Dell Venue 8 Pro Tablet Now Available for Pre-Order
The Dell Venue 8 Pro offers a quad-core Bay Trail Processor, 8-inch WXGA display and 2 GB of memory at a very competitive price point.
Dell is now accepting pre-orders for its Venue 8 Pro tablet which features a quad-core Intel Atom Z370D "Silvermont" processor clocked at 1.8 GHz, an 8-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1280 x 800, and 2 GB of single channel DDR3L-RS 1600 MHz RAM.
The tablet also includes a 1.2 MP front and a 5 MP rear camera, Bluetooth 4.0, a Dell Wireless 2x2 802.11n Wi-Fi Antenna, and is offered with either 32 GB or 64 GB of onboard storage. Since the device natively runs Windows 8.1 and it qualifies as a "small tablet," the Venue 8 Pro is bundled with a complimentary copy of Microsoft Office Home & Student 2013.
The Dell Venue 8 Pro is priced at $299.99 (32 GB) and $349.99 (64 GB) with pre-orders expected to ship on October 25, 2013 with the option of adding a Dell Active Stylus for $34.99.

Ultimately, these will work, and you'll be able to perform a lot of less intensive functions with only mildly irritating slowdown, but people who want to use these types of tablets like they'd use a regular PC will find they experience problematic. Mobile oriented processor, limited RAM, low price, and you get what you pay for.
At least have a slot to add memory to get to 4GB whether single or dual channel.
An easily replaceable battery would be good too.
I know the focus is on battery life, so the configurations get limited.
These devices aren't meant to handle huge workloads. The Bay Trail processors are not meant for Photoshop and AutoCAD or even heavy duty game playing. They're meant more for basic tasks like movie watching, web browsing, and MS Office, which is why they have small amounts of RAM.
I dunno...I kinda think that the argument "it's a tablet..." is a cop out if that tablet can run standard x86 desktop apps. In that case, it should be an x86 machine that can operate in tablet mode. No need to sacrifice multitasking IMO, but I also see the counter-argument of keeping costs down. It's just a shame when RAM is so cheap.
But this isn't Windows RT either - it's a real, full installation of Windows 8.1. I do agree that the Surface Pro is a better device, but it's also 3 times the price just for the entry level model.
I've been debating between the Dell Venue and the new iPad Mini - the Mini has a great display but the price tag is a bit on the ridiculous side. The 64GB Venue is literally 1/2 the cost of a new iPad Air and significantly cheaper than the equivalent Mini.
Limitations of the specific Bay Trail SoC aside, Windows 8 is remarkably efficient with its memory usage and the tablet's small screen size and low price tag should make it clear that it's not intended for any particularly demanding use.