Windows 8 Pro Tablet Opinion

[hennessy1]

I have been a loyal android user for several years. I have purchased all but the first asus transformer for my tablets handing down the previous models to family members which have also like them as well. I like the docking solution with an sd card expansion slot, usb port, and additional battery life.

I have wanted to replace my work laptop with it but have run into several limitations. The biggest one is printer support. I do printer and copier repairs and being able to connect to and print to those machines is a must. With an Ethernet adapter I was at least able to connect my tablet to a wired network but there is not really any print drivers/app that have been able to successfully print to the machines I need. There have been some but have fallen short.

I have really kept away from windows 8 mainly because of the interface. I can work with it when I have to but prefer the windows 7 one instead. I have accepted that I need to move on with it. With that background I have found these two tablets atleast for now that I would like your opinion on. The Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T and the Acer Iconia Tab W Series W700P-6821.

These two have the hardware and OS that I would need to connect to the machines I work on. They have the horsepower that would be able to keep up with the basic in the field tasks I do. I will still use my laptop for the heavy vmware lifting though. I know of the wireless issue on the Acer one and that it is not completely wide spread.

I also know with the recent IDF conference that there will be new tablets on the way. I wanted to know if there were any that would match these in specs that I should wait for or look deeper into one of these. I am open to suggestions. I am not in a rush to purchase anything just more of a browsing time right now for me. I would need a atleast a keyboard dock with a usb port as a requirement for any tablet. I currently have a galaxy note 2 and have become accustomed to the s pen so that on the Samsung front is a plus but not a requirement.

Thank you for any help or direction.

 

[RandomFool]

If you're not in a rush, it'll absolutely pay to wait. Haswell should improve battery life and performance on Windows 8 plus the new intel gpu is said to be a lot better. 8.1 does a lot to clean up the UI issues and if you prefer Win7 you should be able to stay in that environment 90% of the time.

As for which one to get, I'm totally sold on the Surface Pro and that'll be refreshed very soon.

 

[hennessy1]

Any ETA on those haswell refreshes? Also with the examples I listed do you think the 1.6" display size increase will make a real difference over the 10" surface pro?

 

[zerogear]

Wait. There are Dell XPS 11 that is decent, and Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga (not IdeaPad Yoga)

 

[Ravynmagi]

I would definitely not buy a Windows tablet right now. With Windows 8.1, Haswell Y, and Baytrail all coming very soon, I think we'll see a refreshed batch of much better Windows tablets soon.

As for 11.6 inch versus 10.1 inches or 10.6 inches.

You'll want to decide what's more important, typing comfort or holding comfort. The 11.6 inch tablets feel very nice to type on by the size of the tablets make the unwieldy and awkward to hold as tablets for long. 10.1 inch tablets have cramped keyboards, but feel much nicer to use as tablets. I never owned a Surface so not sure how well the 10.6 inch compromise works.

 

[Crono]

I would definitely not buy a Windows tablet right now. With Windows 8.1, Haswell Y, and Baytrail all coming very soon, I think we'll see a refreshed batch of much better Windows tablets soon.

As for 11.6 inch versus 10.1 inches or 10.6 inches.

You'll want to decide what's more important, typing comfort or holding comfort. The 11.6 inch tablets feel very nice to type on by the size of the tablets make the unwieldy and awkward to hold as tablets for long. 10.1 inch tablets have cramped keyboards, but feel much nicer to use as tablets. I never owned a Surface so not sure how well the 10.6 inch compromise works.

There is only one big drawback to the Surface tablets, and that is the aspect ratio makes using them in vertical, portrait mode almost pointless. They are just too tall or long in that orientation. Smaller tablets with 16:9 are more comfortable to hold that way.

The upcoming 8" tablets or otherwise 4:3 works better for both portrait and landscape use.

 

[notposting]

I'm using Win 8 (actually 8.1 Preview now) on a Dell laptop we had to get (it does have a touchscreen). I ended up buying Start8 and ModernMix from Stardock for $8, works really nicely that way as basically a Win 7 machine with a new service pack

Day to day use as a tablet you will probably be okay with the new UI, but I would imagine when you are sitting down to troubleshoot and hooking the keyboard up it would probably be nice to have the "old, reliable" way of doing things. Just something to consider as well.

 

[Ravynmagi]

I use Windows 8 and don't use any crutches or training wheels. I did have a hard time with it the first couple or few weeks wanting to do things the Windows 7 way. Then I got used to the Windows 8 way and now I really like Windows 8 quite a bit.

 

[desura]

Honestly, I never liked Windows 7.

I stuck with Vista for a while. IMO, Win 7 is basically Vista with a few interface tweaks. Win8 OTOH was a pretty big step forward, both in interface changes and performance differences.

 

[hennessy1]

Thank you all for your opinions and input. I will hold off for now and wait for 8.1 and the new haswells to drop. I took a look at the Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga that one seems like the highest end model would fit what I am looking for but the price is still a little more than I would like to spend on it. I like the look of that dell xps 11 just have to see the pricing and if I would want to have a keyboard permanently attached.

@notposting- I gave that some thought as well in regards to being able to do things the way I am used to on win 7. I imagine though that since they are full blown copies of 8 that I would be able to add one of the start menu programs if I really wanted to.

I know some of the requirements I put down would start to make the tablet close to a ultrabook price but I would still like to keep that under 1k if possible.

 

[IamDavid]

I've owned every major Win8 tablet and I don't understand peoples hesitations with today's current hardware. Yes, the tablets can't run the latest video games maxed out but I haven't found much, if anything else they can't handle.
Lenovo Helix #1
Surface Pro #2
Ativ #3.

The Ativ cent handle AutoCAD but I've used everything else.

win8.1 on these machines run perfect and are definitely worth the $$$.

 

[dagamer34]

I've owned every major Win8 tablet and I don't understand peoples hesitations with today's current hardware. Yes, the tablets can't run the latest video games maxed out but I haven't found much, if anything else they can't handle.
Lenovo Helix #1
Surface Pro #2
Ativ #3.

The Ativ cent handle AutoCAD but I've used everything else.

win8.1 on these machines run perfect and are definitely worth the $$$.

Well, the deficiencies for most of those tablets are pretty noticeable, but 2nd gen hardware will fix most of the issues. With the Helix, it's design really makes it clunky because of the fans which Haswell will fix. With the Surface Pro, battery life of 4.5 hours isn't that great but again, Haswell + the Power Cover will fix. And the Ativ is just not that elegant.

Haswell really does help to fix a lot of these issues though and we are so close to that and Windows 8.1 that it makes no sense to buy any hardware today.