I’ve got another cool new gadget in the review lab, so I thought I’d put together another quick unboxing video to show it to you. It’s the Dell Venue 8 Pro and it’s an 8-inch tablet running on Windows 8.1. Many people tend to think about iPads and Android when it comes to tablets, but Microsoft is making a big push to convince us that Windows tablets are just as viable of an option.
Something that I thought was particularly compelling about the Dell Venue 8 Pro is its very reasonable price. The MSRP on the 32GB model is set at $299, but you can already find it on sale for as little as $250. That places it in a similar sort of range as the newer Nexus 7 at the same capacity, but you get real Windows 8 under the hood, as well as a microSD slot for added expansion.
In going through the unboxing process, I was immediately impressed with the overall design and build quality. There’s a great textured back that provides something of a premium feel, which is quite counter to the non-premium price. I’d say the overall build feels better than the Lenovo IdeaPad Lynx we featured in a Dot Com Pho episode a while back and it’s certainly feels more solid than the larger Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. The textured, almost rubberized back here provides better grip than the leatherette back on the 2014 Edition Galaxy Note 10.1 too.
This is Windows 8.1, so if you’re new to Windows 8, you’ll need to take some time to learn the different gestures for navigation and multitasking. In my brief time with the Venue 8 Pro thus far, I have to say that the eight-inch size is quite good for a tablet. It’s big enough of an upgrade over a smartphone, but it’s still small enough to be comfortably held (albeit not operated) with one hand.
The full written review will be going up on MEGATechNews.com in the next little while.
Beware: The Dell Venue 8 Pro uses a USB Micro-A charging port, and Dell ships a USB Micro-B plug. The port is rectangular and the plug is trapezoidal, so it can easily be plugged in either way, and if you plug it in wrong, you can break the fragile pins in the port and permanently brick the device. There’s no other way to charge it.