Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Three major problems of Dell Venue 8 Pro

As the price is incredibly low, $210-230, should you get one? After a day with it, here is the deal break:
  • Touch screen is too sensitive to be usable. When I touch the screen once, the tablet almost always take it as double taps. When I use on-screen keyboard to type, it ends up like this: "...aalwayyss  ggoooodd...". Therefore, it was impossible to write this article on this tablet. See the youtube below for how erratic it is.
  • In duplicate mode, Miracast cannot cast higher than 800x600 (update: Dell has fixed this problem on 12/02/2013). I tried it with Actiontec Screen Beam and Netgear Push2TV PTV3000. A Windows 8.1 tablet with Miracast is by far the best way for online TV watching, but this tablet cannot be the one.
  • No way to charge it while USB is being used. Lacking of HDMI port, this problem puts salt on the cut if you're thinking of a USB-VGA adapter.


The too-sensitive problem is not just my case, see this review:

http://www.umpcportal.com/2013/11/dell-venue-8-pro-review/

The duplicate problem is reported here:

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/mobile-devices/f/3824/p/19531153/20471428.aspx

The USB charge problem is discussed here:

http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/dell/59328-venue-8-usb-power-same-time.html

If above three problems can be solved, this is really a fantastic tablet - thin and light. Now I hold my breath on the Lenovo MIIX 2. It is even thinner and lighter, hopefully it will arrive in stores soon and won't have such major problems.

7 comments:

  1. lots of android devices, including n4 and new n7, also support miracast, ever tried those before? how those compares to this dell tablet?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've been using my Note 2 to watch online video through Miracast and love it. The currently best online TV broadcast is 64码高清网络电视,but it is only available on PC, no Android version yet. Also many content can only be watched in a web browser and many of them require plug-in; in these cases mobile browsers cannot do well or not at all.

      Miracast is the ultimate way of TV watching, especially for old parents who don't know how to operate a PC. The problem with a HTPC that's connected directly to TV's HDMI is: the font is too small to read from the sofa.

      Delete
    2. Bestbuy is selling a Rocketfish Miracast receiver for $30.

      Delete
    3. Don't waste time with the Rocketfish. It does not work with my Note 2 and the 2.0 firmware upgrade will render it dead.

      Delete
  2. Why the keyboard is so small?? It isn't the original windows, right?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is Hot Virtual Keyboard, the only usable keyboard for Windows.

      Delete
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