• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

$300 8" tablets: Thin+light, fast web browsing w/Flash, 8-10 hours...and Steam

R

Rafy

Member
two weeks ago I was attending an electronics show here in Milan. There was a Dell press conference given by the Italian CEO of Dell. We got to try the venue 8" and it's amazing.
All of the venue tablets actually, price/quality ratio is very good, better than surface 2 pro IMO. Very fast, no input lag, good build quality etc...
Anyways, he even let the day of release and price for the EU slip. Plus, we were invited to have lunch at the Dell booth along with the rest of the executives.
 
M

Maxim726X

Member
These are amazing. This is exactly why I wanted the Surface Pro... Now, I don't have to wait anymore.

The capability of a $300 mini computer far outclasses that of a tablet.

What an amazing time we live in. Anyone have any suggestions of tablets that are out already/will be out by Christmas?
 
A

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
camajise said:
toshiba has an hdmi out as well as better cameras and mics. it's also heavier and thicker.
Click to expand...

I suppose it depends by how much. I don't think the Toshiba is out yet, though is it?
 
A

aaaaa0

Member
Had the Dell Venue 8 Pro for a few days now.

Having a full Windows 8.1 computer in an 8" tablet within shouting distance of the thickness and weight and battery life of an iPad mini is a revelation. Seriously.
 
C

campfireweekend

Member
GHG said:
I was going to get a ipad air but after seeing this thread I'm not so sure anymore...

One of the main attractions of the ipad is the gaming library but being able to have access to and play a lot of my steam library on the go would be incredible.

What is the tablet in this video?:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxM2YPagTA0

The performance looks great.
Click to expand...

That dell "tablet" is actually an ultrabook. Its an xps 12, the laptop with a rotating screen. Its $1000+
 
N

NinjaFridge

Unconfirmed Member
Rafy said:
two weeks ago I was attending an electronics show here in Milan. There was a Dell press conference given by the Italian CEO of Dell. We got to try the venue 8" and it's amazing.
All of the venue tablets actually, price/quality ratio is very good, better than surface 2 pro IMO. Very fast, no input lag, good build quality etc...
Anyways, he even let the day of release and price for the EU slip. Plus, we were invited to have lunch at the Dell booth along with the rest of the executives.
Click to expand...

And?
 
J

jax

Banned
meh. I'm gonna stick with Surface Pro 2/retina mini until these guys have at least 4GB. I'm not confident these will be able to run the majority of games.

Hopefully next year.
 
D

dLMN8R

Member
After using the Venue 8 Pro for nearly a week it's been a little frustrating getting more traditional games working. I wish there was a bigger library of touch-friendly games for the Desktop but they're just not there. And GestureWorks is still a bit buggy and difficult to use at the moment.

Also, this thing gets really hot when playing games. Kinda concerning.

One bit of hope is in BlueStacks, which works pretty well. Temple Run and Plants vs Zombies 2 are unplayably slow, but Hero Academy is playable. The main problem now is that it picks the wrong orientation. When you hold the V8P in portrait, Android is rendered in landscape, and vice versa. Playing with some registry tweaks to try to help.


Some more questions/comments:

1) Anyone have more ideas of lightweight turn-based games that would run well on the V8P, perhaps with minimal additions through GestureWorks? Right now I'm trying out Puzzle Agent, Legend of Grimrock, Little Inferno, and FTL.

2) What Android games would you recommend that are graphically simpler (even simple 3D should work), and slower-paced/turn-based?

3) Even games from the Windows Store work nicely on this. I never played much on my Surface since it was so slow, and the Surface was too big to hold comfortably to play games, but the V8P is the perfect size it seems. SoulCraft is surprisingly nice so far, and runs very smoothly. Anyone else have recommendations that might not be obvious?
 
Wiktor

Wiktor

Member
dLMN8R said:
After using the Venue 8 Pro for nearly a week it's been a little frustrating getting more traditional games working. I wish there was a bigger library of touch-friendly games for the Desktop but they're just not there. And GestureWorks is still a bit buggy and difficult to use at the moment.

?
Click to expand...
Have you tried casual and browser games? Those are very often pretty damn touch friendly and there's plenty of more complex titles in this category.
 
R

RetroMG

Member
dLMN8R said:
1) Anyone have more ideas of lightweight turn-based games that would run well on the V8P, perhaps with minimal additions through GestureWorks? Right now I'm trying out Puzzle Agent, Legend of Grimrock, Little Inferno, and FTL.
Click to expand...

