I was asked for my opinion on the price of the Dell Venue 8 7000 just after it was announced and all I could think of was the nice looking Lenovo Tab S8 which is very similar, for about $199. After handling the Dell Venue 8 7000 I now see a product worth much more than that. The amazing OLED 2K screen is punchy and sharp. The 6mm thin design is light and stylish and the 3 additional Realsense snapshot cameras offer some interesting options for photographers. In this video you’ll see some of those features being demonstrated.

After talking to a number of people about the Dell Venue 8 700 I know know the following.

• It will be available in November.
• There will be an LTE version. (Intel 7260)
• It runs on Merrifield (Intel |Z35xx-series)
• The screen is  2K resolution OLED
• The base configuration will be 2GB RAM and 16GB storage
• An SDK will be released but it’s looking like early 2015 before developers can create apps

Youll find out more in the video after the images…

This is the competition for 8-inch Windows tablets in the consumer space, and it’s good. Thin, fast, full HD and coming with an LTE voice and data option for an extra 50 Euros.  The Lenovo Tab S8 runs Android KitKat on an Intel Atom Z3745 quad-core CPU.

I had an overnight session with the Lenovo Tab S8 before the Lenovo press event at IFA today and I was really impressed with the value-for-money. Like Windows 8 tablets it’s not something you’ll slip into your pocket but  it’s thinner and lighter than any Windows 8 tablet. The Full HD screen looks bright and punchy and there’s a familiar user interface.

In terms of performance browsing felt really fast although it seems it’s attributable to the LTE I was using at the time. A Peacekeeper score of 1055 is slightly less than we see on Windows and that could be due to browser capabilities although I did use Chrome for the test. Sunspider came in at 668 ms and the Octane Score was 5406.

The 8MP camera my not be up to the standards of the latest smartphones but it’s not bad and it beats most Windows 8 tablet cameras I’ve tested. There’s an FM radio and, in the LTE version, voice calling, SMS and of course, data. The dual front-facing speakers are loud and clear.

There’s no HDMI port but you’ve got the standard MicroSD, MicroUSB and headset ports.

There’s no substitute for a full review to find out if the Lenovo Tab S8 is as good as it seems but when it comes to consumers, maybe that’s not the point. The specs are good, it looks good, Android is good and when that full HD screen is popping at the local mall it’s going to look irresistible at $199. The jump to LTE at 250 is something I’m considering myself given that there are few Windows LTE options available and none at this price.

While ‘adventurers’ know and care about the difference between Windows and Android when it comes to your average consumer, the Lenovo Tab S8 is going to be a lot more appealing. Here’s my Lenovo Tab 8 image gallery. The video is embedded below…

Looking for a sub $200 Tablet PC option? The Toshiba WT8 is $193 at Amazon.com today but the newer, lighter Toshiba Encore 2 WT8 is $192. This Windows with Bing PC arrives for testing tomorrow and I’m looking forward to it. What features have been stripped out of this Bing version of Windows? Is the new platform better? Is there significantly more available storage space or is this 1GB RAM limit going to negate any of the potential improvements? With the original Windows 8.1 8-inch tablets also at the $200-$220 mark, why bother with the Encore 2?

Two important things to note about Windows with Bing are that 1) You don’t get an Office Home and Student license and 2) There’s only single language support. The latter may not affect many people (except myself – someone that relies on this for purchasing tablets in Germany and switching them to the English language) and the former is offset by a one Year Office 365 Personal license. You get Ooutlook included in that and you also get, in theory,  1TB of free online storage for the year. There may be other changes too.

There’s a 5.0MP auto-focus rear camera which could be useful if it’s as good as the one on the original WT8, microSD support up to 128GB and stereo speakers. As with the WT8 there’s no HDMI so you’ll need Miracast or DLNA support to stream movies to a bigger screen.

If the Toshiba Encore 2 wants to be a competitor in the western market for tablet PCs it needs to beat the class-leading Dell Venue 8 Pro in features or undercut it by a big margin. This launch price isn’t enough to convince me but if the device checks out in my review for Notebookcheck and the price drops to $175 or less then it could be worth a closer look.

I was very sad to read news on Friday that Lenovo was getting out of the small screen tablet market. It turns out, however, that it’s not true. Lenovo issued a press release yesterday stating that they  “are not getting out of the small-screen Windows tablet business.” In addition to that they stated that they will have a new 8-inch and a new 10-inch Windows tablet ready for the holidays.

This is great news because it supports my theory that 8-inch Windows tablets haven’t done badly at all. While I believe that the innovation will be focused in the 10-13-inch tablet space over the next years the Dell Venue 8 Pro popularity, recent announcements from Microsoft and my own experience tells me that the 8-inch tablets aren’t bad at all. At $225 the Dell Venue 8 Pro is an absolutely brilliant tablet and as I cycle through them in my daily use, I can’t say that any of them are bad.

Lenovo Press release.

While new models are in the pipleline Lenovo did say that the Thinkpad 8 is now longer for sale in the US. The Miix 2 8 is out of stock right now too so let’s hope we get that one back on the shelves soon.

