Windows 8.1 Tablets (Slight Review / Comparinson)

[Williz]

Where do I start? Being constantly underwhelmed by Android tablets (Buy one then sell it like a month later...) and not being a fan of how locked down iDevices are (Price too). I've looked somewhere else for my tablety needs!
Now seeing that the most recent tablets (Dell Venue 8, Toshiba Encore, Lenovo Miix 2 & Asus T100) are FULL windows 8.1 (full x86 program compatibility, well as far as the hardware allows) and not silly RT which only allows Windows store "Apps" to be installed. I thought I would go for one of these as they are going to be a lot more flexible than anything else I can get my hands on!
Now I hear you saying Woooah! Slow down man the Surface Pro/(2) has been out for ages and is surely a better product? Well I can't disagree that the Surface Pro is probably a better device but for the cost of the thing (Around £500?) I just can't deem that as being affordable for what it is.
Now upon comparing these devices I decided that the Toshiba was probably the best of the lot as it has a mini hdmi slot which means when I need /want to output to an external screen it's fairly painless and lag free (Considering the Dell and Lenovo both rely upon WiDi (Wireless display) for any external output. The Lenovo comes slightly out on top of the Dell but this is because there is a model with a 3G modem which some people may find useful (at extra cost though).
Now you think I'm forgetting the Asus t100 as it is technically on paper the best device; nice large 10.1" screen, a 1366 x 768 res, comes with it's own keyboard dock and has the nice mini-hdmi port... Well I'm not forgetting it but again with the Surface I think it's too expensive for what it is. Looking around the Asus Tablet is around £330-£350 this makes it £100 dearer than the Toshiba Encore at £230-£250.
These tablets all run virtually the same hardware with slight differences being the ports / accessories they come with so there will likely be no real performance difference between them.
Using USB OTG is a bit of a pain but something you get used to, my main gripe though is that they could have included a second micro usb port on these device solely for charging the device. As you are limited to either charging or using USB OTG... Although saying that I'm yet to confirm if a powered USB OTG cable works for charging and USB at the same time. I'll update when I receive my cable.
Okay now moving onto device size... Yes this is an 8" tablet, it's not huge but it's not exactly small either. The touchscreen responds perfectly I've seen no lag or issues with it (other than my fat fingers) Now being that this is Windows 8.1 I've got over my hate of the Metro interface now I've had the chance to use it in it's intended form: A touchscreen! I may actually give it another chance on my desktop now... (That and I got a Project Spark Beta invite).
Now using the good old desktop mode that we know and love and have done probably since before I was born! You may be thinking using a screen of this size and res would make for a lot of issues with selecting, clicking and other activities but if I'm honest it's accurate and very forgiving I've not had many miss touches on it and I'm using my fingers! A stylus would be a great addition if you get one of these and have larger hands.
Now last but not least! PERFORMANCE! Whilst I've not ran any benching software on this thing (I will if I get enough requests) it's definitely no slouch. Now most of my experience on this is from desktop mode as there isn't much testing you can do in Metro on multitasking and such.I was expecting slow downs whilst browsing with loads of tabs 20+ and I didn't (Well I did in Firefox but that thing a hog, I suggest using IE solely or chrome on this thing). The only thing that's a tad slow is steam allocating space to games you want to install (Probably the SD I'm using).
WAIT DID HE SAY HE PUT STEAM ON THIS THING!?!? Yes stop the bus I did say that. I've got around 33 games installed as of this moment but I've not tested them all. Last night I played the Stanley Parables for around 30 mins on medium settings, full res for the device and had my gamepad plugged in over USB OTG (Bluetooth mouse hasn't arrived yet). Whilst it was a bit awkward to navigate with a pad the game looked and ran great! I'll have to do a netgraph and get the fps after work today and update this post.
Oh also Streamy stuff for us Homeserver guys! I use Plex in my system as XMBC had a brainfart over my TV show meta data (I'll probably do a fresh format of my server and PC this weekend to try and sort it. But this tablet streams all my 1080 blurays nicely with no buffering over my wirelsss. To those that don't use streaming\management software and prefer to browse and use something like MPC... I have the CCCP codec pack installed and it also works like a dream with no lag.
So all in all I'm fairly impressed by the Toshiba Encore for the price point and would definitely recommend it specially for it's price point. These are definitely a viable and in my opinion better alternative to android and iDevices tablet offerings. Free Office 365 is nice too!

So yeah TL;DR: Win 8.1 Tablets good, Buy the Toshiba or the Asus!

Any questions shoot away.

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated to any of these manufacturers and this is just my own opinion based review on owning the Toshiba Encore for a week!