I don't have any suggestions, but I'm dying to know how FTL runs. It's the number one reason that I want a windows tablet.

Actually, I'm most interested to see how it goes on the ASUS 100
 
D

dLMN8R

Member
AdrianWerner said:
Have you tried casual and browser games? Those are very often pretty damn touch friendly and there's plenty of more complex titles in this category.
Click to expand...
Any suggestions? That's what I browsed my Steam catalog for and didn't find many that were interesting, and I'm not too familiar with Flash games. Card Hunter is an appealing example, but it doesn't grab the right-click gesture correctly when I tap and hold. It instead shows the Flash context menu.

RetroGamer42 said:
I don't have any suggestions, but I'm dying to know how FTL runs. It's the number one reason that I want a windows tablet.
Click to expand...
I'll let you know when I try it. I'm worried that touch targets will be way too small (especially for doors)

Also, some games differ in how they recognize touch. Many end up requiring two taps for click instead of one, and right-click (tap and hold) is often not recognized.
 
C

Chichikov

Member
dLMN8R said:
1) Anyone have more ideas of lightweight turn-based games that would run well on the V8P, perhaps with minimal additions through GestureWorks? Right now I'm trying out Puzzle Agent, Legend of Grimrock, Little Inferno, and FTL.
Click to expand...
Papers Please is brilliant, I have not tried it with touch controls though.
Does FTL works well with touch? it's truly a fantastic game.
 
T

Trent Strong

Banned
dLMN8R said:
I don't have those games available to me, but definitely check out the videos I linked to above:

http://www.youtube.com/user/th3drow/videos?view=0&flow=grid

That device has the same specs as the Dell and runs at almost the same resolution, so game performance should be almost identical.


Fallout 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FngFMaZYAI

Crysis:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMqnm6nDWVs
Click to expand...

Whoa. I'm actually kind of impressed. I didn't think a transformer would be able to play anything beyond something like FTL or Papers Please.
 
Reallink

Reallink

Member
There any websites that do in depth reviews of all these Windows tabs (Anandtech style--benchmark suite, display measurements, storage perf, etc...)? Most seem to be limited to the Surfaces.
 
P

PaulExcellent

Member
Hey, guys. Kind of interested on these, but I need one with an HDMI-out port to be able to have an excuse on purchasing one. lol

Which ones have one?
 
Reallink

Reallink

Member
PaulExcellent said:
Hey, guys. Kind of interested on these, but I need one with an HDMI-out port to be able to have an excuse on purchasing one. lol

Which ones have one?
Click to expand...

Pretty sure the Asus T100, HP Omni 10, and Dell Venue 11 all have Micro HDMI (there are probably more as well). My interest is limited to the 10" varieties, so I'm not sure about any of the 8".
 
D

dLMN8R

Member
Reallink said:
There any websites do in depth reviews of all these Windows tabs (Anandtech style--benchmark suite, display measurements, storage perf, etc...)? Most seem to be limited to the Surfaces.
Click to expand...

From what I've heard, both of these devices are still in sort of a soft launch phase. That's why there's little fanfare and such. I expect to see "proper" reviews from the tech sites (and especially AnandTech) in the next couple weeks leading up to the holidays.
 
M

maeh2k

Member
PaulExcellent said:
Hey, guys. Kind of interested on these, but I need one with an HDMI-out port to be able to have an excuse on purchasing one. lol

Which ones have one?
Click to expand...

I don't think any tablet in the current batch of 8" tablets comes with a video out. Maybe Lenovo will include one in their Thinkpad Tablet which is rumored for December. Might make sense for a more business-oriented product.

However, there are still ways to connect external monitors, though they don't come cheap: http://liliputing.com/2013/11/bay-trail-tablet-powering-4-pc-monitors-video.html
 
S

SonofdonCD

Member
Reallink said:
There any websites that do in depth reviews of all these Windows tabs (Anandtech style--benchmark suite, display measurements, storage perf, etc...)? Most seem to be limited to the Surfaces.
Click to expand...

If you go onto the Windows 8 Tablets thread, there are people (including me) who are on the watch for any and all preview/reviews of these upcoming BayTrail and Haswell tablets. I'll link you to my posts with reviews and performance videos of the Asus T100, the first one which has an Anandtech review:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=86502172&postcount=2537
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=86974837&postcount=2551
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=87122647&postcount=2556
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=87527689&postcount=2558
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=88036365&postcount=2574
 
P

PaulExcellent

Member
maeh2k said:
I don't think any tablet in the current batch of 8" tablets comes with a video out. Maybe Lenovo will include one in their Thinkpad Tablet which is rumored for December. Might make sense for a more business-oriented product.

