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[Rafy]

two weeks ago I was attending an electronics show here in Milan. There was a Dell press conference given by the Italian CEO of Dell. We got to try the venue 8" and it's amazing.
All of the venue tablets actually, price/quality ratio is very good, better than surface 2 pro IMO. Very fast, no input lag, good build quality etc...
Anyways, he even let the day of release and price for the EU slip. Plus, we were invited to have lunch at the Dell booth along with the rest of the executives.

 

[Maxim726X]

These are amazing. This is exactly why I wanted the Surface Pro... Now, I don't have to wait anymore.

The capability of a $300 mini computer far outclasses that of a tablet.

What an amazing time we live in. Anyone have any suggestions of tablets that are out already/will be out by Christmas?

 

[wanders]

I was going to get a ipad air but after seeing this thread I'm not so sure anymore...

One of the main attractions of the ipad is the gaming library but being able to have access to and play a lot of my steam library on the go would be incredible.

What is the tablet in this video?:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxM2YPagTA0

The performance looks great.

I'm definitely gonna pick up one of these atom tablets now

 

[Angry Grimace]

toshiba has an hdmi out as well as better cameras and mics. it's also heavier and thicker.

I suppose it depends by how much. I don't think the Toshiba is out yet, though is it?

 

[aaaaa0]

Had the Dell Venue 8 Pro for a few days now.

Having a full Windows 8.1 computer in an 8" tablet within shouting distance of the thickness and weight and battery life of an iPad mini is a revelation. Seriously.

 

[campfireweekend]

I was going to get a ipad air but after seeing this thread I'm not so sure anymore...

One of the main attractions of the ipad is the gaming library but being able to have access to and play a lot of my steam library on the go would be incredible.

What is the tablet in this video?:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxM2YPagTA0

The performance looks great.

That dell "tablet" is actually an ultrabook. Its an xps 12, the laptop with a rotating screen. Its $1000+

 

[Guess Who]

That dell "tablet" is actually an ultrabook. Its an xps 12, the laptop with a rotating screen. Its $1000+

It's also really thick and heavy for a tablet and I'd hate to hold it for any remarkable length of time.

 

[NinjaFridge]

two weeks ago I was attending an electronics show here in Milan. There was a Dell press conference given by the Italian CEO of Dell. We got to try the venue 8" and it's amazing.
All of the venue tablets actually, price/quality ratio is very good, better than surface 2 pro IMO. Very fast, no input lag, good build quality etc...
Anyways, he even let the day of release and price for the EU slip. Plus, we were invited to have lunch at the Dell booth along with the rest of the executives.

And?

 

[Owari]

meh. I'm gonna stick with Surface Pro 2/retina mini until these guys have at least 4GB. I'm not confident these will be able to run the majority of games.

Hopefully next year.

 

[campfireweekend]

It's also really thick and heavy for a tablet and I'd hate to hold it for any remarkable length of time.

I mean of course, haha. Its really not a tablet, its a two-in-one.

 

[dLMN8R]

After using the Venue 8 Pro for nearly a week it's been a little frustrating getting more traditional games working. I wish there was a bigger library of touch-friendly games for the Desktop but they're just not there. And GestureWorks is still a bit buggy and difficult to use at the moment.

Also, this thing gets really hot when playing games. Kinda concerning.

One bit of hope is in BlueStacks, which works pretty well. Temple Run and Plants vs Zombies 2 are unplayably slow, but Hero Academy is playable. The main problem now is that it picks the wrong orientation. When you hold the V8P in portrait, Android is rendered in landscape, and vice versa. Playing with some registry tweaks to try to help.


Some more questions/comments:

1) Anyone have more ideas of lightweight turn-based games that would run well on the V8P, perhaps with minimal additions through GestureWorks? Right now I'm trying out Puzzle Agent, Legend of Grimrock, Little Inferno, and FTL.

2) What Android games would you recommend that are graphically simpler (even simple 3D should work), and slower-paced/turn-based?

3) Even games from the Windows Store work nicely on this. I never played much on my Surface since it was so slow, and the Surface was too big to hold comfortably to play games, but the V8P is the perfect size it seems. SoulCraft is surprisingly nice so far, and runs very smoothly. Anyone else have recommendations that might not be obvious?

 

[Wiktor]

After using the Venue 8 Pro for nearly a week it's been a little frustrating getting more traditional games working. I wish there was a bigger library of touch-friendly games for the Desktop but they're just not there. And GestureWorks is still a bit buggy and difficult to use at the moment.

