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The new Dell Venue 7 and 8 now available

Ravynmagi

Diamond Member
http://liliputing.com/2014/07/dell-venue-7-tablet-intel-merrifield-now-available-160.html

Dell launched two low-ish almost mid range Android tablets, updates to last years Venue 7 and 8. With some slightly improved specs (and some disimproved specs) along with the latest Android 4.4.

The 7 inch is $160 for a 1280x800, 1.6GHz Atom Z3460 (dual core), 1GB of RAM, and 16GB storage.
The 8 inch is $200 for 1920x1200, 2.1GHz Atom Z3480 (dual core), 1GB of RAM, and 16GB storage.

That 7 inch model doesn't seem to be cheap enough considering the 8 inch has a much better DPI and faster processor for only $40 more.

Oddly however Dell cut back on the RAM, they had 2GB last year and now they are only using 1GB. The Dell Venue 8 2014 edition would be a very tempting Nexus 7 alternative if it only had 2GB of RAM. 1GB of RAM isn't that expensive, this seems like a really bizarre way to save a buck. Don't know WTF Dell is thinking.

I guess even with 1GB of RAM for the $200 price, it wouldn't be the worst tablet choice in the world. But still... more RAM Dell.
 
Aside from the RAM the 8 inch version is actually pretty damn near high end, only difference between the G6400 in these Intel SOCs and the G6430 in the A7 is probably feature set.
 
what's the deal with x86 android? Is it fully compatible with all android apps or what?

I think its better, but I've always heard to avoid with Clover trail. Now with Bay Trail I don't know if things have improved... SOC is definitly better, but what good is it if X86 isn't properly supported by all apps. Interested in this as well. I'm assuming yes.
 
The 1GB ram might be a misprint, no way they'd go down in ram for no reason, unless the new android is better with memory.
 
The 1GB ram might be a misprint, no way they'd go down in ram for no reason, unless the new android is better with memory.
as LG as well

their LG G Pad 8.3 android tablet was pretty good (1920x1200 16:10, 2GB). Created a GPE version too

then they decided to release a 7.0, 8.0, 10.1, all of them have only 1280x800 screen and 1GB ram. major fail there too
 
so would it be fair to say this is a downgrade--half the memory, half the coars, lower price?

Don't confuse the Venue Pros with the regular Venues (probably bad naming on Dell's part). These new tablets are Android based while the Pros run Windows 8.1. From what I can tell the only thing downgraded on the new Venues is the memory.
 
Don't confuse the Venue Pros with the regular Venues (probably bad naming on Dell's part). These new tablets are Android based while the Pros run Windows 8.1. From what I can tell the only thing downgraded on the new Venues is the memory.

r-ightly i git it. did they refresh the venue pros at the same time?

regarding the regular venues, if they went from 4 arm cores to 2 intel cores thats a definitel improvement
 
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r-ightly i git it. did they refresh the venue pros at the same time?

regarding the regular venues, if they went from 4 arm cores to 2 intel cores thats a definitel improvement

They went from a

dual core+hyper threading clovertrail at 2 ghz to a

1.6 ghz dual core baytrail for the 7 inch and a
2.13 ghz dual core baytrail for the 8 inch

The 8 inch is big improvement (besides the lower memory), the 7 inch less so. To put it in comparison a clovertrail 1.8 ghz gets about .18 for cinebench single thread a baytrail 1.86 ghz gets about .31 for cinebench single thread. So we are in the 30 to 40% range for improvement on the 7 inch
 
They went from a

dual core+hyper threading clovertrail at 2 ghz to a

1.6 ghz dual core baytrail for the 7 inch and a
2.13 ghz dual core baytrail for the 8 inch

The 8 inch is big improvement (besides the lower memory), the 7 inch less so. To put it in comparison a clovertrail 1.8 ghz gets about .18 for cinebench single thread a baytrail 1.86 ghz gets about .31 for cinebench single thread. So we are in the 30 to 40% range for improvement on the 7 inch

Thanks for the summary, so the 8 is the best buy/bang for your buck?
 
I don't get the drop from 2GBs of RAM to 1GB. Like others have said, its an odd way to save production costs. That second GB of RAM isn't a lot extra to the cost; they'd be better served by nuking the rear camera to save money.
 
I don't get the drop from 2GBs of RAM to 1GB. Like others have said, its an odd way to save production costs. That second GB of RAM isn't a lot extra to the cost; they'd be better served by nuking the rear camera to save money.

Is it possible that 1 gb is dedicated to the GPU?

Thanks for the summary, so the 8 is the best buy/bang for your buck?

I would also argue that the dimensions are less awkward too.
 
So add AC wifi for the few that have the latest routers, but take 1GB ram away from everybody. Makes perfect sense. /s

Otherwise the 8" looks nice. Could be a great pickup on sale if the 1GB ram isn't too limiting.
 
So add AC wifi for the few that have the latest routers, but take 1GB ram away from everybody. Makes perfect sense. /s

Otherwise the 8" looks nice. Could be a great pickup on sale if the 1GB ram isn't too limiting.

I think AC probably came at no additional cost. I suspect they purchased it from intel along with the Merrifield. Even so the consumer cost difference for AC vs. straight forward dual band is much lower than 1 vs. 2gb of RAM. I'm looking forward to reviews so we can try to see how the RAM effects performance.
 
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