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$300 8" tablets: Thin+light, fast web browsing w/Flash, 8-10 hours...and Steam

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Dell Venue 8 Pro WiFi Tablet support flash right?

Also the Dell Venue 8 Pro WiFi Tablet for

Online Price $279.99
Less-$50.00
Your Price$229.99

Ends today...
Well, it did before they ran out of stock 10 minutes ago.
 

kmfdmpig

Member
So I can run my steam games on it!? What's the graphics card on the dell venu pro 8?
A similar, but weaker version of the integrated graphics on Ivy Bridge, apparently. For GPU intensive games from the last few years you'll need to lower all settings and maybe even the resolution and then will likely be in the mid to high 20s for FPS.
Older stuff/simpler stuff should work like a champ though.
Lots of gaming examples on it are here:
http://www.transformerforums.com/fo...-t100/39536-gaming-transformer-book-t100.html

http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/asus/59617-asus-t100-gaming-impressions-performance.html
 

joshschw

Member
Okay. So some impressions on this little gem of a tablet.

(Bought for $229 from Amazon last week)

These are the Win8 tabletsI have owned:
Samsung Ativ 500T
Acer W700
Surface 2 with touch cover 2
Dell Venue 8 Pro

I'll run through them very quickly so everyone can compare easily to this little guy:

Samsung 500T: This thing sucked. Worked like garbage. Worst build quality ever, etc... The Intel drivers were so horrific, the thing was unusable on battery power due to the dynamic contrast adjustments. They were set to MAX, and no way to disable. You could load up a nice photo and the face would literally be blown out white. image retention on screen sometimes No thanks.

Acer W700: core i3/i5. Heavy. Worst Speakers Ever. screen suffered *bad* image retention. In addition to being big and heavy, and poor venting areas. What was the point I was always thinking... I don't need the desktop for anything really. I used Photoshop on this ting several times, and it worked. Cool, right? But I didn't need it.

***I actually went with a big Dell laptop here for a while, but that thing was a huge piece of junk. was breaking apart literally in weeks***

Surface 2!
This is a beauty. I loved it. The cover was oh so cool, and the thing screamed quality, and worked oh so fast! I never missed any programs/apps from desktop at all. It's a joy to use. Highly recommended.

Dell Venue8 Pro: I got this because I don't have money and it's less than half the cost of the Surface 2.... Sadly that was my criteria. I have been very pleased however. Smaller screen makes it less useful for occasional word/excel stuff, but it just might be good enough. Screen is nearly the same quality as Surface 2 IMO. and finally I CAN DISABLE DYNAMIC CONTRAST. thank you Intel.

I still have zero use for the desktop, but it is what it is. Would rather have RT any day of the week though.

Things I find poorer than Surface 2 - Build quality. it seems solid enough, but Surface 2 is obviously in a league of its own compared to this.
performance. Bay Trail, is certainly an improvement over the last generation of Atom CPU's, but compared to the Tegra 4 it's lacking all areas. GPU especially, but even things like scrolling, the Surface 2 with Tegra was smoother and quicker. (don't care what benchmarks state, they don't matter in real world usage)

Overall I love the Dell, and I would recommend it to anyone!
On screen keyboard in landscape at this size works AWESOME! I Skype chatted with it for an hour, and had no complaints. At this size it's better than the Surface, or any larger tablet. Great stuff.

Like I said. The display on this is really really nice (make sure to disable Dynamic Contrast in Intel panel). it's supposedly 'low' resolution, but it looks great. resolution is just another spec to me, like a benchmark. (User of 30" 2560x1600 monitor)

Excited to try the active pen, I loved that aspect from the first Samsung tablet. and I used to have an awesome Fujitsu tablet PC.
 

mltplkxr

Member
This damn thread made me buy a ThinkPad Tablet 2, damn it!

I was looking at the Venue 8 Pro, but found it too small. Then I went looking at the Venue Pro 11, compared it to the Surface Pro 2 and the ThinkPad Tablet 2.

Surface Pro 2 was too expensive, considering that I have a fairly recent and more powerful laptop. So, we're down to the Venue Pro 11 against the Lenovo.

For roughly the same price, the Lenovo has a digitizer, longer battery life and a broadband card. The digitizer was the deciding factor but the broadband card is what made me buy the thing. With my current mobile plan, it basically means internet and GPS everywhere on a 10 inch Windows tablet on which I can annotate books as I read.

