Dell Venue 8 Pro

thx heatlesssun. That settles for me to get the 64GB one.

I was checking the Intel Atom Z3740D specs and it seems that it supports VT-x / Virtualization technology. Which i don't know if it can be enabled in the bios or if it's enabled by default.

would you mind trying to install vmware workstation or virtual box :)? I tried on another atom and the installer notified me that i was not possible due to hardware not supporting virtualization.

I know this will make no sense for some or that it will be very slow but i'd like to know know if it's possible. I have some small linux vms with a low footprint LAMP.

Thx again.
 
pic.micro23 said:
thx heatlesssun. That settles for me to get the 64GB one.

I was checking the Intel Atom Z3740D specs and it seems that it supports VT-x / Virtualization technology. Which i don't know if it can be enabled in the bios or if it's enabled by default.

would you mind trying to install vmware workstation or virtual box :)? I tried on another atom and the installer notified me that i was not possible due to hardware not supporting virtualization.

I know this will make no sense for some or that it will be very slow but i'd like to know know if it's possible. I have some small linux vms with a low footprint LAMP.

Thx again.
Click to expand...

It's enabled by default. Virtualbox works fine on mine.
 
pic.micro23 said:
Hello heatlesssun,
I read in your first posts that you installed vs2013. My plan is to get this table so i can occasionally compile some some w8 apps (metro) and test them quickly and maybe some small changes and compile them. This won't be my main dev machine.
I won't install anything else besides vs2013 and telerik controls for w8 in this tablet.

So my questions are:
#1) do you remember how much HD space you had after installing vs2013?
#2) can you install programs to an external SD card(fast)? I don't see why not but I might be wrong.
#3) If I buy an USB->HDMI adapter. I assume it will work... but I'd like to know your thoughts about this.

I also found a post of somebody creating a small cable to allow charge and have a usb device connected (usb hub, keyboard,mouse) at the same time.
Click to expand...

Installing to the sd card still runs very fast.

I gather some people are toying with an emulation layer for wintab for Adobe programs. However, auto desk stuff like sketchbook pro works with pressure reportedly as do some other programs like art rage which I hear the name of a lot but have never used.

FedEx was supposed to deliver my stylus overnight today and claimed that it wasn't deliverable today because somehow I was closed..... Somehow ;). So it's not coming until Monday now unfortunately.
 
l think I've had FedEx drop the ball once in all these years. Definitely interested in what you think of the stylus. Seems to be getting better press after the firmware update that came out Monday. At first I didn't think the update changed much bemuse the stylus was working pretty well for me and while it still has its quirks it seems to work at little better for me now for handwriting to text conversion in the onscreen panel and OneNote.

Being able to ink in OneNote well and use my notebooks on a device like this is just sweet.
 
Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing how well the stylus works for me... this device will be really nice for OneNote, and I'm hoping Sketchbook Pro (which reportedly does support pressure). I'm not expecting world-class inking performance but if it's passable even I'll be pleased, better than that and I'll be happy ;).

Amazon has it on sale for $229.99 shipped for anyone looking at buying one, which is a great price, and the bundled Office Home & Student 2013 with mine from Staples were both physical sealed bundle copies that I sold on ebay to help make them even cheaper (no, they weren't both for me :p just one). Snag it here: http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Venue-Pro-Tablet-Windows/dp/B00FEE7B1I
 
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Fedex guy showed up with my stylus... I'm grabbing some other AAAA batteries today since some have said the included one doesn't work well for them, but other than some tailing on raising my stylus after writing a letter on maybe 1/3 of the letters I write from a tiny bit to a 1/4 character height extra tail, it works awesomely. The pressure sensitivity has a very nice, smooth curve to it, and accuracy/parallax is spot-on. In Sketchbook Pro lines are silky smooth as I draw them, and in onenote they're not quite as sharp/smooth but still very good. If they can release another firmware update fixing the tailing/extra mini-stroke on lifting the stylus occasionally, I'd have to rate the stylus experience here as great. For now I'll call it "good", certainly usable for real at this point. These impressions are with the bundled battery & latest firmware as of this posting date for whoever stumbles upon this through google.
 
Thanks for the update Golden. I have been generally happy with the stylus so far as well. I haven't loaded up Sketchbook Pro yet (or many desktop apps for that matter). Will have to load it tonight when I get home and check it out. Glad to hear it works so well though!
 
GoldenTiger said:
Fedex guy showed up with my stylus... I'm grabbing some other AAAA batteries today since some have said the included one doesn't work well for them, but other than some tailing on raising my stylus after writing a letter on maybe 1/3 of the letters I write from a tiny bit to a 1/4 character height extra tail, it works awesomely. The pressure sensitivity has a very nice, smooth curve to it, and accuracy/parallax is spot-on. In Sketchbook Pro lines are silky smooth as I draw them, and in onenote they're not quite as sharp/smooth but still very good. If they can release another firmware update fixing the tailing/extra mini-stroke on lifting the stylus occasionally, I'd have to rate the stylus experience here as great. For now I'll call it "good", certainly usable for real at this point. These impressions are with the bundled battery & latest firmware as of this posting date for whoever stumbles upon this through google.
Click to expand...

What you're describing has been my general experience with the pen. It works well for me in OneNote and the handwriting to text conversion in the onscreen keyboard, I'm using that right now to post this message and the accuracy for me is probably somewhere in the 90% plus range.

OneNote ink is legible but as you pointed out there can be tailing ink at the end of some stokes. The issue doesn't seem to effect the efficiency of the recognition of handwriting search.
 
heatlesssun said:
Looks like Walmart is now selling it at $230, in store even right now: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Dell-Venue-8-Pro-8-Tablet-32GB-Memory-Featuring-Windows-8.1/32243242
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Thank you kind sir

Going back tomorrow and asking for the difference. If they don't I'll just refund and buy another. lol

Edit:
Oh well, Walmart will not match the difference. They said I will have to buy one online for store pickup, which gives an error whenever you try to buy it. It's a good deal if you are getting it shipped to your house though.
 
