Acer sheds more light on mysterious Predator 8 gaming tablet

Acer's Predator 8 gaming tablet

Acer has removed some of the mystery surrounding its first gaming tablet, the Predator 8.

It will run Android, and have Intel's Atom X7 processor, code-named Cherry Trail. More details of the tablet were shared by an Acer executive during the Computex keynote of Kirk Skaugen, Intel senior vice president and general manager of the PC client group.

The Predator 8 is the first Android tablet with the Atom X7 chip to be announced, although a number of Cherry Trail tablets running Microsoft's Windows OS have been announced -- including Microsoft's Surface 3, which started shipping last month.

The Predator was demonstrated on stage running a racing game. The graphics ran smoothly, reflecting the amount of work Intel has put into improving the graphics on the Cherry Trail chips. However, during a hands-on test earlier this year, Cherry Trail didn't provide much of an improvement in battery life.

Acer shared no further details of the Predator 8, and didn't provide a release date. It initially announced the tablet during a news event last month in New York City. The company is aggressively chasing the tablet market, as it helps the company offer a top-to-bottom line of gaming products including desktops, laptops, monitors and mobile products.

Agam Shah covers PCs, tablets, servers, chips and semiconductors for IDG News Service. Follow Agam on Twitter at @agamsh. Agam's e-mail address is agam_shah@idg.com