For customers looking for a Windows 8 tablet with good performance, long battery life, and a dock that turns it into a laptop, the Smart PC Pro should be on the top of your list
! As a tablet
Though the Smart PC Pro comes with the keyboard dock and can be used solely as a laptop,
By itself, the tablet part weighs just less than two pounds, which is the same as the Acer iconia W700 and the Surface Pro. For a tablet, this feels heavy, especially compared with tablets like the Nexus or the :D IPAD The Smart PC Pro’s 11.6-inch display is bigger than either of those tablets and even has an inch on the Surface Pro. As we’ve seen with the Lenovo
IdeaTab Lynx, lighter isn’t always better. The weight helps the ATIV to balance better when holding it in portrait mode, which is important for a tablet with a 16:9 aspect ratio. At this screen size, it’s still not ideal.
As a laptop
At 1.6 pounds, the Smart PC Pro’s keyboard dock is lighter than the tablet. When attached, it brings the whole computer up to 3.6 pounds. That’s heavier than some 13.3-inch Ultrabooks. It’s a necessary addition if you want to use the ATIV for productivity tasks.
The disparity in weight between the tablet and keyboard dock means that the overall system doesn’t balance the same as a regular laptop. The top is heavy and can easily tip the whole thing over on an uneven surface, such as a lap. On a stable, flat surface, there’s little danger of this because the hinge on the dock doesn’t allow users to tilt the tablet back too far. This limits the range of the display – which isn’t great on a device that doesn’t have wide viewing angles. Still, this overall design is better than the Surface and Surface Pro, which are almost impossible to use on a lap and have kickstands that only allow for one angle.
