Dell Venue 8 Pro Tablet Now Available for Pre-Order

By Tarun Iyer
published

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.

Tarun Iyer
18 Comments Comment from the forums
  • teh_chem
    I haven't used windows 8/8.1--but what's with all of these x86 tablets only coming with 2GB of RAM? ASUS announced their T100--also an 8.1 tablet with baytrail, and also 2GB of RAM. I know at around this price point, you're not going to get a ton of power, but man, the difference between 2GB and 4GB of RAM on modern systems is noticeable.
    Reply
  • stevejnb
    True Chem. I'm iffy on a full Windows 8 tablet with under 2gb of RAM - seems to be a guarantee for a system that chugs - but all of these tablets are in a price range where even Android tablets don't tend to have more than 2gb of RAM. One would hope they tailored the hardware to the software rather than the hardware to the price point, but I'm not sure that's the case.

    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.
    Reply
  • allenpan
    32 bit atom, 2GB per channel, max they can go is 2GB+1GB, however, the additional 1B requires additional tracing and complicated the 4 layer pcb design , In other word, not cheap enough/profit enough
    Reply
  • rwinches
    If these Atom Windows Tabs wanted to differentiate from ARM units, dual channel memory would be a good start.
    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.
    Reply
  • jarred125
    I had one on order, but I just canceled it. I have too much concern around the low amount of RAM as well. While the price is "great" .. I just don't see it filling a gap in my work flow even at that price.
    Reply
  • itpro
    I have one of the previous generation Asus models sitting on my desk, and have given several to my workers. The older models were dual core Atoms, also with 2 GB ram. My experience with these models is that they run very well. Win 8 is very efficient on lower level hardware, and the performance is quick and fluid. The newer generation models with a quad core processor should perform even better. Keep in mind that these are tablets. Unlike on a desktop, tablet users generally are not heavily multitasking, so 2 GB should be fine.
    Reply
  • w8gaming
    You don't need 4GB of RAM when the CPU is the "D" model which max memory is 2GB.
    Reply
  • g-unit1111
    11776840 said:
    I haven't used windows 8/8.1--but what's with all of these x86 tablets only coming with 2GB of RAM? ASUS announced their T100--also an 8.1 tablet with baytrail, and also 2GB of RAM. I know at around this price point, you're not going to get a ton of power, but man, the difference between 2GB and 4GB of RAM on modern systems is noticeable.

    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.
    Reply
  • teh_chem
    11777724 said:
    I have one of the previous generation Asus models sitting on my desk, and have given several to my workers. The older models were dual core Atoms, also with 2 GB ram. My experience with these models is that they run very well. Win 8 is very efficient on lower level hardware, and the performance is quick and fluid. The newer generation models with a quad core processor should perform even better. Keep in mind that these are tablets. Unlike on a desktop, tablet users generally are not heavily multitasking, so 2 GB should be fine.
    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.
    Reply
  • EdRyan
    This is the size of a Kindle. It's one step up from a phablet. Just because you *can* run Photoshop does mean that you should. At this screen size and resolution the desktop is nearly impossible to navigate by touch. This is for running WinRT apps by touch and taking some notes. If that's not what you want to do, then this is the wrong device. You want one of the Haswell iCore tablets like the Surface Pro 2 or Sony Tap 11.
    Reply