Dell Venue 8 Pro review: Windows 8.1 in a pint-sized package

December 06, 2013

Miniature tablets are becoming more and more popular, with devices like Google’s Nexus 7 and Apple’s iPad mini in the vanguard. Acer tried to bring Windows to the mini form with its Iconia W3 earlier this year, but that tablet was hampered by an awful screen, a bulky chassis, and a slow processor. But it looks as though Intel’s new quad-core Atom processor, formerly codenamed Bay Trail, has what it takes to make Windows a worthy tablet operating system. Dell’s Venue 8 Pro is equipped with an Atom Z3740D CPU, 2GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage, and it runs the full version of Windows 8.1. The OS takes up quite a bit of that storage, leaving you with a little over 12GB of free space out of the box. Bumping up to the 64GB Venue 8 Pro adds $50 to the price tag, or you can supplement that storage with a MicroSD card. The Dell Venue 8 Pro is available in either black or red. Options include an active stylus, a case, an additional 32GB of storage, and mobile broadband. The Venue Pro’s 8-inch touchscreen has a resolution of 1280 by 800 pixels—that’s a far cry from the 1080p resolution of tablets such as the more laptop-like Microsoft Surface Pro 2, and it’s even farther from the iPad mini with a 2048-by-1536-pixel Retina display. But text and images look great on the Venue Pro’s bright IPS display—or at least the Venue Pro’s display can be bright, if you turn off Dell's overly aggressive power-saving auto-brightness. And the Venue Pro’s $300 price tag is $100 lower than the Asus Transformer Book T100 (a 10-inch Bay Trail-powered hybrid with 64GB of storage and resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels) and its $200 cheaper than the 32GB iPad mini with Retina display. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2068828/dell-venue-8-pro-review-windows-8-1-in-a-pint-sized-package.html#tk.rss_reviews