Tom's IT Pro: Dell Venue 11 Pro 5130 Enterprise Tablet Review

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Dell's Venue 11 Pro 5130 isn't the latest or the best enterprise tablet that Dell has to offer, but at under $600 it offers a good screen, decent storage, and very good WiFi networking performance. However, the lightweight unit suffers from low memory bandwidth, which lowers the tablet's performance, especially during memory-intensive tasks. In a hands-on review of the Venue 11 Pro 5130, we compare the Dell tablet against Lenovo's ThinkPad 10 20C1 and HP's ElitePad 1000 G2.

The Dell Venue 11 Pro 5130 is an Intel Atom-based tablet featuring a quad-core processor, 2GB LPDDR3 memory and 64GB of SSD storage. Running Windows 8.1, the tablet has an 10.8 inch display with a 1920 by 1080 resolution, protected by Corning Gorilla Glass. The unit weighs at just below 1.6 lbs (without the keyboard) and includes dual-band 2x2 802.11 a/g/n WiFi networking options, provided by a Dell-branded Qualcomm Atheros chipset.
Dell Venue 11 Pro 5130 Tablet

During our tests, we uncovered that the Dell Venue 11 Pro tablet has significantly lower battery life, especially when compared to the HP and Lenovo units. Additionally, our stylus tests show that the Dell stylus is often unresponsive and its performance is intermittent during normal use. We also found a camera problem with our test unit; the tablet couldn’t recognize the front camera, though we were still able to test the rear camera for image quality.

On the plus side, the Dell tablet showed excellent WiFi performance during our tests and several of our mobile benchmarks put the Dell unit ahead of Lenovo’s ThinkPad 10 20C1 and HP’s ElitePad 1000 G2. Read the complete review to see how the Dell Venue 11 Pro 5130 performed and how it compares to its pricier alternatives, the Lenovo ThinkPad 10 20C1 and HP’s ElitePad 1000 G2.

Jon K. Carroll is a Contributing Writer for Tom's IT Pro.
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Jon K. Carroll
3 Comments Comment from the forums
  • NeatOman
    I feel as they are trying to fill a segment that's already filled by iPad's with keyboards and old laptops that people have around as extra devices because they still "work". It just seems in every review that no one wants theses because there is a much better alternative on the market, rather it be an iPad in the one direction or a Surface Pro in the other direction. I might be totally wrong, and as of now I'm just some ignorant guy not knowing when to stop typing :-)
    Reply
  • Draven35
    I thought the same sort of thing when I sat down to evaluate these tablets. But these have longer battery life than most Ipads or old laptops, are lighter and smaller, and run off-the-shelf windows apps.
    Reply
  • Willie0
    I'm using Dell for almost three years now and its quiet slow. I don't know why. I tried using different applications and things in order to boost it but nothing works. Been planning to change into VPN to be safe from future malwares next time.
    Reply