Solved Tablets with 1GB RAM

paulsalter

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Hi All,

Does anyone have any experience of the budget windows tablets that run 8.1 that come with 1GB RAM

I am thinking of getting one to try out, but just want to make sure the performance is ok

My usage is not heavy on my current tablet, Email, Internet, Social Media, Listening to music, Reading Books, nothing that is too demanding

Would possibly like to use Office also as they come with a free year subscription to Office 365, but this is not a must have due to tablet size I am looking at

This is the one I was thinking of
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Linx-inch-Tablet-storage-Windows/dp/B00O636WGI/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_4

Any thoughts?
 

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Hey Paul, no direct experience but my cheap Lumia 520 runs fine with 512MB of RAM and dual-core processor. I would think that tablet would run just fine plus it has 16GB built in that you should be able to store apps on.

Pretty sure the tablets run a version of Windows Phone. I'm sure someone will jump in and tell me if wrong.
 

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Thanks for the reply, been reading reviews and it seems promising

It looks like it might be 32GB of storage instead of 16 going by the details of it

Off for some more reading now :)
 

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Hi there,

In addition, I only have experience with Surface 2 and I can be productive as it has O365 pre-installed so you can't go wrong. Anyway, I found this one for you that has a better specs that the Linx, the price seems to be reasonable.

Hope this helps.
 

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Thanks for the info

Need to do some comparisons and see how they all look
 

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My personal experience is only with a Dell Venue 8 pro with 2gb RAM and 32gb primary storage and 32gb secondary (microSD), but from what I've read, the newer low-end 1g RAM devices generally work well in the "modern/metro" mode and are limited to small simple apps in the Desktop mode. I can run Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom on my DV8p but 1g machines can't. Also, I wouldn't expect any of the new low-end 1g tablets to have a screen display near the quality of the DV8p.

Check out this post on UMPC Portal: Budget Windows 8 Tablets work well in ?RT Mode?
 

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I had a netbook with the old N270 Atom processor and 1.5G of RAM that I ran Win 7 Pro on for about 5 years and it worked fine. I could easily have 2 or 3 "normal" desktop programs (Excel, Word & FireFox for instance) running and have decent responsiveness. I didn't try to run processor or GPU intensive programs because that's not what the netbook's intended use was.

These tablets have the newer, faster quad core Atom processors but less RAM, they should be able to easily handle 1-2 "normal" programs. The fact that they have very little on-board storage can be mitigated by the addition of a 32G microSD card or even cloud storage. There are larger cards that could be used but their cost would be a significant percentage of the cost of the tablet itself.

I have personal experience with the Dell Venue 8 Pro and the Surface Pro 3, both are nice but expensive compared to these low cost devices.

It's fascinating to me that some of these low cost Win 8 tablets are down in the $100 range, that's amazing for a device with this capability.
 

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cheers for the extra replies

I will mostly be using the apps from the metro side, and the way they suspend in the background shouldn't cause any issues I can see

I wont be using the desktop side too much, 8" seems a little small for using the desktop interface, the only exception is I would like to have office on it (word, excel, possibly outlook but I might just stick to the metro mail etc apps instead of outlook)

wanted to try out windows tablets for a while, see what the full touch experience is like with windows 8, cant really go wrong with the price of these and looking at reviews of various ones they mostly seem positive
 

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  • OS
    Windows 8.1
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    Dell Inspiron 3521
    CPU
    i5
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    4 GB
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    AMD Radeon
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    IE
Hey Paul, no direct experience but my cheap Lumia 520 runs fine with 512MB of RAM and dual-core processor. I would think that tablet would run just fine plus it has 16GB built in that you should be able to store apps on.

Pretty sure the tablets run a version of Windows Phone. I'm sure someone will jump in and tell me if wrong.

Wait... A Nokia Lumia is
1) A Windows Phone
2) A Crap Windows Phone
 

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I would invest another £60 and you will get 2Gb of Ram and 32GB of Storage (Flash) and another 2.1 inches in size which will allow you to use office in the desktop mode fine. +If you order by the 15 May 2015 you get £30 cash back.
 

