Atom Bay Trail vs Atom Clover Trail Windows tablets

[ozaz]

I tried a Clover Trail (Intel Atom Z2xxx series) Windows tablet back in early 2013, and performance on the desktop was too sluggish even for relatively simple tasks. I soon gave up.

Do any of you have a more recent Bay Trail (Intel Atom Z3xxx series) Windows tablet? How do you find the performance on the desktop? Am particularly keen to hear from anyone who has experienced both a Clover Trail and a Bay Trail tablet.

I'm asking because I'm thinking about trying a Windows tablet again. I'm not looking to replace my laptop, or try to do any heavy work on the tablet (so not so keen on a pricey Surface). I'd see it as more of an alternative, smaller travel device that I'd use when I don't need the power or screen real-estate of my laptop, but may want to be able to do more work than I could manage with my iPad.

The Windows tablet I'm considering is the Acer Aspire Switch 10

 

[spinedoc77]

You had a bad clovertrail tablet, I owned 7 or 8 of them and found them very snappy and ran most everything I threw at them, but with intensive things and especially disk transfers clovertrail did have issues. I ran photoshop on mine and it worked decently, although I never loaded a large file or did much work on it.

Anyway, Baytrail is MUCH stronger, it's an amazing CPU. I've owned 3 or 4 of them and really IMO there is not much need for a Core tablet unless you are doing some very intensive work. I don't know much if anything about the acer aspire tablet as I used the Dell venue 11 pro, dell venue 8 pro, asus t100, Asus vivotab note 8 at one time or another.

I eventually ended up with a surface pro 3, I just found the form factor, larger screen, kickstand and magnetic keyboard was much more convenient than the varying solutions each baytrail vendor had. I couldn't be any happier. But baytrail is a VERY good decision IMO. Keep in mind also that Cherry trail the next atom iteration is coming soon, maybe this holiday season.

 

[ozaz]

Thanks for the input.

I think I'll give the Acer a try. I really like the look of the keyboard integration (I think good keyboard integration is crucial for a Windows 8 tablet). Aside from performance, the other reason I got rid of my previous Clover Trail Windows 8 tablet was because I found using a generic bluetooth-based folio keyboard to be a massive hassle that also made the tablet really bulky.

Due to its price, if I went for the SP3 it would have to be as a laptop replacement rather than a secondary device. I'm not sold on it for this usage yet because I've never enjoyed using 12" laptops in the past. But maybe the unique screen ratio of the SP3 will help with this. I'll check it out when it's available in stores in the UK.

 

[spinedoc77]

Thanks for the input.

I think I'll give the Acer a try. I really like the look of the keyboard integration (I think good keyboard integration is crucial for a Windows 8 tablet). Aside from performance, the other reason I got rid of my previous Clover Trail Windows 8 tablet was because I found using a generic bluetooth-based folio keyboard to be a massive hassle that also made the tablet really bulky.

Due to its price, if I went for the SP3 it would have to be as a laptop replacement rather than a secondary device. I'm not sold on it for this usage yet because I've never enjoyed using 12" laptops in the past. But maybe the unique screen ratio of the SP3 will help with this. I'll check it out when it's available in stores in the UK.

I can't blame you, what's the aspire like $349 with the keyboard? You can't beat that. I was looking at some reviews and it looks quite cheaply made, and I can't say I've had much luck with Acer products, but hell you can afford to buy 2 of these and still be cheaper than a SP3.

That has been my issue with Atom tablets, they each have their flaws depending on the manufacturer. There is a certain cheapness to them because the OEM's are trying to squeeze out a profit from them. That's not to say they don't function, because they do in spades, but you are taking a little bit of a trade off in quality IMO. Still, that's kind of obvious to say when looking at the difference in price.

Post up a review when you get it, sounds very interesting.

 

[ozaz]

Yeah. It's really cheap. Since its a bit of an experiment for me, that's partly why I've chosen it.

$359/$399 for the 32GB/64GB variants. £289/£325 in the UK. Plus Amazon UK is running a promotion at the moment where you get a £50 Amazon gift card with every purchase of either this tablet or the Asus T100. Since I regularly shop at Amazon, I'm effectively getting the 64GB version for £275.

I'll post some thoughts once I've used it for a bit.

 

[Billy95Tech]

Anyway, Baytrail is MUCH stronger, it's an amazing CPU. I've owned 3 or 4 of them and really IMO there is not much need for a Core tablet unless you are doing some very intensive work. I don't know much if anything about the acer aspire tablet as I used the Dell venue 11 pro, dell venue 8 pro, asus t100, Asus vivotab note 8 at one time or another.

Does the "Baytrail" Atom CPU can handle haevy demanding tasks like Video editing?

For example if i edit/make a video with Windows movie maker about once a week. will the "Baytrail" Atom be good enough for that.

Or using I5 core or M Core Windows 8 tablet would be the way to go still at the moment.

 

[sunking101]

My girlfriend was looking at the Acer with the Atom and 32GB MMC drive. It's a nice looking gadget but install a few Windows updates and your 32GB flash drive will be full. What good is that? It also only has the bare minimum of RAM (2GB).
I advised her to get the Acer V3-112p which is a tiny and extremely portable 11.6" laptop. It has the Haswell-based dual core Atom processor, a proper keyboard, touchscreen, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive. Much more kit for the money and a lot more usable IMO.