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Hi, we're on Eeevolution.it and this is a Dell Venue 8 Pro.
It's one of the latest 8-inch tablets with Windows 8.1 and Intel Bay Trail processor,
I've been testing it for about 10 days and now I'm ready to show you how it works.
There are some good reasons to prefer Dell Venue 8 Pro to other 8-inch tablets.
Technical specs are always the same:
Atom processor Z3740D, 2 GB RAM,
32 GB or 64 GB of memory and microSD slot to upgrade.
What's changed is the screen:
it's an 8-inch IPS screen, with protective glass,
resolution 1280x800 pixel, a good density for this format.
But, unlike other tablets, here brightness is 400 Nits
which makes it better than other Windows8 tablets.
This screen is very bright, there's no need to set it on high levels,
you'll always have a good brightness.
In fact, this display is the most interesting feature,
it's the most impressive thing when you see Venue 8 Pro for the first time.
But that's not all, because the glass hides a Synaptics built-in digitizer,
so once you buy the Dell stylus, sold on the site
for 30 Euros with shipping cost, for a total of 50 Euros actually,
you can do things you'd usually do on professional products,
like hand - writing using the pressure and palm recognition.
Now, this is an 8-inch and writing is not so comfortable as on a 10-inch,
however it's great to touch the screen without ruining what you're writing.
...though, I have to say by now it's impossible to do all these cool things
'cause it's actually impossible to find a flawless stylus.
Dell promised an upgrade and new products coming on January, so... let's wait!
Not only good technical specs for Dell Venue 8 Pro,
but also good build quality and design.
I didn't find real faults in this product, it doesn't flex, doesn't crackle...
no strange sounds, just here behind the logo maybe, but nothing important.
The rear side is textured, to improve the hold, and the edges are flat...
both landscape and portrait mode are comfortable.
The buttons are metallic, solid... a nice contrast with the matte black.
There's just one loudspeaker here on the rear, but it's in a strategic location,
so you won't cover it with the hand when holding the tablet this way.
The only criticism I can make is the position of the on/off switch:
in landscape mode it's very comfortable 'cause it's close to the thumb,
but portrait mode it's pretty uncomfortable...too far.
Luckily Dell Venue 8 Pro is nice and comfortable as well as practical.
Windows 8.1 works perfectly on this hardware, we've said it before,
and this Dell is no exception,
actually with its brightness you'll really enjoy the Microsoft touch experience.
You can open many apps at a time, included pretty heavy desktop apps...
this is Word, packed with Office 2013 Home and Student...
I tried with other heavier apps, for example Lightroom, Sony Vegas,
Full HD videos without problems...
performance is almost the same of middle-level laptops.
Moreover, Dell didn't pre-install too many things on this Venue 8 Pro,
there's just this suite to manage drivers and BIOS, very useful...
by the way, actually you have just 10 GB of the 32 GB installed as free space.
All that, with a great battery life every bit as good as Android products.
6 hours 50 minutes, Wi-Fi on and full brightness -- which is totally useless --
and 9 hours 50 minutes with brightness set on Auto and Web navigation.
Well, considering Venue 8 Pro doesn't pack a large battery,
it's light and thin, this is a great result...
well, this tablet will easily last the whole day.
At this point, probably it's clear I like this Dell Venue 8 Pro...
a nice tablet, comfortable and practical.
But there are some things you have to know
to have the whole picture of the situation.
For example, it lacks HDMI video output.. and that's limiting,
it'd be great connecting it on a Full HD monitor
-- like we did last week with the ASUS tablet --
Venue 8 Pro supports Miracast, so you can use a key like this one,
even though at this moment you don't have the same results as with the wire...
there's a lot of work to do from this point of view.
It'd been easier to include a port
or at least to make this microUSB able to support MHL standard.
Then, compared to other Bay Trail processors I tried,
Venue 8 Pro warms up a little, here...
a place you always touch while holding the tablet,
and that's annoying if you use it for a long time.
And, even if this is a typical issue of 8-inch screens,
Windows desktop interface is uncomfortable on this format...
icons are small, it's difficult to click on the right button to open the menu
or select anything if you don't have a keyboard and mouse.
It's something you have to keep in mind
if you want to use this Dell to create contents.
Well, Venue 8 Pro is totally recommended,
it doesn't have real flaws except those of other 8-inch tablets...
the fact that Windows 8.1 desktop interface is uncomfortable
and that 32 GB aren't enough,
here you have about 10 GB of free space remaining, just for some apps and games.
I suggest you provide with a fast microSD card and install it on the ATOM
or wait for the 64 GB version to have more free space.
You can find more info and technical details
about this Venue 8 Pro on Eeevolution.it Bye!