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...
I wont be using the desktop side too much, 8" seems a little small for using the desktop interface, the only exception is I would like to have office on it (word, excel, possibly outlook but I might just stick to the metro mail etc apps instead of outlook)...

If you'll be relying on the modern/metro side for most use then the new 1g "Windows 8.1 with Bing" devices should suit.

I recommend getting TouchMousePointer as an accessory app. It provides an on-screen simulation of a laptop-like touchpad which greatly help using Desktop apps that aren't optimized for touch.

Also, it should be noted that adding a microSD expansion card is only a partial "fix" for the very limited storage space on 16gb devices. Many apps will only install on the main storage volume. There are kluges to enable installing some recalcitrant apps that work by setting up a virtual connection between an empty folder on C: and the expansion card.
 

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... I like windows tablet much better then android.
This is my opinion please don't take it seriously.
Why not take it seriously? I agree with you. I've had several Android tablets and still have a Nexus 7. I bought a Dell Venue 8 Pro tablet with Win 8.1 about a year ago and since then, my Nexus 7 mostly sits and collects dust as I don't use it much. I have since moved to a Surface Pro 3 tablet and given the Dell to my son. I don't anticipate buying another Android tablet.

I've used Android phones for about 10 years now but may switch to a Windows phone when I go for a new phone.
 

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...


Also, it should be noted that adding a microSD expansion card is only a partial "fix" for the very limited storage space on 16gb devices. Many apps will only install on the main storage volume. There are kluges to enable installing some recalcitrant apps that work by setting up a virtual connection between an empty folder on C: and the expansion card.
Could you please expand on what you mean by "kluges to enable installing some recalcitrant apps that work by setting up a virtual connection between an empty folder on C: and the expansion card"?

How do I do that?

Also, I moved the location of my documents and download folders from C: to the sdcard and noticed that now these folders and their files seem to be visible on both C: and D: ! Or is the folder visible on C: just a sort of "shortcut"?
 

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I have an 8.1 tablet with a similar Baytrail CPU and 2GB of RAM. That CPU is OK (not to be confused with the earlier Atom CPUs that were used in Netbooks). Mine runs fine but I would not know how it performs in 1GB. I have checked the Resource Monitor at times and 8.1 always used a bit less than 1GB. The rest is for caching that you would not have (can make some performance difference).

Someone earlier mentioned the Lumia phone with 8.1. Be aware that this is a completely different OS and cannot be compared with the 8.1 that you are looking at. The phone 8.1 has a much smaller footprint.
 

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just to update after using one for these for a couple of days

performance is great (even faster than my laptop), no problems running the apps at all, the only desktop programs I use are the office ones, briefly used these and the don't have issue either
 

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Have you tried running multiple apps? I'm curious in regards to these tablets multitasking ability.
 

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    W10 Pro (desktop), W10 (laptop), W10 Pro (tablet)
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    ASUS TUF Z370-Pro Gaming, HP, MS
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    AMD Radeon RX580, Intel Iris X Graphics, Intel Iris Plus Graphics G4
    Sound Card
    ATI High Definition Audio (Built-in to mobo)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual Samsung U32J59 32 inch monitors, 13.3" display, 12.3" display
    Screen Resolution
    3840x2160 (Desktop), 1920x1080 (laptop), 2736x1824 Pro 7
    Hard Drives
    500GB ssd boot drive with 2 & 10TB Data (Desktop), 512GB ssd (laptop), 128GB SSD (tablet)
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    Antec 100
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    Coolermaster CM 212+
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    IBM Model M - used continuously since 1986
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    Microsoft IntelliMouse
    Internet Speed
    665Mbps/15Mbps down/up
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    FireFox, MS Edge
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    Defender on all
    Other Info
    Retired in 2015 after working in the tech industry for 41 years. First 10 years as a Technician, the rest as a programmer/software engineer. After 1 year of retirement, I was bored so went back to work as a Robotic Process Automation Consultant. Retired for 3rd (and final) time in 2019.
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