Dell Venue 8 Pro

Received a free replacement stylus from Dell a day or two ago -- even though I never complained. (Pleasantly) surprised about that.

I haven't given it a shot yet to see if I notice a difference from the old one -- anyone else?
 
I did too.
This is revision 3, and I had an original revision 1, received a replacement rev2 and now the rev 3.
- Rev 1 was a dud. Trails were bad, battery life was horrible (a week or two of use). Total nonstarter.
- Rev 2 was night and day better. Battery life wasn't an issue, a firmware update plus the new hardware fixed the tails and pressure issues. Every once in a while the pen wouldnt wake up right away, however. Generally, I liked it a lot. That said, based on what I read, those experiences were inconsistent, and no everyone was so lucky.
- Rev 3 has been just as good as rev 2, but without the waking issues. The sensitivity is a little too high for me, but not something I can't get used to, and isn't outside the realm of normal variances between stylus systems.
 
No pen for me!:mad: I guess I need to hit up Dell for one, seems like their customer service is pretty good about things like this. The Rev 1 pen I have works pretty well and now that I have an Asus VivoTab Note 8 I do all of my serious small device inking on it anyway. The Wacom digitizer is simply better no matter the issues with these Synaptics pens.
 
No pen for me!:mad: I guess I need to hit up Dell for one, seems like their customer service is pretty good about things like this. The Rev 1 pen I have works pretty well and now that I have an Asus VivoTab Note 8 I do all of my serious small device inking on it anyway. The Wacom digitizer is simply better no matter the issues with these Synaptics pens.

What have you thought of the build quality of the new Asus vs the DV8Pro? I considered selling my dv8 off for the asus, but was reticent based on the quality issues I had heard concerning their android tab.
 
What have you thought of the build quality of the new Asus vs the DV8Pro? I considered selling my dv8 off for the asus, but was reticent based on the quality issues I had heard concerning their android tab.

The V8P is definitely better built particularly the back, the grooved rubberized material feels much better and less slippery than the hard plastic backing on the VivoTab. Plus the V8P is much thinner and the screen is a bit nicer. And the buttons on the V8P are nicer with their silver color, the buttons on the VivoTab are exactly the same black plastic the rest of the unit is made of. However I wouldn't consider the VivoTab badly constructed. It does feel a bit lighter, the speakers are decent and don't have the issue the V8P does with its one speaker easy to muffle with the hand. And for inking purposes I think the VivoTab is far superior. Like many Wacom devices the pen tracking along the edges can be iffy though with the latest Wacom Feel drivers and a better pen than the included crappy toothpick in the VivoTab that problem isn't that bad for me.

I think the V8P overall is superior but if you're looking for something that you'll use a lot for inking you'll be better served by the VivoTab l think.
 
Is there any backlight bleeding on these?

I honestly say no on the two V8Ps in my household but you seem to be OCD about this issue so I have no idea what you would think. Not trying to be mean, I simply don't know how you see this issue as you complain about it a lot and I've never had a screen of any type where it was a deal breaking issue for me.
 
For those looking at this size there have recently been a fresh round of Surface Mini rumors centered around a 8 inch note taking device using Bay Trail. Computex is just a month away as well.
 
The V8P is definitely better built particularly the back, the grooved rubberized material feels much better and less slippery than the hard plastic backing on the VivoTab. Plus the V8P is much thinner and the screen is a bit nicer. And the buttons on the V8P are nicer with their silver color, the buttons on the VivoTab are exactly the same black plastic the rest of the unit is made of. However I wouldn't consider the VivoTab badly constructed. It does feel a bit lighter, the speakers are decent and don't have the issue the V8P does with its one speaker easy to muffle with the hand. And for inking purposes I think the VivoTab is far superior. Like many Wacom devices the pen tracking along the edges can be iffy though with the latest Wacom Feel drivers and a better pen than the included crappy toothpick in the VivoTab that problem isn't that bad for me.

I think the V8P overall is superior but if you're looking for something that you'll use a lot for inking you'll be better served by the VivoTab l think.

Thanks for the update. Prob stick with the dv8 for the build as inking isn't terrible.

For those looking at this size there have recently been a fresh round of Surface Mini rumors centered around a 8 inch note taking device using Bay Trail. Computex is just a month away as well.

This would be ideal. Will keep my eyes out for it.
 
It will be interesting to see what the Surface Mini turns out to be. It would definitely be more interesting if it's Atom based but so far Microsoft has stayed clear of the low-end x86 probably in deference to their OEMs. But now that Windows is free on smaller screens it might be easier for Microsoft to compote in this space. It Microsoft wants Surface to be more than a niche product I think they'll have to start making cheaper Atom devices.
 
I just picked up two of these. I actually like it more than the Surface. It's so light and comfortable to use.