?

Have you tried casual and browser games? Those are very often pretty damn touch friendly and there's plenty of more complex titles in this category.

 

[RetroMG]

1) Anyone have more ideas of lightweight turn-based games that would run well on the V8P, perhaps with minimal additions through GestureWorks? Right now I'm trying out Puzzle Agent, Legend of Grimrock, Little Inferno, and FTL.

I don't have any suggestions, but I'm dying to know how FTL runs. It's the number one reason that I want a windows tablet.

Actually, I'm most interested to see how it goes on the ASUS 100

 

[dLMN8R]

Have you tried casual and browser games? Those are very often pretty damn touch friendly and there's plenty of more complex titles in this category.

Any suggestions? That's what I browsed my Steam catalog for and didn't find many that were interesting, and I'm not too familiar with Flash games. Card Hunter is an appealing example, but it doesn't grab the right-click gesture correctly when I tap and hold. It instead shows the Flash context menu.

I don't have any suggestions, but I'm dying to know how FTL runs. It's the number one reason that I want a windows tablet.

I'll let you know when I try it. I'm worried that touch targets will be way too small (especially for doors)

Also, some games differ in how they recognize touch. Many end up requiring two taps for click instead of one, and right-click (tap and hold) is often not recognized.

 

[Chichikov]

1) Anyone have more ideas of lightweight turn-based games that would run well on the V8P, perhaps with minimal additions through GestureWorks? Right now I'm trying out Puzzle Agent, Legend of Grimrock, Little Inferno, and FTL.

Papers Please is brilliant, I have not tried it with touch controls though.
Does FTL works well with touch? it's truly a fantastic game.

 

[Trent Strong]

I don't have those games available to me, but definitely check out the videos I linked to above:

http://www.youtube.com/user/th3drow/videos?view=0&flow=grid

That device has the same specs as the Dell and runs at almost the same resolution, so game performance should be almost identical.


Fallout 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FngFMaZYAI

Crysis:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMqnm6nDWVs

Whoa. I'm actually kind of impressed. I didn't think a transformer would be able to play anything beyond something like FTL or Papers Please.

 

[Haint]

There any websites that do in depth reviews of all these Windows tabs (Anandtech style--benchmark suite, display measurements, storage perf, etc...)? Most seem to be limited to the Surfaces.

 

[PaulExcellent]

Hey, guys. Kind of interested on these, but I need one with an HDMI-out port to be able to have an excuse on purchasing one. lol

Which ones have one?

 

[Haint]

Hey, guys. Kind of interested on these, but I need one with an HDMI-out port to be able to have an excuse on purchasing one. lol

Which ones have one?

Pretty sure the Asus T100, HP Omni 10, and Dell Venue 11 all have Micro HDMI (there are probably more as well). My interest is limited to the 10" varieties, so I'm not sure about any of the 8".

 

[dLMN8R]

There any websites do in depth reviews of all these Windows tabs (Anandtech style--benchmark suite, display measurements, storage perf, etc...)? Most seem to be limited to the Surfaces.

From what I've heard, both of these devices are still in sort of a soft launch phase. That's why there's little fanfare and such. I expect to see "proper" reviews from the tech sites (and especially AnandTech) in the next couple weeks leading up to the holidays.

 

[chickdigger802]

Do these have surface style keyboard covers?

 

[maeh2k]

Hey, guys. Kind of interested on these, but I need one with an HDMI-out port to be able to have an excuse on purchasing one. lol

Which ones have one?

I don't think any tablet in the current batch of 8" tablets comes with a video out. Maybe Lenovo will include one in their Thinkpad Tablet which is rumored for December. Might make sense for a more business-oriented product.

However, there are still ways to connect external monitors, though they don't come cheap: http://liliputing.com/2013/11/bay-trail-tablet-powering-4-pc-monitors-video.html

 

[SonofdonCD]

There any websites that do in depth reviews of all these Windows tabs (Anandtech style--benchmark suite, display measurements, storage perf, etc...)? Most seem to be limited to the Surfaces.

If you go onto the Windows 8 Tablets thread, there are people (including me) who are on the watch for any and all preview/reviews of these upcoming BayTrail and Haswell tablets. I'll link you to my posts with reviews and performance videos of the Asus T100, the first one which has an Anandtech review:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=86502172&postcount=2537
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=86974837&postcount=2551
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=87122647&postcount=2556
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=87527689&postcount=2558
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=88036365&postcount=2574

 

[PaulExcellent]

I don't think any tablet in the current batch of 8" tablets comes with a video out. Maybe Lenovo will include one in their Thinkpad Tablet which is rumored for December. Might make sense for a more business-oriented product.

