Anyone use an Asus Vivotab Note 8?

[desura]

I'm thinking of picking one up for my sister, who is a decent artist.

Big draw is the integrated wacom stylus.

Then again, the price is to the point that 1st gen surface pros are close...

 

[Ravynmagi]

I had it. The display on it is pretty bad. Washed out, has a fairly big gap between the glass and LCD (like what you see on super cheap tablets). There is very little or no oleophobic coating, so it attracts fingerprints and is hard to wipe clean. The rest of the construction is pretty cheap feeling as well.

Kinda sad this is about the only affordable option for a Windows 8 tablet with Wacom pen.

 

[Crono]

I had one for a while. I don't know if panel consistency is an issue because unlike Ravynmagi I had no problems with the display being washed out. It is low resolution (comparatively; 1280 x 800), but that's fairly standard for Windows tablets at the low end. I'd expect more if it were a more expensive tablet or if it geared toward media consumption tablet like the Nexus 7 HD, but it's good for what it is. I had no issues with the body or construction, either, it's pretty much in line with all of ASUS' other tablets. The Surface RTs and Pros are much better in construction and material quality, of course.

Ravynmagi is spot on about the fingerprints, though: it does accumulate fingerprints (expect to wipe the screen frequently if you use touch more than the stylus), but you get used to it, and it's worth it for the excellent digitizer. Makes OneNote a pleasure to use, and it's suitable for drawing. I'm not an artist really, though, but did have a good experience using apps like FreshPaint and desktop Paint.NET. The digitizer and GPS easily make it worth the price tag versus all the other $200 - $300 Windows 8.1 tablets.

I sold mine on Swappa, but only because I somehow got a scratch on mine and the pen was getting caught in it a bit. Not a major problem - and I think ASUS includes it in the warranty - but I want to get a Surface Pro soon for the faster hardware, anyway, and since I don't currently have a laptop.

If your sister uses Photoshop or Illustrator, or any other heavy-duty desktop apps, she'll want a Pro. The Atom-based tablets are okay for old or lightweight desktop programs or Windows 8 apps, but they will feel slow for anything more powerful. And if she's a professional artist or plans on becoming one, the display on the Pros is much more accurate and higher resolution. Plus there's more room to work with - an 8" tablet is good for note taking and casual drawing, but larger tablets are preferable so you don't have to zoom a lot for detail.

 

[desura]

I think the scratch is b/c the vivotab only uses regular glass, not any of the gorilla glass.

How much better is gorilla glass than regular glass?

 

[Crono]

I think the scratch is b/c the vivotab only uses regular glass, not any of the gorilla glass.

How much better is gorilla glass than regular glass?

Probably. Gorilla Glass is much more scratch resistant from what I've seen. I've never managed to scratch any smartphone or tablet screen before this. Shattered two phone screens from drops, yes, but never scratched. Gorilla glass won't protect from a bad drop, though, only the tempered glass screen protectors that absorb impact and/or a good case will do that.

I had a case for the Vivotab Note 8, but not a screen protector. Still not sure how I picked up the scratch. It might have been from using the stylus agressively for Fruit Ninja, haha.

 

[ChronoReverse]

Just picked up a 64GB one yesterday and so far I'm liking it. My colours seem to be fine (although the IPS panel isn't as nice as some other screens I've used) and I can get used to the glass gap.

I had thought the small screen would be really cramped for desktop Windows programs but it's actually usable. Even Office 2013 is fine as long as I minimize the ribbon into tabs.

If only this had a micro/mini-HDMI out but I can work with what I have.