Too bad both have backlight bleeding. One only has it along the bottom edge, so I may keep it. Man, I cannot wait for tablets to start using OLED panels.
 
Too bad both have backlight bleeding. One only has it along the bottom edge, so I may keep it. Man, I cannot wait for tablets to start using OLED panels.

You're going to have to do better than that now. You've complained about backlight bleeding to infinity. I've had two of these devices in the household for months now and I've kept up to date with the issues of this device on TabletPCReview.com and backlight bleeding just isn't much of an an issue.
 
The backlight bleeding is kind of non-issue for movies because a film shot in scope played back in 1280x800 resolution fills the entire screen. This is actually amazing and I kind of prefer it to a 1080p panel for Blu-ray rips.

I might continue playing the panel lottery though, since I am thinking about upgrading to the 64GB version.
 
Wow, Windows Update on this thing is fucking abysmal. it must have taken over an hour just to install 40+ updates, and now it's been sitting on the restart screen for like 10 minutes.
 
I returned my V8P after about a week, there was nothing wrong with it I just could not use it do to the tiny tiny font and Win 8.1 not scaling well on a screen that small. I dropped the resolution down as low as i could and manually set "make text and other items larger or smaller" in appearance in control panel, it just didnt work fr me.

Loved having a full blown desktop OS on a tablet, may look at one of the larger ones but I have a 10" tablet I rarely use due to the size so i dont know.
 
Large installs on the Bay Trail devices with eMMC storage are definitely slow, these are slowest and cheapest x86 Windows devices on the market. There are some BIOS and driver updates that do increase overall storage performance, not sure if you've installed those yet. Initial setup and updating of almost any Windows device is unfortunately not a fast and simply process, one thing Microsoft and OEMs need to improve.
 
I returned my V8P after about a week, there was nothing wrong with it I just could not use it do to the tiny tiny font and Win 8.1 not scaling well on a screen that small. I dropped the resolution down as low as i could and manually set "make text and other items larger or smaller" in appearance in control panel, it just didnt work fr me.

Loved having a full blown desktop OS on a tablet, may look at one of the larger ones but I have a 10" tablet I rarely use due to the size so i dont know.

Did you try 125% scaling? That's what I have my 8" 1280×800 Windows tablets set at and it works pretty well for overall. I can effectively use Word and Excel for lighter tasks and OneNote is excellent with touch. Even File Explorer work well with the ribbon and using the larger views. Of course there's plenty on the desktop that's not touch friendly but there's enough there to be useful.
 
I got everything installed along with the BIOS update and everything seems to be fine and dandy. I wonder if this fixed the brightness issue I was experiencing; every time the device restarted, the brightness would jump back to 100%.

I also have scaling at 100% and I have no problems with anything including touch.
 
Okay, apparently it only happens when the screen is turned on while the device is plugged in. Nevertheless, this is retarded.
 
Okay, apparently it only happens when the screen is turned on while the device is plugged in. Nevertheless, this is retarded.

There are separate brightness levels for battery and plugged and they have to be set independently.
 
They are both at 40% and the brightness jumps to 100% upon waking the screen.
 
Did you try 125% scaling? That's what I have my 8" 1280×800 Windows tablets set at and it works pretty well for overall. I can effectively use Word and Excel for lighter tasks and OneNote is excellent with touch. Even File Explorer work well with the ribbon and using the larger views. Of course there's plenty on the desktop that's not touch friendly but there's enough there to be useful.

yeah 125% and 150% were both too small for me. I have proliferative diabetic retinopathy in both eyes, essentially the vessels in my eyes burst and fill the inside of my eye with blood. Makes things pretty cloudy. I also have severe double vision so wear an eye patch on one eye, which plays hell with depth perception.

I loved the tablet, it just doesnt work for me.
 
They are both at 40% and the brightness jumps to 100% upon waking the screen.

That used to happen when I first got the device but I've not seen it recently though sometimes with the device boots up the screen is a max brightness even though the brightness level indicators never changed.
 
I just picked up two of these. I actually like it more than the Surface. It's so light and comfortable to use.

Too bad both have backlight bleeding. One only has it along the bottom edge, so I may keep it. Man, I cannot wait for tablets to start using OLED panels.

I just called Dell support to send my 64gb version for repair/replacement.
On the bottom edge of the screen when in portrait, it looks like a set of led back-lights went out, and I now have what looks like the opposite of back-light bleeding.
In a bright foreground image, you can see shadows from the bad led lights.

The device is great and I'm sure my issue is rare since I did not find anyone online with the same issue.
 
I just got the Pen for my V8P and was surprised to see it as Revision A00, not A01 or A02. However, my A00 was manufactured in December 2014. Only had it a week, pen hasn't died yet. Writting with it is as expected since it isn't Wacom. I'm just surprised they manufactured different revisions at the same time. Maybe it's different factories?
 