Pretty cool package. Still needs to see how this will work in practice. Lenovo is known to ship lemons too, so we'll see.
 

venne

Member
This damn thread made me buy a ThinkPad Tablet 2, damn it!

I was looking at the Venue 8 Pro, but found it too small. Then I went looking at the Venue Pro 11, compared it to the Surface Pro 2 and the ThinkPad Tablet 2.

Surface Pro 2 was too expensive, considering that I have a fairly recent and more powerful laptop. So, we're down to the Venue Pro 11 against the Lenovo.

For roughly the same price, the Lenovo has a digitizer, longer battery life and a broadband card. The digitizer was the deciding factor but the broadband card is what made me buy the thing. With my current mobile plan, it basically means internet and GPS everywhere on a 10 inch Windows tablet on which I can annotate books as I read.

Pretty cool package. Still needs to see how this will work in practice. Lenovo is known to ship lemons too, so we'll see.

Do they have the ThinkPad Tablet with bay trail?

All I see is last year's Atom processor on Lenovo's website.
 

diablos991

Can’t stump the diablos
RT supports flash as well.

After owning a Surface RT since launch, I can tell you.. kinda true.

It supports flash the same way an Android device does. It is kinda laggy, and really hit-or-miss on what it does VS a PC with flash.

Full blown Windows 8 is a different story and flash does exactly what you expect it to do.
 

joshschw

Member
After owning a Surface RT since launch, I can tell you.. kinda true.

It supports flash the same way an Android device does. It is kinda laggy, and really hit-or-miss on what it does VS a PC with flash.

Full blown Windows 8 is a different story and flash does exactly what you expect it to do.

flash is perfect on surface 2. RT was probably just a bit lacking in horsepower. Might have been fixed in 8.1 too though
 

nilbog21

Banned
Bought a Venue 8 Pro last night for 230$ and have not yet had time to mess with it so I don't know if I should return it and get the T100 for 70$ more.. In my experience with Asus, the hardware is sound but it looks and feels like shit. Since this is mainly for my gf, i'm not sure what to do..
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Bought a Venue 8 Pro last night for 230$ and have not yet had time to mess with it so I don't know if I should return it and get the T100 for 70$ more.. In my experience with Asus, the hardware is sound but it looks and feels like like shit. Since this is mainly for my gf, i'm not sure what to do..

Well, if you actually FIND T100s for $299 again, let us know because the V8P is back at ~$270 and the T100 at full price as far as I can tell (where there's stock).
 

Funky Papa

FUNK-Y-PPA-4
Ye Windows faithful.

Does anybody know if you can change the language of your Windows device after formating it without having a hard copy, just using the recovery partition? I know that I can change both keyboard and OS language in my personal computer, but I do have a Windows DVD. I'm asking because I'm looking to purchase a Venue 8 Pro in America due to the amaaazing prices, but I'd hate to be stuck with English as the OS's only language, being a foreigner and all. European Spanish is a must, since it'd be used for work and I need to present shit to my clients.
 
Ye Windows faithful.

Does anybody know if you can change the language of your Windows device after formating it without having a hard copy, just using the recovery partition? I know that I can change both keyboard and OS language in my personal computer, but I do have a Windows DVD. I'm asking because I'm looking to purchase a Venue 8 Pro in America due to the amaaazing prices, but I'd hate to be stuck with English as the OS's only language, being a foreigner and all. European Spanish is a must, since it'd be used for work and I need to present shit to my clients.

In windows update there are language packs for pretty much any language possible
 
So I'm curious. What can you play on Steam on a tablet?

Probably alot of the older stuff, card games and such? Somewhere I swear someone was trying to get WoW to run on it. God only knows why.

After looking at it im leaning to the t100 now for my gf shame both are more in £ than $
 

mltplkxr

Member
Do they have the ThinkPad Tablet with bay trail?

All I see is last year's Atom processor on Lenovo's website.

Yeah, that's one of the drawbacks. But judging from the reviews that came out at the time, it looks like it does everything I want very well. Shure, new ones are twice as fast and cheaper but when you include a Wacom digitizer, 3G and GPS, the price gap widens drastically. As I already have a powerful enough laptop, I am rather looking for something with clear advantages in mobility use cases.
 

nilbog21

Banned
This venue 8 Pro is very nice. Very impressed thus far.

Is there a way to make a hearthstone tile on my start screen? Or a way to customize what my Desktop tile looks like?

Any good tips or videos about how to navigate/customize windows mobile is super appreciated
 

diablos991

Can’t stump the diablos
This venue 8 Pro is very nice. Very impressed thus far.

