Suggestions for a sub $500 Windows 8 Tablet

[pparks1]

Hello,

So my company is going to be attending a trade show in February and we want to give away 2 tablets as prizes. We were considering using an iPad, but not all of our software will run on an iPad. The software is designed mostly for Windows, so it will run on any Windows based tablet.

Excluding any Windows RT devices, what are you guys using in the $250 to $500 price range? Thanks in advance.

 

[oscer1]

i have used this one seems nice. Dell Venue 11 pro

 

[pparks1]

I'm looking at the Asus Transformerbook, it's $359, includes Office 2013 Home and Student, it comes with a keyboard, has 64GB of storage, USB 3.0 and the BayTrail quad core Atom CPU. I only wish it had more than 1366x768 resolution.

Amazon.com : ASUS Transformer Book 10.1" T100TA-C1-RD(S) Detachable 2-in-1 Touchscreen Laptop, 64GB (RED) : Computers & Accessories

We have a Venue 11 Pro at work which we got as a gift from a vendor for listening to a spiel. I don't know if we got a dud or not, but it sucks. Compared to our Surface Pro 1, it's slow, it locks up a ton and the fan is almost always running and making quite a bit of noise. We have the Core i5 version of the Dell Venue.

 

[oscer1]

i only tried it a couple times was not mine. i did not have anything to compare too. so might not be the best one out their.

my girlfriend has an asus transformer. its pretty good only thing i dont like about it is the keyboard has a plug that get plugged into tablet. the price has drop conciderably on 1 year that she had it.

 

[visruth]

Recently bought Dell Venue 8 Pro for my sister, it's good for the kind of minimal work she's doing like presentations, browsing, watching movies, music. I think it also include MS office student & home 2013.

 

[pparks1]

I've got an Asus Transformer Book T100TAM that I am playing with right now. It's 2GB of RAM, 64GB of eMMC storage, keyboard, USB 3.0, quad core baytrail, etc. Came with 8.1, ran Windows Update, needed 70 updates. Took over an hour. Runs the OS ok, but updates were painful.

 

[strollin]

I had a Dell Venue 8 Pro and liked it very much. I've never used a Venue 11 but based on my experience with the Venue 8 Pro I would tend to think the one you got was a dud. I ended up getting a Surface Pro 3 which is why I no longer have the Venue 8.

Since it's something you plan to give away it probably doesn't matter but I generally recommend for people to avoid the Win tablets with 32GB of storage. After the OS, a recovery partition and the installed software, there is usually only about 12GB of free space.

 

[pparks1]

Mine was 64gb of storage.

 

[visruth]

I had a Dell Venue 8 Pro and liked it very much.

...I generally recommend for people to avoid the Win tablets with 32GB of storage. After the OS, a recovery partition and the installed software, there is usually only about 12GB of free space.

Strollin , just a doubt, Can't you make OEM Recovery USB or microSD after getting the tab & remove the recovery partition afterwards? Or is creating recovery media impossible?

 

[strollin]

You can certainly do that, my point is that a 32G from the factory has very little free space.

 

[visruth]

Yeah got it.

I had read in dell forums that creating OEM recovery media is nearly impossible in this tab as you need to connect the power adapter while doing it, so in effect there'll be no space for plugging in USB for creating it.
And another thing was that you can't boot from micro SD.

I don't know if that is true. Any experience with making it?

 

[strollin]

I had the 64GB model (along with a 128GB microSD card) so I was not compelled to move the recovery partition to external storage. If you seek out forums specifically dealing with the Venue 8 Pro, there are step-by-step details on how to do it.

The dual use USB (same USB port used for data AND charging) is the Achilles heel of the Venue 8 Pro, IMO. There are ways to get around that, several companies produced adapters to get around it and there was a way to do it using an array of splitters, switches, adapters and cables.

 

[visruth]

I had the 64GB model (along with a 128GB microSD card) so I was not compelled to move the recovery partition to external storage. If you seek out forums specifically dealing with the Venue 8 Pro, there are step-by-step details on how to do it.

The dual use USB (same USB port used for data AND charging) is the Achilles heel of the Venue 8 Pro, IMO. There are ways to get around that, several companies produced adapters to get around it and there was a way to do it using an array of splitters, switches, adapters and cables.

Thanks strolling

I had read few them and may be the one you are thinking of too. But guess what, I just now, plugged in the 8gb USB to my 64gb dell venue 8 pro without any power plugged - and it worked. The recovery USB has been successfully created according to it, whether it works when needed is another thing. Anyway going by your helpful suggestion I had ordered a transcend 64gb class 10 micro sd. I'll decide on what to do with recovery partition later on based on space free after all the Windows updates , Office 2013 installation etc.

I got a office '13 activation key with it in the package but couldn't see any office student and home 2013 in the tab or control panel except for the MS OFFICE APP in the metro screen which I think is for office 365??. How should I be going ahead with the office installation ?

Edit 1: well I just went ahead & activated office though the metro app and office 2013 installed automatically, by downloading from Ms server.

So everything is okay now . Will wait for the the micro sd to expand the storage. And in the mean time, disk clean up.

EDIT 2: All Windows updates done. Disk cleanup with system cleanup gained me 6.5GB from 30gb free space to 36.5gb , wow, that is good storage saver

 

[visruth]

Hi everyone

Got my micro sd installed thanks to strollin

Do this tab have GPS in built, couldn't get any info about it clearly. How do I find out if it has one?

Mine is Dell Venue 8 Pro with WiFi only version.

 

[strollin]

The Dell Venue 8 does NOT have built-in GPS. I used a Bluetooth GPS receiver with MS Streets & Trips software.

 

[visruth]

Ok. Thank you!

 

[jasonbmerrill]

The E-fun nextbook is really unbelievable for the price, even though it must be super low end. Of course, my previous tablet was an Asus Transformer from 3 years ago... so maybe I'm not quite up to date with tablet tech