Dell Venue 8 Pro

[jacktesterson]

Anyone have one?

I tried out a friends over the weekend and instantly fell in love with it. I even tickled the back of it some.

Kidding.

I picked one up today on sale at Best Buy. Very impressed so far. The lower resolution screen is a little noticeable compared to my Nexus 7 2013, but Dell is using a high quality screen at least.

Pretty sure I'd chose the Venue 8 over the N7 now if I had to pick.. that being said, Android is easier to navigate in and not as overwhelming.


Question ---- What happens if something O/S wise gets mucked up.. and restore doesn't work for some reason. Is it possible to reload the O/S? I need to do some more research

 

[desura]

I gave it a lot of thought as an alternative to a Nintendo DS or a PSP. It's similar in price after all and is pretty small and light. You could run little indie games on it pretty well, with some light 3d.

I dunno, have other priorities right now but would try it. I wonder how pixeljunk games run on it. The Atom looks like it's neck and neck with the Apple A7, and Intel seems to have something very good coming up next year.

What will be really interesting is when intel x86 chips start appearing in phones, letting you run all of your desktop windows apps on a 5 inch screen.

 

[code65536]

I've had one for a couple of months now. I use it mostly for media consumption--browsing and the sort. It's also my first (and really, only) experience with touch on Metro.

Metro took some getting used to (even though I have 8.1 on all my computers, I avoided Metro and use the desktop exclusively on those systems), but once I got the hang of all the gesturing, I think it's actually pretty nice--a better user experience, IMHO, than my Nexus 7 (which is now sad and very neglected).

And the keyboard! Oh, I how love that keyboard! In landscape view, I put the keyboard in split mode and reduced the key size slightly so that it had room to show the numpad in the center. Oh, it's glorious. Best touchscreen tablet keyboard I've ever used.

I haven't tried the app marketplace, though, because as I said, it's a purely consumption device (I don't have much in the way of apps on my Nexus, either). Mostly for reading and video watching (one really good thing about this being Windows is that I don't need to contort myself to get it to play the stuff on my file server over SMB).

 

[gmaster456]

Almost bought one the other day. Is there a way to connect it to a monitor so I can use a larger screen and a KB&M?

 

[bearxor]

Almost bought one the other day. Is there a way to connect it to a monitor so I can use a larger screen and a KB&M?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPPY4m8iY0k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUI2q1GDsdQ

 

[jpeyton]

Almost bought one the other day. Is there a way to connect it to a monitor so I can use a larger screen and a KB&M?

There are ways, but not easy ways, since Dell omitted a mini-HDMI port on it. You're better off getting a tablet that has mini-HDMI out.

 

[ElFenix]

USB video dock. you'll need to hack a USB hub if you want to charge at the same time. one of the better miracast sticks works pretty well, apparently - the one nvidia suggests to use with the shield.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPPY4m8iY0k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUI2q1GDsdQ

so hes saying you cant charge while doing that, thats a serious limitation. that and the fact that 8 inches is too small for a desktop will be a dealbreaker for most. the refresh should be killa tho. what do you guys think about bay trail speed, is it adequate for desktop windows

 

[code65536]

what do you guys think about bay trail speed, is it adequate for desktop windows

It's surprisingly good. Miles ahead of the old Atoms. System feels fast and responsive, which is to say that its single-threaded performance is fast enough to keep up with UI and user input. As for heavier and multithreaded workloads, the most common CPU-intensive thing that I do is file compression, and according to 7zip's internal benchmark, it outperforms my old 2.26 GHz Penryn. It's definitely good enough for non-insane workloads.

 

[bearxor]

so hes saying you cant charge while doing that, thats a serious limitation. that and the fact that 8 inches is too small for a desktop will be a dealbreaker for most. the refresh should be killa tho. what do you guys think about bay trail speed, is it adequate for desktop windows

You can hack a USB OTG cable to provide power at the same time. But it is a bummer the Venue 8 only has one USB port. It makes looking at something like the ThinkPad 2 appealing, but it's $500. You have to make trade offs. You can get a Venue 8 Pro for $200 almost all the time now. Is a little bit of hackery worth $300?

