Dell Venue 11 Pro
Yay! The tablet I ordered for my wife arrived yesterday. And while I haven't used it much, I already have quite a bit to say on it. As per the article header it is a Dell Venue 11 Pro.
Firstly, I hate McAfee. I fire up the tablet, and my first thoughts are "this must be wrong, this tablet is supposed to be FASTER than a Clover Trail tablet". The culprit appeared to have been McAfee. Granted, it did speed back up again about 4 hours later when it was done whatever initial scan it wanted to do.
Side rant: why haven't AV producers yet released editions of their software that can be preconfigured to know they are running on a fresh install. It isn't really possible that I got a virus before I fired the damn thing up for the first time. And I sure as fuck don't want my first impressions of my new device ruined by your insistence on scanning everything Windows is doing into oblivion. Windows, in general, is slower the first time you boot it up while I finishes touching up registry entries, drivers, settings, etc...
Moving on, but only sort of. Removing McAfee was a pain in the ass as well. And so was interfacing with McAfee. Go into Add/Remove Program, attempt to remove McAfee and you're greeted by a non-re-sizeable, non-tab supporting window that doesn't actually display the whole screen and conveniently the buttons to continue with the uninstallation a rendered off of the completely non-navigable screen.
After several attempts to resolve this, I gave up, and assumed it was sabotage on the part of McAfee and instead tried to turn off the live scan so I could finish the initial setup and figure out how to remove it. But the settings screen is similarly afflicted! And again, conveniently, all useful buttons are not on a place on the screen that would actually allow me to alter them.
Clearly, someone at Dell failed to do even basic QA on the choice of software they deployed on this tablet. When you can neither uninstall, nor even properly interact with it, there is a pretty serious issue.
Luckily, it turns out McAfee offers a tool online for removing their software. And this tool actually works. So, it is now removed.
Next is the keyboard cover. The keys were easier to press than I initially thought they would be, but there are still more misses than would be ideal. The folding back holds up the tablet via magnets in the thinnest of the three segment of the back cover and is really only stable at one angle. In my opinion the cover isn't good for lap usage. Also, the thickness and heaviness of it also isn't conducive to folding it back when using just as a tablet, so I imagine it will get as much usage as the detachable keyboard on my Acer. I'm still glad I bought it. I don't think an x86 based tablet is viable without some sort of proper keyboard/mouse accessory. The Windows Desktop is mostly unusable on a touch only device, especially one running 1080p on an a 10.1 inch screen.
One last thing of note with the keyboard cover... the pins which connect the tablet to the keyboard are lacking. If the tablet rests too far forward it seems to lose the connection and render it useless. Further disabling this accessory as a good choice when using the tablet not on a table.
I probably won't get a good chance to review the battery life as it is primarily a tablet for my wife. But, from light usage while getting things ready for her, it did seem acceptable. The screen was in auto-brightness mode. But then, I leave my Acer that way as well. So it doesn't bother me. I would surmise that the battery life would be worse without it always on the brightest setting as many have done with the Venue 8 Pro.
Performance is great. I honestly never felt my Acer W510 was slow. Until I played around with this tablet. Yes, I noticed my Clover Trail based tablet was slower than, say, my desktop. But the delta in performance was totally acceptable. I expect a full blown desktop processor to outperform my budget tablet. And, honestly, I expected my desktop to outperform my tablet by more than it does. In general, the Bay Trail tablet is on par with my desktop performance for daily usage tasks. Honestly, I don't think that unless you're a gamer (3D desktop games) or into more heavy processing tasks (CAD, Audio/Video editing, etc...) that you're ever going to notice that you're on a bottom of the line chip. And that bodes VERY well for Intel's bottom of the line chips.
The screen is great. Even without the auto-adjusting brightness (at least for my tastes). My only beef would be the 1080p screen. And everyone else is going to love this. I hate that Apple has successfully made people fanatical about "retina" class displays. My Acer tablet runs at 1366x768, and I don't actually notice pixels at all. In fact, image quality, between the two devices, is un-detectable without really focusing on it. This bothers me for 2 reasons; price and performance.
Firstly, I still feel like Microsoft's biggest barrier to success is that true Windows 8.1 tablets cost too much. And by "true", I mean 10.1 inch devices running x86/64 Windows (legacy Windows desktop on an 8" or smaller device is a joke). A big part of that cost is still the display panel. At $499 the Venue 11 Pro is reasonably priced. But, it is not the retail price of the tablet, which is a couple hundred more than that, and it is a price that I would say should be considered mid-priced for what it offers. But it is basically tied for the cheapest such tablet out there. Give up on that 1080p screen and you could probably shave the price down into the entry level tablet price range where it belongs.
Next is performance. While the tablet does perform admirably, even at these high resolutions. You would be able to squeeze more out of gaming and battery life with a more reasonable resolution. Pushing up the resolution takes back away some of that performance gain that the upgraded processor brought in the first place.
And lastly, on this unit is the size and weight. The bezel pretty wide, and when paired with the touch cover it is one heavy tablet. Borderline uncomfortable. Luckily, the keyboard is a nuisance when used as a tablet, and without it, the weight at least gets further back into the acceptable range.
I would still recommend this tablet, as long as you can get it at the current pricing. If not, I would advise you to look into the Lenovo Miix tablet. When I checked on the Futureshop site here in Canada, it looked like it actually started cheaper at $449 (and that IS the retail price it seems), and even better, it only appeared to go up to $499 WITH a keyboard dock. Looks like a hard keyboard dock. But since the touch cover from Dell isn't good for use when using the tablet as a tablet I don't think a solid shell keyboard is a drawback.