Is there a way to make a hearthstone tile on my start screen? Or a way to customize what my Desktop tile looks like?

Any good tips or videos about how to navigate/customize windows mobile is super appreciated

Right click (or long press) on the hearthstone icon then select "pin to start".
There is your tile.

This isn't windows mobile customization/navigation. This is windows 8 customization/navigation. Everything is the same on windows 8 and the machine in your hands.

There are tons of good resources on youtube.
 

nilbog21

Banned
Right click (or long press) on the hearthstone icon then select "pin to start".
There is your tile.

This isn't windows mobile customization/navigation. This is windows 8 customization/navigation. Everything is the same on windows 8 and the machine in your hands.

There are tons of good resources on youtube.

kk glad to know i am retarded.
 

nilbog21

Banned
I'm sure there will be lots. However, I'm pretty blown away by the prices of these things. Feels like I should have paid $999 for this thing..
glad the day of shitty app stores and useless constrictions are over..
 
Got a Dell Venue Pro, W 8.1 really does lend itself to tablets very well.

My only annoyance right now is that when tablet is screen off, any notification sound causes the speaker to have that static screechy sound.
 

Calmine

Member
Hoping to get some advice. I'm looking at a couple of the Asus transformer pads I like the style of a tablet with keyboard dock.

Ive seen the T100TA and im impressed that a tablet of that size running full Windows 8 but im also interested in the TF701T Android version.

I like the idea of Windows 8 tablet and i hear performance of the Baytrail is great but the low res is little off putting. I like the 2560x1600 res and Tegra 4 of the TF701T.

I currently own a 1st gen Nexus 7 thats what its gonna replace. So any thoughts or opinions on those two would be great.

Gonna be using as a bit of multi purpose device videos maybe games and office work.
 

diablos991

Can’t stump the diablos
Hoping to get some advice. I'm looking at a couple of the Asus transformer pads I like the style of a tablet with keyboard dock.

Ive seen the T100TA and im impressed that a tablet of that size running full Windows 8 but im also interested in the TF701T Android version.

I like the idea of Windows 8 tablet and i hear performance of the Baytrail is great but the low res is little off putting. I like the 2560x1600 res and Tegra 4 of the TF701T.

I currently own a 1st gen Nexus 7 thats what its gonna replace. So any thoughts or opinions on those two would be great.

Gonna be using as a bit of multi purpose device videos maybe games and office work.

These two items are much better on Windows 8.1. You aren't getting any serious work done on an Android. Maybe your job doesn't require as much real software, so it may be doable. But definitely not acceptable in most professions.

Second, the Android version has very limited types of video it can play and also doesn't support Flash. 8.1 will play anything your PC will.
 
Hoping to get some advice. I'm looking at a couple of the Asus transformer pads I like the style of a tablet with keyboard dock.

Ive seen the T100TA and im impressed that a tablet of that size running full Windows 8 but im also interested in the TF701T Android version.

I like the idea of Windows 8 tablet and i hear performance of the Baytrail is great but the low res is little off putting. I like the 2560x1600 res and Tegra 4 of the TF701T.

I currently own a 1st gen Nexus 7 thats what its gonna replace. So any thoughts or opinions on those two would be great.

Gonna be using as a bit of multi purpose device videos maybe games and office work.
If you're going to use it for games and work, you could even hook up one of the 8inch tablets to an external monitor, and connect ti to a bluetooth keyboard+mice.

Would allow you to use office on a big screen when in work mode, but still use it portably for portable stuff (just disconnect it).
 

Calmine

Member
These two items are much better on Windows 8.1. You aren't getting any serious work done on an Android. Maybe your job doesn't require as much real software, so it may be doable. But definitely not acceptable in most professions.

Second, the Android version has very limited types of video it can play and also doesn't support Flash. 8.1 will play anything your PC will.

If you're going to use it for games and work, you could even hook up one of the 8inch tablets to an external monitor, and connect ti to a bluetooth keyboard+mice.

Would allow you to use office on a big screen when in work mode, but still use it portably for portable stuff (just disconnect it).

I appreciate the advice. Suppose the Win 8.1 tablet would be a lot better for multitasking with split view and all. Don't know why so very few android devices do that.