Oh also excuse me if this is poorly written I don't generally write long posts and sometimes get verbal diarrhea that and I haven't written a review in years! I just thought it could possibly help some people on the fence between these products.

 

[Ravynmagi]

I'm surprised the ASUS T100 is so much more expensive over there. Here in the US it's quite cheap and I think a pretty good value for it's price. I did buy one and used it for a couple weeks. I ended up returning it though because it also feels really cheap and I hated the smooth gloss plastic back that slips around in my grip, and the sides creaked. So you are definitely getting what you pay for. But still a 10 inch Baytrail tablet with keyboard for $350 is nice for those that don't mind the cheap feeling.

I bought the Dell Venue 8 Pro... actually I bought it, returned it, and bought it again. First time I got it from Walmart for $300 and I felt it was a good tablet. But I didn't fall in love with it. Part of the problem was I already had a Nexus 7 2013 and iPad Mini 2. I also really wished it had a micro USB port. And I told myself I should just wait for better 10 inch Baytrail tablets to arrive next year since I'm already well covered in the 7-8 inch tablet size now.

But then Microsoft had a sale and the Dell Venue 8 Pro dropped to $200 and I got suckered into buying it again.

I really do like the tablet and the Windows 8.1. I'm crazy about the textured rubber back that I think gives this tablet a more premium feel do it. And it's on the lighter side of the 8 inch Windows tablets. And as far as mobile operating systems go, I think I like the feel of Windows 8 more than Android and iOS. It's funny how often I find myself trying to swipe down from the top of my Nexus or iPad to close an app to realize I can't do that or pull up a Charms bar. I really like the Windows 8 UI.

Unfortunately it's still my least used tablet because I just love the apps on my Nexus and iPad so much more. And when I'm holding a tablet in my hand it's mobile apps I'm using 99% of the time. I'm really hoping app developers work on their quality for Windows apps. Like if the Kindle app didn't suck so badly I might consider reading books on my Dell V8P more. Though the Dell does a better job at browsing the web than the Nexus, but not as fast as the iPad.

I have Office 2013 Pro installed (it came with 2013 Home and Student, but I need Outlook). Outlook works pretty nice and I use this for getting my Gmail and Exchange mail (if I used the stock Mail client then my work's Exchange mail would force me to use a PIN on the tablet and I hate that). I also installed Steam and Civ 5. I played that once and then decided playing desktop games on an 8 inch tablet is not much fun, but it's capable.

I have Plex on my home computer, but so have been too cheap to buy the $5 Plex app for Windows 8 to stream content to my Dell Venue 8 Pro. Instead I just open my Windows Explorer and go to the network share on my desktop computer and play files from there with VLC or Zoom Player and that's works just fine with the 1080p files I have. But other than watching an occasional movie or anime, I don't really spend much time in the desktop. Still it's pretty cool that I can if I want to.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the Dell Venue 8 Pro at the discounted $200 price I paid. I probably still would not pay $300 for this though and would instead just wait for what I'm hoping are better class 10 inch tablet with keyboard docks and digitizers. Which of course will be more expensive. But I wouldn't mind paying $500 or $600 for a decent Baytrail tablet that could double as a good netbook.

Oh and I'm still waiting to get a stylus for my Dell. It does have an active digitizer. Apparently Dell's had lots of problems with the firmware and stylus hardware. It seems like the firmware is in better shape now and they recently started selling a new hardware revision of the stylus, but it's back ordered to to next century. So who knows when I'll actually get to try the stylus.

 

[Ban Bot]

I have an HP Omni 10. 10.1 inch 1920x1200 screen. The 16:10 aspect is nice. Comes with Office. A bit quicker than the Asus (at the expense of battery life, but 8+ hours is still nice). The only major draw back is the 32GB of eMMC. I have paired mine with a MS Wedge KB for working on Word Docs on the go. Very happy with the purchase.

 

[Williz]

BanBot! Yes I was actually looking at the HP Omni 10 but it's impossible to get over here, I really don't want to get buttfucked over the customs by importing it either :l But if that was available I'd have definitely got it mostly for that awesome screen res!
You need to factor in that we pay tax plus 20% VAT on pretty much everything we buy as standard. Sales tax is a hell of a lot cheaper in the US Rav. Yes active digitizer... I could use that on the Encore but I really don't want to give the hdmi port up. I just need to look for a decent capacitive one with a fine tip. Kinda wish they amalgamated these devices but then there wouldn't be much competition / price difference. As for feel the Toshiba feels nicely premium and has a textured (not rubberized) back and is quite nice to hold.
You could always install the desktop Plex App for free! I only paid for the Store one as it has a very nice interface.