However, there are still ways to connect external monitors, though they don't come cheap: http://liliputing.com/2013/11/bay-trail-tablet-powering-4-pc-monitors-video.html

Ugh, that sucks! Well, I'll keep my eyes out for that Thinkpad. Little things like that "make or break" a purchase for me. :/

 

[dLMN8R]

The 8" tablets support Miracast, so if you get a Miracast receiver that's one projection option.

 

[Skytylz]

These tablets are really impressive. I've been meaning to get a tablet, so I might make it one of these next year. I don't really like buying gen ones of tech like like laptops and phones. A little higher res screen would make these things amazing.

 

[RetroMG]

Do these have surface style keyboard covers?

The ASUS linked in the OP has a detachable keyboard that switches it between tablet and laptop, which is one of the reasons I want it. I use a tablet for reading, but a laptop for school work. I'd love to have one device for both.

 

[Wiktor]

Any suggestions? That's what I browsed my Steam catalog for and didn't find many that were interesting, and I'm not too familiar with Flash games. Card Hunter is an appealing example, but it doesn't grab the right-click gesture correctly when I tap and hold. It instead shows the Flash context menu.
.

I had lots of fun with casual adventure games on tablets. Particularly the Drawn series and later Mystery Case Files games.

 

[Funky Papa]

Man, all I'm hearing about the Venue 8 Pro is that the stylus sucks smegmy donkey cock. That thing is pretty much worthless in its current state, although some eggheads surmise that it's a software problem, so it could be fixed with a firmware/driver update.

 

[zou]

Loving my venue8 so far, but man, metro ie makes me want to murder someone. I've always hated that opening tabs would show the tab overview every damn time, and I had hoped with 8.1 I could disable it. But instead, same thing. Except they also copied Safari's retarded idea to always reload a page when navigating back. That together with removing the option to disable swiping left to navigate back a page means I'm constantly finding myself on the previous page, waiting for ie to finish reloading the damn page. At least I could disable the double tap to zoom using a custom stylesheet because that thing is buggy as fuck. It would constantly zoom in when scrolling a page..

But hey, compared to the god awful firefox and chrome metro versions ie is half decent.

 

[Raxious]

Soo, seeing as I'm on the road a lot for school, I'm looking for a tablet that'll allow me to play a few games and do some school work while on the train etc.

I'm actually hoping for something that's capable of running RCT2 and perhaps Civ 5. I saw the Asus T100 videos so that might be an option. But Are there better alternatives for roughly the same price?

 

[zou]

hm, the tablet keeps resetting the brightness to 100% after coming out of sleep. Curious if anyone else is seeing the same?

 

[Eel O'Brian]

Yeah, it's probably a bug they'll eventually patch out.

 

[bloodydrake]

dLMN8R could you try out gestureworks gameplay virtual touch controller and see if it works with some indie steam games on the 8 inch tablet?

https://gameplay.gestureworks.com/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Trr9ajcX4e4

couple pics

 

[dLMN8R]

Gestureworks definitely works! I even mentioned it in my OP It's just difficult to create custom layouts with, but if someone else goes through the trouble and crates one it's very nice.

I especially like the ability to assign swipes and other gestures to actions instead of always just creating virtual buttons.

 

[zou]

anyone know how to trigger the menu rather than the bar at the bottom when clicking links? Most of the time I get the bar but once in a while the menu pops up over the link. And I'd much rather just open the link right there, rather than having to move from the current position.

 

[TurtleSnatcher]

Bought a Venue 8 due to everyone and their recommendations and I must say this thing is awesome. Been playing Hearthstone on it all night and it runs great and isn't too battery draining.

Only a few complaints such as lack of memory and lower resolution screen but other than that it is pretty damn competent and the screen is still really good.

 

[Mendrox]

Bought a Venue 8 due to everyone and their recommendations and I must say this thing is awesome. Been playing Hearthstone on it all night and it runs great and isn't too battery draining.

Only a few complaints such as lack of memory and lower resolution screen but other than that it is pretty damn competent and the screen is still really good.

