The Acer Iconia W3, the first Windows 8 tablet with an 8-inch screen, is now officially available in the U.S. from Staples and Office Depot.

This tablet packs a dual-core 1.8GHz Atom Z2760 Clover Trail processor that provides the full Windows 8 experience on a display smaller than the rest of the 10-inch Windows 8 tablets. The Atom Z2760 may not be the fastest x86 processor out there, but it does its job quite nicely and allows for up to eight hours of battery life.

Other specs of the Acer Iconia W3 include 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. The slate ships with Office 2013 Home & Student preloaded, which may appeal to many, but it's also worth noting that Acer had to sacrifice some things to keep the price affordable.

The tablet sports a TN display with quite limited viewing angles, meaning that holding it the wrong way will make it look like a blank screen or an X-ray rather than a tablet. Compared to other Clover Trail tablets, meanwhile, the Acer Iconia W3 also seems a bit sluggish, but not to a great extent.

In terms of design and build, Acer's new Windows 8 tablet is lightweight and easy to hold in one hand, but its display still feels like a drawback. With increasingly more tablets and smartphones sporting IPS displays with wide viewing angles, a screen that is no longer visible if you tilt it the wrong way is definitely not a strong aspect. Viewing angles matter and they can make a world of difference in mobile devices.

Other than that, the Acer Iconia W3 weighs in at just over a pound and measures less than half an inch in thickness. The screen sports a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, which is sufficient for 720p video provided you find a good angle to watch it. The slate also has dual cameras, with both the front- and rear-shooter packing just 2 megapixels. When it comes to wireless connectivity, the Acer Iconia W3 features Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi.

The Acer Iconia W3 Windows 8 tablet is now available for purchase in the U.S. from Office Depot and Staples.