The one thing I've realized I don't like is that Windows 8's multi-view isn't quite flexible enough. You can do side-by-side apps, but not top/bottom. It would be amazing if I could fire up Netflix in portrait mode and then drag IE below it instead of beside it. This would let me have perfect widescreen video at the top if the tablet and surf the web while holding the tablet comfortably in portrait, the browser taking up the rest of the screen below.

I guess you could do that by moving around windows in desktop mode, but it seems like an awful lot more work than simply dragging and dropping the apps in to place.

Bay Trail performance is pretty great. It's so significantly different from previous Atoms that they really shouldn't have even called them that.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

You can hack a USB OTG cable to provide power at the same time. But it is a bummer the Venue 8 only has one USB port. It makes looking at something like the ThinkPad 2 appealing, but it's $500. You have to make trade offs. You can get a Venue 8 Pro for $200 almost all the time now. Is a little bit of hackery worth $300?

The one thing I've realized I don't like is that Windows 8's multi-view isn't quite flexible enough. You can do side-by-side apps, but not top/bottom. It would be amazing if I could fire up Netflix in portrait mode and then drag IE below it instead of beside it. This would let me have perfect widescreen video at the top if the tablet and surf the web while holding the tablet comfortably in portrait, the browser taking up the rest of the screen below.

I guess you could do that by moving around windows in desktop mode, but it seems like an awful lot more work than simply dragging and dropping the apps in to place.

Bay Trail performance is pretty great. It's so significantly different from previous Atoms that they really shouldn't have even called them that.

hmm i was wondering how much that extra stuff cost. at that price you might as well jsut get a separate nuc

 

[Red Storm]

I had one for a week, but I ultimately returned it because for my needs (content consumption, watching videos) Android is easier and more efficient for tablet-use.

 

[bearxor]

hmm i was wondering how much that extra stuff cost. at that price you might as well jsut get a separate nuc

The Asus Transformer T100 isn't a terrible deal. It's $349 and comes with a MicroHDMI port and a full-size USB 3 port.

The downside is that it's a 10" tablet with a 1366x768 screen res.

 

[ControlD]

The only thing keeping me from purchasing a Venue Pro 8 is the upcoming Asus Vivotab 8. I like the idea of a real Wacom digitizer and getting a pen with the tablet rather than hoping Dell gets more in stock. Still, for $229 the VP8 is pretty hard to pass up.

 

[bearxor]

They aren't back in stock anymore? I went to buy a venue 11 a couple of days ago and they were available. I presume they were the second gen versions.

I'm getting the Atom Venue 11 tomorrow afternoon. Kind of excited. Have had the tablet keyboard for a week now and it's pretty slick.

 

[ControlD]

They aren't back in stock anymore? I went to buy a venue 11 a couple of days ago and they were available. I presume they were the second gen versions.

I'm getting the Atom Venue 11 tomorrow afternoon. Kind of excited. Have had the tablet keyboard for a week now and it's pretty slick.

I was referring to the active stylus being out of stock, but I haven't looked recently to be honest, just seen lots of people complaining that they can't be found anywhere.

I can't wait to hear what your take on the 11" model is once you get a chance to use it for a bit. I have pretty much decided I am getting a W8 tablet of some sort in the near future but which model is still very much up in the air.

 

[paperwastage]

I was referring to the active stylus being out of stock, but I haven't looked recently to be honest, just seen lots of people complaining that they can't be found anywhere.