So let’s continue to think about low-end, mid-range and the high-end ultra-mobile PC space.

Info via GigaOM

I recently wrote about what a late-2014 high-end 8-inch Windows tablet could offer. I talked about Intel’s Realsense camera technology, 3G, USB3.1, 1080p screens and AC WiFi. A digitizer and additional access security could be interesting too but is there a market for these high-end features in the 8-inch sector? Could Microsoft create a market with a Surface Mini and a really special technical feature?

Read the full story

The new Toshiba Encore 2 tablets have launched. An 8-inch model, the Encore 2 8, will start at $199. The 10-inch Toshiba Encore 2 10 will be $269

The two tablets were announced by Toshiba today and they have a whole new set of specifications. Down goes the launch price but so do the specs in some areas.

The 8-inch tablet has been reported to start with just 1GB of RAM on a quad-core CPU (likely the Z3735F or Z3735D) with a screen resolution of 1280×800. 1GB will be fine for working within the Modern UI but will certainly cause problems for people wanting to do extensive desktop or browser-based application activity.

Full specifications haven’t been revealed yet but here’s what we’ve got so far.

• 1280×800 resolution touchscreen on both models.
• Quad Core Atom CPU (likely Z3735 series.)
• 1GB RAM (at least on the 8-inch model. Information isn’t clear at this stage.)
• 2GB RAM (on entry level Windows 10 model. There may options for 64GB and 2GB on the 8-inch model.)
• 32 or 64GB storage options.
• Micro SD card on both models.
• Audio jack
• Wireless display
• Micro HDMI on the 10-inch model only.
• Office 365 one year license provided. (Note that a Modern UI version of Office would require a 365 license so this could have more value in the near future.)
• ‘10 hour’ battery.
• 5MP rear cam, 1.2MP front.
• Dolby Digital Plus audio processing.
• Windows 8.1 with Bing (without Office)
• Size of 10-inch: 258,8 x 175 x 8,98 mm. Weight of 10-inch model: 555 grams / 1.2 pounds (This would make it one of the lightest 10-inch Windows tablets.)
• Size of 8-inch: 210,62 x 132 x 9,48 mm. Weight of 8-inch model: 385 grams

Unknown specifications

• Battery size?
• TPM?
• Connected Standby?

As the first official Windows 8 tablets with the refreshed Baytrail-T platform and the new licensing deal with Windows 8.1 + Bing they don’t have any direct peers to compare against yet. An early launch before Computex could well be a good move because we’ve got a hunch that there’ll be products using the same platform launching there for less than this.

Both products will be available in early July.

The 10-inch Encore 2 tablet will be available for purchase in early July at select retailers and on toshiba.com/us , starting at $269.99. 544 grams (1.2 pounds) MicroHDMI, MicroUSB 2.0

The 8-inch Encore 2 tablet will be available for purchase in early July at select retailers and on toshiba.com/us, starting at $199.99. MicroUSB 2.0

The Microsoft Surface Pro 3 was launched yesterday. It’s an ultra-mobile Ultrabook…without a keyboard, but impressive nonetheless. I’ve written an editorial for Ultrabooknews that you might want to check out. Readers here, however, may have been more interested in a Microsoft Surface Mini. It didn’t happen.

Read the full story

$214 for an Acer Iconia W4. $229 for a Dell Venue 8 Pro. $193 for a Toshiba Encore WT8. $220 for a Lenovo Miix 2 8. And that’s just the Amazon.com prices. The bargain though is the Acer Iconia W4 64GB at $259.

We’ve seen some offers on 8–inch Windows tablets before but they were short-lived and mainly for hype-generation but it looks like prices have been pushed down permanently now as all the 8-inch tablets compete against each other. Prices at the Microsoft Store are also discounted but not as much as through some resellers at Amazon. The best deal I could find was the Acer Iconia W4 with 64GB sold by Amazon.com for $259.99. The Acer W4 has an HDMI port, good battery life, great screen and comes with a USB OTG adaptor cable so you can get going with USB accessories right out of the box. There’s a range of accessories too. Yeah, it’s not the thinnest or lightest but it’s very capable. For a thin and light solution either the Dell Venue 8 Pro or the Lenovo Miix 2 8. Given the slightly better screen and WiFi on the Dell, the $229 price for a 32GB version is still very good.

Windows 8 Tablets at Amazon.com

While prices for the current generation of tablets are good, where are the promised $99 tablets? The Onda V819i Android tablet running on a Z7935D at about $130 (local price conversion) is said to be getting a free Windows 8 ‘sidegrade’ but as yet I’ve seen nothing about availability although there is this demo video available. (Via)

Apart from this, clearly local information, there’s nothing to be seen in the US and European markets yet.

We’ll keep an eye on pricing and evidence of Z3795-based Windows 8 tablets. Right now it seems that the only action is with Android. The latest Tesco Hudle 2 could be one of them so keep an eye on pricing because the bill of materials for the Android and Windows versions are the same. The Hudle 2 is said to be coming in late Q3.