i3 and i5 CPUs and decent system specs keep Windows 8 gliding along nice and smooth. Performance wise, we have no complaints at all.

It’s a capable machine without a doubt. It runs full-blown Windows 8 so there’s no limitations on what you can and can’t run program-wise – old and new will all work.

However, the P3 certainly does not offer the premium feel of similar devices like Microsoft Surface, or the excellent build quality of the ‘Star Trek’ style Aspire R7 which Acer also launched today. It feels very flimsy, and nothing like the ‘snap into place’ precision of Surface.

The mechanism for detaching the tablet from its mounting particularly grated with us. It’s a very clunky method indeed. The tablet sits in a thin shell which encases its edges – but there is no button or release lever to get it out.

You literally have to jimmy the thing out with your finger. “Surely there’s a better way of doing it than that?” we said to the Acer man giving us the demo. But no. You literally have to slide your finger behind the tablet and push it out. “It’s a learning curve” we were told. Definitely – but is that good enough for an Ultrabook that costs £600?

To us it felt a little cheap. That’s despite the use of a lot of brushed aluminium as well. We were also unsure about the P3 in its standard Ultrabook configuration. When the screen is sitting on the keyboard, it’s very easy to unsettle it or knock it over. There’s no way of locking it in place, the screen just sits in a little groove on the keyboard surface. Not ideal for anything other than a quiet, tranquil working environment – if you’ve seen one of those, let us know – we’d like to know what they look like.

We had a wonder around using the P3 as a tablet and couldn’t fault it – we browsed the web and multitasked as much as we could with the programs installed. There wasn’t even a hint of a clunk or a slowdown.

Early verdict

We totally agree with Acer that this product category is currently where it’s at – if you’re buying a new laptop, why not get an Ultrabook that’s also a Windows 8 tablet? It’s a win-win situation… in theory.

But the problem with many of these devices – and the P3 would appear to be a basketcase in this regard – is that you simply don’t get the best of both worlds. It’s a decent hybrid device, but as individual Ultrabook or Windows 8 tablet it’s compromised.

We’ll give the P3 a more in-depth test when we get our review sample but in the meantime we’d call this one to watch rather than one to rush out and buy.

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