Anyone own the T100TA? What's the screen like? Like I said I like the android one cause of the screen resolution.
 

nilbog21

Banned
I'm not very good with tablets. I'm kind of having trouble controlling the cards and highlighting them to read, etc in Hearthstone. It doesn't seem to cooperate with what i'm trying to do.. Anyone have any advice on how to master the touch screen on a Venue 8 Pro? do I need to use a pen, mess with resolution? very noob to mobile devices
 

diablos991

Can’t stump the diablos
I'm not very good with tablets. I'm kind of having trouble controlling the cards and highlighting them to read, etc in Hearthstone. It doesn't seem to cooperate with what i'm trying to do.. Anyone have any advice on how to master the touch screen on a Venue 8 Pro? do I need to use a pen, mess with resolution? very noob to mobile devices

The pen helps a lot here since you can hover the pen over the screen to view the cards.
 

dem

Member
I hope these devices can get the Windows Store growing faster.

We got in one of these Dell Venue's at work.. and when you show people they kinda go "Wait.. i can have a tablet AND a computer... in one?"

They are pretty dang impressive.
 

kmfdmpig

Member
I appreciate the advice. Suppose the Win 8.1 tablet would be a lot better for multitasking with split view and all. Don't know why so very few android devices do that.

Anyone own the T100TA? What's the screen like? Like I said I like the android one cause of the screen resolution.
The screen is okay. The resolution is fairly low but good vowing angles and plenty bright.

My experience with Android tablets has been positive in terms of watching videos. Mxplayer and bsplayer can both play just about any format. For office work however the win 8.1 is great.
 

Damaniel

Banned
I pulled the trigger on an Asus T100 today (Amazon Warehouse Deals had one - not as cheap as the Black Friday sales, but still significantly cheaper than MSRP). I should have it on Friday.

I had the chance to play around with one yesterday -- a coworker bought one for his daughter, and he pulled it away from her long enough to let me try it out. The keyboard is a bit on the small side (more netbook than Macbook Air), but the touchscreen is sublime, and when the tablet is docked, the whole unit feels like a laptop (as in you could actually use it on your lap if you wanted).

Personally, mobility and battery life are my biggest goals. I have a Macbook Air that I use now, but I find myself wanting Windows more often than MacOS, and the battery in my 2011 Air is starting to get a little long in the tooth (4-5 hours of use per charge is pretty standard now). I like the idea of being able to carry around just the tablet part most of the time, but still have the option of bringing along a (mostly) real keyboard for less than a pound of additional weight. We'll see how well it works out with more thorough use, but at least the price is right.
 

jchap

Member
Got my Venue Pro 8 today and I'm not very impressed. It has nice build quality and is snappy but its difficult to navigate by touch alone on windows 8 and bringing up the keyboard is not always simple. If I click on a text box I should get a keyboard. Is there a setting for that? Overall most of my qualms are with Windows 8 not the hardware itself. None of the live tiles are useful for me. I would almost just prefer the apps menu all the time.

On the plus side its really cheap and easy to regift!
 

nilbog21

Banned
Got my Venue Pro 8 today and I'm not very impressed. It has nice build quality and is snappy but its difficult to navigate by touch alone on windows 8 and bringing up the keyboard is not always simple. If I click on a text box I should get a keyboard. Is there a setting for that? Overall most of my qualms are with Windows 8 not the hardware itself. None of the live tiles are useful for me. I would almost just prefer the apps menu all the time.

On the plus side its really cheap and easy to regift!

Yes, very good observation; Browsing Windows 8.1 on a 8" touch system is indeed not ideal. However, the advantage to this device compared to most other tablets is that you are able to access full windows so you can run any .exe's on the tablet that you wish. This makes it possible to run Hearthstone, which is a normally an android exclusive. Now you are no longer constricted to the garbage that Microsoft calls their store
 

aaaaa0

Member
Got my Venue Pro 8 today and I'm not very impressed. It has nice build quality and is snappy but its difficult to navigate by touch alone on windows 8 and bringing up the keyboard is not always simple. If I click on a text box I should get a keyboard. Is there a setting for that? Overall most of my qualms are with Windows 8 not the hardware itself. None of the live tiles are useful for me. I would almost just prefer the apps menu all the time.

On the plus side its really cheap and easy to regift!

If you're using it as a tablet, don't ignore the metro stuff. Its supremely usable via touch only there.
 

TaroYamada

Member
Got my Venue Pro 8 today and I'm not very impressed. It has nice build quality and is snappy but its difficult to navigate by touch alone on windows 8 and bringing up the keyboard is not always simple. If I click on a text box I should get a keyboard. Is there a setting for that? Overall most of my qualms are with Windows 8 not the hardware itself. None of the live tiles are useful for me. I would almost just prefer the apps menu all the time.

