8 inch, active digitizer, Bay Trail - Dell Venue 8 Pro

[kuru]

Dell seem to be nailing it first - here we go, X86 in a great form factor with a "real" pen. 8 hrs battery life sounds reasonable.

I think I'll make this my birthday/christmas present. *waves goodbye to Lenovo*

https://www.youtube.com/embed/DlmXeHmQ8IY?feature=oembed

 

[levi]

I wasn't aware Intel were sticking with the Atom branding.  Ugh!

 

[skeezix]

I'll have to look up specs for that.. for if its x86, and has decent (yeah right..) graphics pushing abilities, .. and being a tablet form factor.. could it handle Civ V? (I've got an ancient device from probably 6 years back that coudl run Civ IV moderately well, so certainly this thing could pull that off.) But how well van Win 8 on a tablet handle traditional desktop mouse oriented games? Workable at all?

jeff

 

[levi]

I think it's one of these, but they just say it has 'Intel HD graphics' which is a brand they've been using for four years and the numbers don't mean anything to me.

 

[kuru]

We also had a chance to play the Batman: The Dark Knight video game on Bay Trail, and were instantly impressed by the fluidity of the title on the tablet, with costumes and environments rendered with a much higher quality than we have seen on a tablet before, especially with this level of responsiveness and natural feel. Testing this collection of gaming titles on Intel's Bay Trail was the first time that we've been willing to take tablet gaming seriously.

Source - sounds good to me.

Bay Trail can run Team Fortress 2 at 1366×768 under Windows 8.1.

Source They also compare 3DMark results. I had an AMD E350, it ran Aquanox at about 25FPS in the first level - at maxed out options @1680x1050. That SoC scores 15,8k. Bay Trail weighs in at 12,9k.

 

[Mr_Loon]

...

But how well van Win 8 on a tablet handle traditional desktop mouse oriented games? Workable at all?

I imagine it's 100% workable if you use a Mouse & Keyboard (BT or USB) and can live with the screen size.

 

[FaeMinx]

Nice one Kuru.

Looks like your patience is going to pay off.

What's the cost of this baby?

 

[kuru]

Starting at 300$, with pen and leather case about 385$. Likely that price will directly translate to Euros.

 

[FaeMinx]

Wow... about what I paid for my Note 8.0 ... a bit cheaper even.

Great find! 

You'll have to let me know how it handles Photoshop and Painter (or even Paint Tool Sai) when you get it.

Edit: Just did the conversion from Euros to Rands.

You'll be paying about R5200.00

I Paid R6500.00

So I think you've got a winner there. Yup, I am slightly envious... but not overmuch. I've had my Tab for a while already, and I still love my Note 8.0

But nice to see other affordable options in the right form factor popping up. It bodes well for me in a year or so - I can pass my Note onto one of my parents (maybe). 

 

[skeezix]

...


But how well van Win 8 on a tablet handle traditional desktop mouse oriented games? Workable at all?

I imagine it's 100% workable if you use a Mouse & Keyboard (BT or USB) and can live with the screen size.

No, thats what I mean.. sans keyb/mouse, how workable is it?

tap for left click, tap and hold for right.. does it work in practice? If I can fire up Civ IV and Civ V, I'd buy one (the nights when you're spending 3 hours or more with babies trying to get them to sleep, could be worth it

jeff

 

[kuru]

I don't think that, once a game window captures your cursor, the OS's hold-for-rightclick would work. The game itself would have to support that.

That said, maybe that pen has a button on it? Can't take a look at the video right now.

/Edit:

Looks like Dell fail at thinking of a button. Too bad, actually. Love the buttons on my X60's pen. I never thought of that, but this is a lack indeed. Hover + rightclick via button is much better than having to stay in place and hold... Maybe there is another synaptics-powered pen that has a button, on another device, which may work with this tablet?