Firstly, I hate McAfee. I fire up the tablet, and my first thoughts are "this must be wrong, this tablet is supposed to be FASTER than a Clover Trail tablet". The culprit appeared to have been McAfee. Granted, it did speed back up again about 4 hours later when it was done whatever initial scan it wanted to do.
Side rant: why haven't AV producers yet released editions of their software that can be preconfigured to know they are running on a fresh install. It isn't really possible that I got a virus before I fired the damn thing up for the first time. And I sure as fuck don't want my first impressions of my new device ruined by your insistence on scanning everything Windows is doing into oblivion. Windows, in general, is slower the first time you boot it up while I finishes touching up registry entries, drivers, settings, etc...
Moving on, but only sort of. Removing McAfee was a pain in the ass as well. And so was interfacing with McAfee. Go into Add/Remove Program, attempt to remove McAfee and you're greeted by a non-re-sizeable, non-tab supporting window that doesn't actually display the whole screen and conveniently the buttons to continue with the uninstallation a rendered off of the completely non-navigable screen.
After several attempts to resolve this, I gave up, and assumed it was sabotage on the part of McAfee and instead tried to turn off the live scan so I could finish the initial setup and figure out how to remove it. But the settings screen is similarly afflicted! And again, conveniently, all useful buttons are not on a place on the screen that would actually allow me to alter them.
Clearly, someone at Dell failed to do even basic QA on the choice of software they deployed on this tablet. When you can neither uninstall, nor even properly interact with it, there is a pretty serious issue.
Luckily, it turns out McAfee offers a tool online for removing their software. And this tool actually works. So, it is now removed.
Next is the keyboard cover. The keys were easier to press than I initially thought they would be, but there are still more misses than would be ideal. The folding back holds up the tablet via magnets in the thinnest of the three segment of the back cover and is really only stable at one angle. In my opinion the cover isn't good for lap usage. Also, the thickness and heaviness of it also isn't conducive to folding it back when using just as a tablet, so I imagine it will get as much usage as the detachable keyboard on my Acer. I'm still glad I bought it. I don't think an x86 based tablet is viable without some sort of proper keyboard/mouse accessory. The Windows Desktop is mostly unusable on a touch only device, especially one running 1080p on an a 10.1 inch screen.
One last thing of note with the keyboard cover... the pins which connect the tablet to the keyboard are lacking. If the tablet rests too far forward it seems to lose the connection and render it useless. Further disabling this accessory as a good choice when using the tablet not on a table.
I probably won't get a good chance to review the battery life as it is primarily a tablet for my wife. But, from light usage while getting things ready for her, it did seem acceptable. The screen was in auto-brightness mode. But then, I leave my Acer that way as well. So it doesn't bother me. I would surmise that the battery life would be worse without it always on the brightest setting as many have done with the Venue 8 Pro.
Performance is great. I honestly never felt my Acer W510 was slow. Until I played around with this tablet. Yes, I noticed my Clover Trail based tablet was slower than, say, my desktop. But the delta in performance was totally acceptable. I expect a full blown desktop processor to outperform my budget tablet. And, honestly, I expected my desktop to outperform my tablet by more than it does. In general, the Bay Trail tablet is on par with my desktop performance for daily usage tasks. Honestly, I don't think that unless you're a gamer (3D desktop games) or into more heavy processing tasks (CAD, Audio/Video editing, etc...) that you're ever going to notice that you're on a bottom of the line chip. And that bodes VERY well for Intel's bottom of the line chips.
The screen is great. Even without the auto-adjusting brightness (at least for my tastes). My only beef would be the 1080p screen. And everyone else is going to love this. I hate that Apple has successfully made people fanatical about "retina" class displays. My Acer tablet runs at 1366x768, and I don't actually notice pixels at all. In fact, image quality, between the two devices, is un-detectable without really focusing on it. This bothers me for 2 reasons; price and performance.
Firstly, I still feel like Microsoft's biggest barrier to success is that true Windows 8.1 tablets cost too much. And by "true", I mean 10.1 inch devices running x86/64 Windows (legacy Windows desktop on an 8" or smaller device is a joke). A big part of that cost is still the display panel. At $499 the Venue 11 Pro is reasonably priced. But, it is not the retail price of the tablet, which is a couple hundred more than that, and it is a price that I would say should be considered mid-priced for what it offers. But it is basically tied for the cheapest such tablet out there. Give up on that 1080p screen and you could probably shave the price down into the entry level tablet price range where it belongs.
Next is performance. While the tablet does perform admirably, even at these high resolutions. You would be able to squeeze more out of gaming and battery life with a more reasonable resolution. Pushing up the resolution takes back away some of that performance gain that the upgraded processor brought in the first place.
And lastly, on this unit is the size and weight. The bezel pretty wide, and when paired with the touch cover it is one heavy tablet. Borderline uncomfortable. Luckily, the keyboard is a nuisance when used as a tablet, and without it, the weight at least gets further back into the acceptable range.
I would still recommend this tablet, as long as you can get it at the current pricing. If not, I would advise you to look into the Lenovo Miix tablet. When I checked on the Futureshop site here in Canada, it looked like it actually started cheaper at $449 (and that IS the retail price it seems), and even better, it only appeared to go up to $499 WITH a keyboard dock. Looks like a hard keyboard dock. But since the touch cover from Dell isn't good for use when using the tablet as a tablet I don't think a solid shell keyboard is a drawback.
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