On the plus side its really cheap and easy to regift!

Then make the all apps menu the default start menu. In Win8.1 desktop, typically the keyboard won't come up by itself and I'm unsure if this is changeable but regardless there's a keyboard logo on the taskbar, tap that and it will bring the keyboard up. Within Metro the keyboard should come up by default and if it doesn't I'm pretty certain there's an option to enable it to do so but it's been a while since I was in that menu.

Hoping to get some advice. I'm looking at a couple of the Asus transformer pads I like the style of a tablet with keyboard dock.

Ive seen the T100TA and im impressed that a tablet of that size running full Windows 8 but im also interested in the TF701T Android version.

I like the idea of Windows 8 tablet and i hear performance of the Baytrail is great but the low res is little off putting. I like the 2560x1600 res and Tegra 4 of the TF701T.

I currently own a 1st gen Nexus 7 thats what its gonna replace. So any thoughts or opinions on those two would be great.

Gonna be using as a bit of multi purpose device videos maybe games and office work.

May I ask why you want such a high resolution? High resolutions on these devices are typically a waste IMO, it's a good place to cut costs because devices of this size don't have the necessary horsepower to do many useful things on such high resolution screens. I like the T100's screen, it's very bright, solid viewing angles.

I also owned a 1st gen Nexus 7 as well as currently owning an iPad with Retina, I find this the superior device overall but do note that the tablet-oriented app selection is weaker than Android's and in turn, iOS'. I'm willing to make this sacrifice for Steam and some other desktop apps but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't occasionally disappointed in the store.
 

Calmine

Member
May I ask why you want such a high resolution? High resolutions on these devices are typically a waste IMO, it's a good place to cut costs because devices of this size don't have the necessary horsepower to do many useful things on such high resolution screens. I like the T100's screen, it's very bright, solid viewing angles.

I also owned a 1st gen Nexus 7 as well as currently owning an iPad with Retina, I find this the superior device overall but do note that the tablet-oriented app selection is weaker than Android's and in turn, iOS'. I'm willing to make this sacrifice for Steam and some other desktop apps but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't occasionally disappointed in the store.

To be honest don't know lol just like the idea of a high res tablet. Although after checking out some reviews and videos of both the devices and considering not a lot will even utilise the highres screen any way. I'm liking the look of the T100A a lot the multitasking and snap features are great.
 

venne

Member
Does anyone use portrait mode with these things?

I am 99% landscape, with the remaining 1% being when I pick up the tablet.

I would also say I'm 85% Metro with the other 15% on things I simply can't do on Metro, namely Sonos controler, Steam, and HD Homerun for live TV (wish this had Media Center).

I love the touch interface to swipe between applications and charms. I haven't used the hardware Windows button once (but maybe that's because Dell decided to hide it).

I saw Microcenter had some open box Venue 8 Pros for $182. Anyone interested might want to check if they have a store nearby.
 

kmfdmpig

Member
Does anyone use portrait mode with these things?

I am 99% landscape, with the remaining 1% being when I pick up the tablet.

I would also say I'm 85% Metro with the other 15% on things I simply can't do on Metro, namely Sonos controler, Steam, and HD Homerun for live TV (wish this had Media Center).

I love the touch interface to swipe between applications and charms. I haven't used the hardware Windows button once (but maybe that's because Dell decided to hide it).

I saw Microcenter had some open box Venue 8 Pros for $182. Anyone interested might want to check if they have a store nearby.

With my t100 I'm almost always landscape, and for the most part almost always using it with the keyboard attached.

With my Nook HD+ I use it in portrait the vast majority of the time when reading comics. If Windows 8 gets a decent comic app I may use this in portrait tablet mode for reading as well.
 

diablos991

Can’t stump the diablos
Does anyone use portrait mode with these things?

I am 99% landscape, with the remaining 1% being when I pick up the tablet.

I would also say I'm 85% Metro with the other 15% on things I simply can't do on Metro, namely Sonos controler, Steam, and HD Homerun for live TV (wish this had Media Center).

I love the touch interface to swipe between applications and charms. I haven't used the hardware Windows button once (but maybe that's because Dell decided to hide it).

I saw Microcenter had some open box Venue 8 Pros for $182. Anyone interested might want to check if they have a store nearby.

I have also found the hardware windows button to be useless now. When I had my Surface RT I would use it all the time, but now I find it much faster to just whip out the charms.
 
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