I just got the Pen for my V8P and was surprised to see it as Revision A00, not A01 or A02. However, my A00 was manufactured in December 2014. Only had it a week, pen hasn't died yet. Writting with it is as expected since it isn't Wacom. I'm just surprised they manufactured different revisions at the same time. Maybe it's different factories?

(first off: holy necrobump batman)

Give it another week or two if it's the active stylus. I've got one for a venue 11 pro that i've got to call dell about. Kills the battery inside two to three weeks.
 
Might as well join the necro party...

I'm over a year into owning this tablet, and I have to say it has been a great purchase and has fit very well into my workflow. I use it primarily for note taking, and as an electronic document portfolio when I go to court or to meet with clients.
Being able to take gigabytes of .pdfs with me to a meeting and being able to mark them up, without packing an entire briefcase is priceless.
 
Might as well join the necro party...

I'm over a year into owning this tablet, and I have to say it has been a great purchase and has fit very well into my workflow. I use it primarily for note taking, and as an electronic document portfolio when I go to court or to meet with clients.
Being able to take gigabytes of .pdfs with me to a meeting and being able to mark them up, without packing an entire briefcase is priceless.

My wife still has the DV8P I gave her for Christmas 2013 and for some non-techie she's gotten a lot of use out of it. I've since given nine away after I got the Asus VivoTab Note which has a much better Wacom EMR pen and is much better for note taking.

I'm a big OneNote user and it's very cool to have whatever information I've stored in OneNote accessible on such a small device and to be able to take notes, jot down ideas, etc. on the go.

Interesting About the pen revision and date. Dell sent me and lots of other folks a free A1 pen last year, which I thought was a classy CS move. However the A1 revision didn't seem any better. I was thinking about getting the A2 for my wife as she has expressed a desire for a pen for her DV8P but I think I'll hold off and just get her a Windows 10 pen enabled machine when they arrive.
 
I'm a big OneNote user and it's very cool to have whatever information I've stored in OneNote accessible on such a small device and to be able to take notes, jot down ideas, etc. on the go.

Interesting About the pen revision and date. Dell sent me and lots of other folks a free A1 pen last year, which I thought was a classy CS move. However the A1 revision didn't seem any better. I was thinking about getting the A2 for my wife as she has expressed a desire for a pen for her DV8P but I think I'll hold off and just get her a Windows 10 pen enabled machine when they arrive.

Ditto. OneNote is the main app on my DV8P 90% of the time. The syncing to my desktop is PRICELESS.
 
Ditto. OneNote is the main app on my DV8P 90% of the time. The syncing to my desktop is PRICELESS.

OneNote is one of the most useful apps I've ever used. Microsoft has finally gotten around to promoting properly and the expansion of native clients last year only makes it better. But the synching like you say is very, very, cool.
 
(first off: holy necrobump batman)

Give it another week or two if it's the active stylus. I've got one for a venue 11 pro that i've got to call dell about. Kills the battery inside two to three weeks.


Well I didn't want to create a new thread, no point in duplicate threads. I'll give it time. From my understanding, there is no way to order a specific version. I clicked on a link in a thread about the A02 revision, and it took my to dells site. Order the pen linked, but still got A00.
 
An update...I'm running the latest Windows10 build 10162, and can say that things are flawless from a device perspective. The OS still needs a little work, but 95% is working -it is RTM by month end. All device drivers are found, even Intel Graphics has a new driver, compared to Windows 8 driver from 2013. Sleep works without issue and the OS boots within 10 seconds. The pen works and pressure sensitivity is correctly measured. The screen portions are correct and tablet mode works perfectly for this 8 inch device. Desktop mode works as well, though some app windows were not meant for such a small resolution.

I'm still waiting for RTM before I delete my windows 8 install.
 
I just tried the update and I am having a problem waking from sleep. The back light turns on but nothing else does. Am I the only one? Right now the only way that I have figured out to restart is to long press the power and do a full reboot.

Other than that it runs great and I kinda like it.
 
You might try a fresh install now that you upgraded. You should have been provided a Windows 10 Key once you upgraded from 7/8/8.1
 
I upgraded my DV8P and the stylus no longer works. Here's hoping for a driver update! (Alas, not likely)
I'm not torn up about it, I recently got a Surface 3 to replace the DV8P and couldn't be happier.
 
I upgraded my DV8P and the stylus no longer works. Here's hoping for a driver update! (Alas, not likely)
I'm not torn up about it, I recently got a Surface 3 to replace the DV8P and couldn't be happier.

Weird, don't the Venue 8 Pros use the same active stylus that the 11 Pros run?
Upgraded my 11 Pro to 10 on Sunday after getting the stock Intel video drivers on there and the stylus is working great.
 
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