Happy to hear that because I ordered one for 250€... have to wait till December. Want to have that baby in my arms, because I don't have a tablet (didn't like them because they are too restricted) but had to order one of these babys because you can do everything with them (even playing games like LoL e.g. with a decent fps)

 

[thekenta]

Happy to hear that because I ordered one for 250€... have to wait till December. Want to have that baby in my arms, because I don't have a tablet (didn't like them because they are too restricted) but had to order one of these babys because you can do everything with them (even playing games like LoL e.g. with a decent fps)

Where did you order it from?
dell.at still doesn't have a pre-order up.. either that or I'm blind.

I'm still debating whether I should get the Venue Pro 8 or the Asus T100.

 

[Mendrox]

Where did you order it from?
dell.at still doesn't have a pre-order up.. either that or I'm blind.

I'm still debating whether I should get the Venue Pro 8 or the Asus T100.

http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/dell+venue+8+pro+tablet/eqsqid/be83b1ef-50bc-466f-8df5-c9ec6f481125

Was 250€ on Saturday without this financing thing. Release is 17th december.

 

[thekenta]

http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/dell+venue+8+pro+tablet/eqsqid/be83b1ef-50bc-466f-8df5-c9ec6f481125

Was 250€ on Saturday without this financing thing. Release is 17th december.

Ahh, thanks.
For 250€ I think I found my Christmas present.

 

[Raxious]

That Venue 8 looks pretty nice, unfortunately I'm unable to find anything to it in relation to steam games. The fact that it runs Hearthstone is already great, but I'm buying it so I could play games like OpenTTD, RCT2 and Civ5 how would they run on the Venue 8?

 

[Mendrox]

That Venue 8 looks pretty nice, unfortunately I'm unable to find anything to it in relation to steam games. The fact that it runs Hearthstone is already great, but I'm buying it so I could play games like OpenTTD, RCT2 and Civ5 how would they run on the Venue 8?

Half Life 2 and even Crysis run pretty good. So if you keep that in mind, then you will be able to play games which are non demanding or only 4-5 years old on low/mid settings no problem. Games like Starcraft 2 run too.

 

[bloodydrake]

Gestureworks definitely works! I even mentioned it in my OP It's just difficult to create custom layouts with, but if someone else goes through the trouble and crates one it's very nice.

I especially like the ability to assign swipes and other gestures to actions instead of always just creating virtual buttons.

ya i was more curious about performance on bay trail if there was a significant hit to performance using it.
sounds like it requires the game to use dx9c so alot of old games won't work with it anyways ..

 

[bloodydrake]

doublepost

 

[TurtleSnatcher]

That Venue 8 looks pretty nice, unfortunately I'm unable to find anything to it in relation to steam games. The fact that it runs Hearthstone is already great, but I'm buying it so I could play games like OpenTTD, RCT2 and Civ5 how would they run on the Venue 8?

Civ 5 works with it fine.

Honestly some games just are a bit large for such a small screen. If you really want to game with it.. I recommend a portable mouse/keyboard over bluetooth.

 

[maeh2k]

http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/dell+venue+8+pro+tablet/eqsqid/be83b1ef-50bc-466f-8df5-c9ec6f481125

Was 250€ on Saturday without this financing thing. Release is 17th december.

That's actually a great price. A lot cheaper than I expected after the early reports of a price of 399 Euros in Germany. I'm almost tempted.

... or I was before I read Thurrott's review:
-"there are clearly some issues—even major issues—that make this device a bit less interesting than its Android- and iOS-based competitors. "
-"With screen brightness on auto, the Venue 8 Pro delivers about 8 hours of battery life in my streaming HD video tests. Set it to something more akin to what the Surface 2 delivers by default and the battery life in those same tests drops to a more middling 5 hours or so."
-"But price and value are two different things. And of these four devices, the Dell comes saddled with the weakest ecosystem support"


Okay, I'm still tempted...

 

[Funky Papa]

FUUUUCK

I think they ship to other European countries, but my German is *terrible*

 

[skubaman]

So I'm looking at the HP split (13-m110dx) that's gonna be on sale at Bestbuy on black friday for $500. It has a bigger screen (13"), bigger storage (128GB) and an i3. The only problem is going through the hassle of trying to get one on black friday. :/

 

[Penguins&PolarBears]

Another tablet to add to the Intel Bay Trail mix which might be a better choice than the Asus T100 depending on your needs:

HP Omni 10 - $399 @MicrosoftStore

10.1" 1920 x 1200 display (16:10 woohoo!)
Micro-HDMI + MicroSD slot
1.4lbs