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FYI for sale at Costco for $229. I am going to give this a go -- it's cheap enough that I am willing to experiment with a Windows tablet again.
 
Anyone getting some odd hover clicking since the last firmware update on touch/pen?
 
Here's a trick that might help. Wad up a little piece of aluminum foil into a disc shaped to fit in the pen at the end of with the battery spring. I've found that seemed to help with the pen not responding. You may need a new pen, there seem to good ones and ones not so great. I see the spurious click issue now and then at the beginning of a pen session if I've not used the pen in a while. I used to see it more often before I put the aluminum in the pen though.
 
heatlesssun said:
Here's a trick that might help. Wad up a little piece of aluminum foil into a disc shaped to fit in the pen at the end of with the battery spring. I've found that seemed to help with the pen not responding. You may need a new pen, there seem to good ones and ones not so great. I see the spurious click issue now and then at the beginning of a pen session if I've not used the pen in a while. I used to see it more often before I put the aluminum in the pen though.
Click to expand...

Thanks, will have to give that a shot when I get home this evening.
 
I just picked up the 64gb Venue Pro for $300.00 at Costco in store. Not s bad device so far. Great price and it came with the $40.00 Dell folio case in the box - so that's like $260.00 for the tab. Nice! Heading to Dell's site to order the stylus now.
 
JedixJarf said:
How do you guys like them? Am considering a cyber monday purchase
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The thing seems to be a hit, it's got a 4.5 star rating on Amazon at the movement with 157 reviews. The professional reviews have been less kind but I love this thing. My biggest gripe with it has been the pen performance, it's plenty workable for my purposes but it certainly doesn't perform as well as a Wacom pen. Dell is supposedly still working on firmware updates, hopefully it will improve.
 
heatlesssun said:
You can look around for a generic 8" case, those should work in many cases.
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I need a hard shell case that won't bend for a mod I want to do. It's gotta be form fitting and fit on the tablet almost exactly. I think I need something designed for the Venue 8 Pro, or at least one someone else has tried and can recommend. All of the cases I can find right now seem to be soft or "soft-shell" combos of plastic and rubber.
 
The base of the Dell case is a form fitting hard plastic that is glued to the flap and stand. You could cut off the flap and stand, just a thought. You can check out TabletPCReview.com, someone there might have an perfect answer for you.
 
Can someone aware me on other brands of this style tablet pc?

Unsure I like the aesthetics of the Dell Venue....


What searches should I put into newegg to make a better informed decision?
 
JPF_ said:
Can someone aware me on other brands of this style tablet pc?

Unsure I like the aesthetics of the Dell Venue....


What searches should I put into newegg to make a better informed decision?
Click to expand...

Lenovo has the Miix and Toshiba has the Encore. Similar tablets in spec, but differences are there (like the pen).
 
Has anyone been able to get the memory usage down on these guys? I am always having to close all applications due to running out of memory...
 
The_Moves said:
Has anyone been able to get the memory usage down on these guys? I am always having to close all applications due to running out of memory...
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What all do you have open to cause that? I can run generally run a three or four desktop apps in combination with that many modern apps or more and never see memory issues, there may be some slow downs here and there switching between things when memory is swapping out from the page file but that's about it.
 
I have no time right now to sit with it as I thought I would... Mine has only been used like 6 times... if anyone is interested PM me... (if this against thread rules then Ill nuke it)
 
How much free space is available for the 32gb version? If you remove things like recovery?

Is the included Office actually resalable (I think this was mentioned) or is just activated to the device?
 
There's a 5 GB recovery partition on the drive, with it removed you should be able to get about 17-18 GB of free space. Office isn't installed, you have to run the installer with the key provided, not sure if it's legal to sell it though.
 
That is way more free space then I expected, was assuming around 10gb with recovery removed.

I'm just wondering because these devices use slower eMMC storage is this noticeable in real usage compared to a more typical SSD?

$99 is pretty much an impulse buy item, just need to think if I want to brave that blood bath :p

Not sure if this was brought up before but with the Synaptics digitizer solution is the stylus active (like N-trig) or passive (Wacom)?
 
This device is very zippy, the storage speed shouldn't be a problem but for only the most intensive operations. Just installed Visual Studio 2013 on my 64 GB version, took about 15 minuets for a full install and that's a very big desktop app. There are BIOS settings to increase the storage performance, I've not tried them personally as I wonder if there'd be any impact to battery life and I'm perfectly happy with the performance.

The Synaptics stylus is active so touch is disabled during pen input. Of course mileage with the stylus varies greatly between individuals and instances of hardware. Pen performance for me has been good overall. l get the inconsistencies like minor trails at the end of ink strokes occasionally but it's more than usable for me. I'm writing this post with the pen using the great Windows handwriting to text conversion and it works as well overall as my Wacom devices and it's pretty fast. l generally prefer to input text with the pen over the onscreen keyboard.
 
Just received mine a few days ago. Ordered the pen, but it won't ship for a few days, likely due to improvements on the pen itself. So far it's actually quite the great device. The battery life is plentiful (web browsing, word processing and very light gaming), though I have only anecdotal numbers of "long enough." The screen is far better than I would have imagined, and clear type shines with sub pixel rendering making text quite readable, even when not zoomed in. I've got it connected to a Bluetooth keyboard for writing some papers for school, and it's been great. I can only hope that the pen is either revised, or better than what people have noticed.

Overall though, very surprised, and well worth the price of admission. Battlefield 4 this will not play, but work it definitely does!
 
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