However, there are still ways to connect external monitors, though they don't come cheap: http://liliputing.com/2013/11/bay-trail-tablet-powering-4-pc-monitors-video.html
Click to expand...

Ugh, that sucks! Well, I'll keep my eyes out for that Thinkpad. Little things like that "make or break" a purchase for me. :/
 
S

Skytylz

Banned
These tablets are really impressive. I've been meaning to get a tablet, so I might make it one of these next year. I don't really like buying gen ones of tech like like laptops and phones. A little higher res screen would make these things amazing.
 
R

RetroMG

Member
chickdigger802 said:
Do these have surface style keyboard covers?
Click to expand...

The ASUS linked in the OP has a detachable keyboard that switches it between tablet and laptop, which is one of the reasons I want it. I use a tablet for reading, but a laptop for school work. I'd love to have one device for both.
 
Wiktor

Wiktor

Member
dLMN8R said:
Any suggestions? That's what I browsed my Steam catalog for and didn't find many that were interesting, and I'm not too familiar with Flash games. Card Hunter is an appealing example, but it doesn't grab the right-click gesture correctly when I tap and hold. It instead shows the Flash context menu.
.
Click to expand...

I had lots of fun with casual adventure games on tablets. Particularly the Drawn series and later Mystery Case Files games.
 
F

Funky Papa

FUNK-Y-PPA-4
Man, all I'm hearing about the Venue 8 Pro is that the stylus sucks smegmy donkey cock. That thing is pretty much worthless in its current state, although some eggheads surmise that it's a software problem, so it could be fixed with a firmware/driver update.
 
Z

zou

Member
Loving my venue8 so far, but man, metro ie makes me want to murder someone. I've always hated that opening tabs would show the tab overview every damn time, and I had hoped with 8.1 I could disable it. But instead, same thing. Except they also copied Safari's retarded idea to always reload a page when navigating back. That together with removing the option to disable swiping left to navigate back a page means I'm constantly finding myself on the previous page, waiting for ie to finish reloading the damn page. At least I could disable the double tap to zoom using a custom stylesheet because that thing is buggy as fuck. It would constantly zoom in when scrolling a page..

But hey, compared to the god awful firefox and chrome metro versions ie is half decent.
 
R

Raxious

Member
Soo, seeing as I'm on the road a lot for school, I'm looking for a tablet that'll allow me to play a few games and do some school work while on the train etc.

I'm actually hoping for something that's capable of running RCT2 and perhaps Civ 5. I saw the Asus T100 videos so that might be an option. But Are there better alternatives for roughly the same price?
 
Z

zou

Member
hm, the tablet keeps resetting the brightness to 100% after coming out of sleep. Curious if anyone else is seeing the same?
 
bloodydrake

bloodydrake

Cool Smoke Luke
dLMN8R could you try out gestureworks gameplay virtual touch controller and see if it works with some indie steam games on the 8 inch tablet?

https://gameplay.gestureworks.com/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Trr9ajcX4e4

couple pics

screenshot20131104-26823-1m9srg5.jpg

screenshot20131104-23247-1x7midl.jpg

screenshot20131104-20078-ecirfj.jpg
 
D

dLMN8R

Member
Gestureworks definitely works! I even mentioned it in my OP :) It's just difficult to create custom layouts with, but if someone else goes through the trouble and crates one it's very nice.

I especially like the ability to assign swipes and other gestures to actions instead of always just creating virtual buttons.
 
Z

zou

Member
anyone know how to trigger the menu rather than the bar at the bottom when clicking links? Most of the time I get the bar but once in a while the menu pops up over the link. And I'd much rather just open the link right there, rather than having to move from the current position.
 
T

TurtleSnatcher

Member
Bought a Venue 8 due to everyone and their recommendations and I must say this thing is awesome. Been playing Hearthstone on it all night and it runs great and isn't too battery draining.

Only a few complaints such as lack of memory and lower resolution screen but other than that it is pretty damn competent and the screen is still really good.
 
M

Mendrox

Member
TurtleSnatcher said:
Bought a Venue 8 due to everyone and their recommendations and I must say this thing is awesome. Been playing Hearthstone on it all night and it runs great and isn't too battery draining.

Only a few complaints such as lack of memory and lower resolution screen but other than that it is pretty damn competent and the screen is still really good.
Click to expand...