I can't wait to hear what your take on the 11" model is once you get a chance to use it for a bit. I have pretty much decided I am getting a W8 tablet of some sort in the near future but which model is still very much up in the air.

the newer version of the stylus is released by dell (ships in a few weeks), dunno how much better it is though

The only thing keeping me from purchasing a Venue Pro 8 is the upcoming Asus Vivotab 8. I like the idea of a real Wacom digitizer and getting a pen with the tablet rather than hoping Dell gets more in stock. Still, for $229 the VP8 is pretty hard to pass up.

vivotab 8 is out already

 

[TripleThreatTLT]

I had one and absolutely loved it vs my old Galaxy Note 10.1 I ended up trading up to a Surface Pro though, and handing it down to my wife. After about a week she begrudgingly decided to return it and keep the note. 2 days later I was back at the store repurchasing it and now the note is going up for sale.

It is an awesome little tablet.

 

[ControlD]

the newer version of the stylus is released by dell (ships in a few weeks), dunno how much better it is though

vivotab 8 is out already

Thanks for the info.

I saw that the MS Store had the Vivotab 8 briefly but they quickly went out of stock. I have not seen it for sale anywhere else though.

 

[bearxor]

I was referring to the active stylus being out of stock, but I haven't looked recently to be honest, just seen lots of people complaining that they can't be found anywhere.

I can't wait to hear what your take on the 11" model is once you get a chance to use it for a bit. I have pretty much decided I am getting a W8 tablet of some sort in the near future but which model is still very much up in the air.

I have the mobile keyboard now. This is the one with the integrated battery. It's very nice. Very sturdy with very little flex. Slightly larger than a 10" netbook keyboard and much more efficient use of the space than in a previous netbook. The hinge seems very sturdy as well.

The biggest fear I had was charging it. I didn't know if it required a separate charger. I'm still not terribly sure. I hope it will charge off the charger connected to the Venue, but it also has a mUSB port in the hinge for connecting a charger. Hopefully it's just a back up.

Keys are very nice with good travel. Trackpad feels nice and smooth. Pretty anxious for tomorrow afternoon. Hoping to take it home and use Win 8.1 on it all weekend before having to wipe it and set it up with Win 7.

Mini Dell Venue 11 review on Reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/tablets/comments/1ul0xm/dell_venue_11_pro_i54210y128gb_7130_review/

 

[Ravynmagi]

I have the Dell Venue 8 Pro (along with a Nexus 7 2013 and iPad Mini 2).

My feelings towards it are kinda "meh". The hardware is really nice. I love the 8 inch size. And Dell did an outstanding job with the texture on the back, tablet feels really nice to hold. Speakers sound good. While the display is low DPI, it still looks pretty good.

My lack of excitement towards the tablet is completely because of Windows 8 though. I love Windows 8. But on an 8 inch tablet I'm find I only use Modern apps. I installed Office 2013 and some desktop apps, but I end up never wanting to use those on the small tablet. And the Modern apps are okay, I could live on Windows 8 apps if needed. I've grown to like Modern IE on the tablet because of the full screen and swipe gestures.

But the apps are so much better on my Nexus 7 and iPad Mini that I end up using them. My Venue 8 Pro has me really looking forward to an 8 inch Nexus tablet though, that's the right size for me.

 

[jacktesterson]

I use my Tablet primarily for Web Browsing and Media Playback.

The Venue 8 does both of these better than my Nexus 7 2013, which hit the bay.

 

[bearxor]

I had zero issues with XBMC when I had a V8P as well.

 

[ControlD]

Is the lack of a stylus a big deal when using a Windows 8 tablet? I am trying to imagine running applications in the classic desktop and I would think a finger would just be too big to hit any of the controls with any type of precision.

Does the included version of Office run as a Metro app or does it run on the classic desktop?

 

[jacktesterson]

Is the lack of a stylus a big deal when using a Windows 8 tablet? I am trying to imagine running applications in the classic desktop and I would think a finger would just be too big to hit any of the controls with any type of precision.

Does the included version of Office run as a Metro app or does it run on the classic desktop?

Runs in Desktop mode.

Doesn't come with a Stylus but I will probably purchase one