Happy to hear that because I ordered one for 250€... have to wait till December. Want to have that baby in my arms, because I don't have a tablet (didn't like them because they are too restricted) but had to order one of these babys because you can do everything with them (even playing games like LoL e.g. with a decent fps)
 
thekenta

thekenta

Member
Mendrox said:
Happy to hear that because I ordered one for 250€... have to wait till December. Want to have that baby in my arms, because I don't have a tablet (didn't like them because they are too restricted) but had to order one of these babys because you can do everything with them (even playing games like LoL e.g. with a decent fps)
Click to expand...

Where did you order it from?
dell.at still doesn't have a pre-order up.. either that or I'm blind.

I'm still debating whether I should get the Venue Pro 8 or the Asus T100.
 
R

Raxious

Member
That Venue 8 looks pretty nice, unfortunately I'm unable to find anything to it in relation to steam games. The fact that it runs Hearthstone is already great, but I'm buying it so I could play games like OpenTTD, RCT2 and Civ5 how would they run on the Venue 8?
 
M

Mendrox

Member
Raxious said:
That Venue 8 looks pretty nice, unfortunately I'm unable to find anything to it in relation to steam games. The fact that it runs Hearthstone is already great, but I'm buying it so I could play games like OpenTTD, RCT2 and Civ5 how would they run on the Venue 8?
Click to expand...

Half Life 2 and even Crysis run pretty good. So if you keep that in mind, then you will be able to play games which are non demanding or only 4-5 years old on low/mid settings no problem. Games like Starcraft 2 run too. :)
 
bloodydrake

bloodydrake

Cool Smoke Luke
dLMN8R said:
Gestureworks definitely works! I even mentioned it in my OP :) It's just difficult to create custom layouts with, but if someone else goes through the trouble and crates one it's very nice.

I especially like the ability to assign swipes and other gestures to actions instead of always just creating virtual buttons.
Click to expand...

ya i was more curious about performance on bay trail if there was a significant hit to performance using it.
sounds like it requires the game to use dx9c so alot of old games won't work with it anyways ..
 
T

TurtleSnatcher

Member
Raxious said:
That Venue 8 looks pretty nice, unfortunately I'm unable to find anything to it in relation to steam games. The fact that it runs Hearthstone is already great, but I'm buying it so I could play games like OpenTTD, RCT2 and Civ5 how would they run on the Venue 8?
Click to expand...

Civ 5 works with it fine.

Honestly some games just are a bit large for such a small screen. If you really want to game with it.. I recommend a portable mouse/keyboard over bluetooth.
 
M

maeh2k

Member
Mendrox said:
http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/dell+venue+8+pro+tablet/eqsqid/be83b1ef-50bc-466f-8df5-c9ec6f481125

Was 250€ on Saturday without this financing thing. Release is 17th december.
Click to expand...

That's actually a great price. A lot cheaper than I expected after the early reports of a price of 399 Euros in Germany. I'm almost tempted.

... or I was before I read Thurrott's review:
-"there are clearly some issues—even major issues—that make this device a bit less interesting than its Android- and iOS-based competitors. "
-"With screen brightness on auto, the Venue 8 Pro delivers about 8 hours of battery life in my streaming HD video tests. Set it to something more akin to what the Surface 2 delivers by default and the battery life in those same tests drops to a more middling 5 hours or so."
-"But price and value are two different things. And of these four devices, the Dell comes saddled with the weakest ecosystem support"


Okay, I'm still tempted...
 
S

skubaman

Member
So I'm looking at the HP split (13-m110dx) that's gonna be on sale at Bestbuy on black friday for $500. It has a bigger screen (13"), bigger storage (128GB) and an i3. The only problem is going through the hassle of trying to get one on black friday. :/
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Soulslike ‘Enotria: The Last Song’ Launches Free 8-Hour Demo on Steam and PS5
News
10
1K
Northeastmonk replied
[Jez Corden] We're getting a Lenovo Legion Go 'Lite' — Lenovo is potentially working on a more affordable PC gaming handheld
18
881
ChuckeRearmed replied
Tekken 8 | Review Thread
News Analysis Review 2 3 4 5 6
263
17K
Klosshufvud replied
Sony should release a Playstation Portable PC (PPP) to compete against other portable PCs like Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally
2 3 4 5
240
12K
Woopah replied
ASUS ROG ALLY | OT + Review Thread | Steam Deck but ROGher
Analysis Review Hardware 9 10 11 12 13
603
50K
Mr Hyde replied
Top Bottom