Tablets My personal review: $150 Dell Venus 8 vs $520 iPad Mini Retina

[Misskitty]

32GB Ipad Mini Retina ($520CDN) vs the 32GB Dell Venus 8 ($150CDN)

I picked up the Dell Venue 8 today, running Android 4.2 (hoping it can run Kit Kat), after I saw the $149 sale price here, it was too good to pass up even just to compare to the mini retina.

I have been on the market for an Android tablet after picking up the Nexus 5 phone last week (converted from a POS iphone 4), which I love and I love the Android OS much more than ios. Obviously the first tab to try was the Nexus 7, which I did, but the 7" screen was just too small and I much prefer 8" otherwise if the Nexus 7 was 8" I would have kept it hands down and returned the ipad mini retina a week ago. Comparing the ipad mini retina to the N7, I just didnt see the value in the ipad mini retina, other than the extra $170 to be a gullable isheep.

Either the ipad mini retina or Dell Venus 8 will be going back as I only want one 8" tab.

Picking this up, I knew it wasnt a high end tablet, and Im not needing a high end tablet. I wanted an Android tab, that runs well and is good value without breaking the bank (*cough cough Apple*). Im still a believer that you dont need to break the bank to own a good quality slate.

Also, being able to run more than 3 tabs in Safari with it crashing 3-4 times a day due to a weak 1GB ram offering on the mini, was sooooooooo nice for a change.

Packaging on the DV8, is just a barebones cardboard box, which to me is fine. I pay for the product, not the box like Apples luxurious over the top Louis Vutton packaging, that probably weighs in at 10% of the product cost.

First impression, nice tab! I really enjoyed the feel, nice and solid build quality. I then powered it on and spent a good 3 hours with it. My overall impressions after 3 hours, is that this tablet is a helluva bargain at $150. $150 for a 32GB full android OS tablet with expandable storage up to 64GB. Honestly, the ipad mini retina feels like a complete rip off in comparison. I could buy almost 4 of these DV8s to one ipad mini retina.

For the money, the screen is excellent. Obviously its not a high end screen, but honestly I did a side by side comparison to my mini retina, and yes the mini is sharper but its not a huge difference that will make me say "hey this screen warrants 3.5 times the cost" I would say the DV8 screen is easily on par with the 1st gen mini, if not a bit sharper. Colours were actually more vibrant on the DV8 than the mini, as they were richer and not washed out, also icons are nice and crisp. Better colour saturation on a device that is 25% of the cost of the mini hmmm.

Pros: You dont have to break the bank for a 8" slate. Vibrant display for the price; Comfortable soft-touch design. Bang for your buck device.

Cons: Older version of Android

The Verdict: The mini retina is $370 more than the DV8. Thats 3.5X! Is it worth $370 more? To me, helllllll no! Double the price? Yes, but 3.5X is a complete fleecing. Its a complete waste of hardware and money to have a fancy dancy 64bit CPU if you have 1GB ram. I just feel the DV8 is a much MUCH better value, even saying that is a huge understatment, its not even a comparison. This device just works. Would you buy a $10 banana when theres ones right next to it for $0.79? Exactly. FOr someone who just wants to browse the web, check email, and play the occasional game, and being able to run more than 3 tabs in Safari or Chrome, and not have to constantly monitor my ram usage, this tab is a solid buy.

Im actually going to be doing some side by side comparisons in the next day and see how the DV8 keeps up with the mini for games. I know it wont match it, but I just want to see the difference. Like I said, you can have a powerhouse tablet, but if it keeps crashing, what good is it?

 

[samiznaetekto]

32GB Ipad Mini Retina ($520CDN) vs the 32GB Dell Venus 8 ($150CDN)

I picked up the Dell Nexus 8, running Android 4.2 (hoping it can run Kit Kat), after I saw the $149 sale price here, it was too good to pass up even just to compare to the mini retina.

I have been on the market for an Android tablet after picking up the Nexus 5 phone last week (converted from a POS iphone 4), and I love the Android OS much more than ios. Obviously the first tab to try was the Nexus 7, which I did, but the 7" screen was just too small and I much prefer 8" otherwise if the Nexus 7 was 8" I would have kept it hands down and returned the ipad mini retina the day after. Comparing the ipad mini retina to the N7, I just didnt see the value in the ipad mini retina, other than the extra $170 to be an isheep.

Either the ipad mini retina or Dell Venus 8 will be going back as I only want one 8" tab.

Picking this up, I knew I wasnt going to get a high end tablet, and Im not needing a high end tablet. I wanted an Android tab, that runs well and is good value without breaking the bank (*cough cough Apple*). And also, being able to run more than 3 tabs in Safari with it crashing 3-4 times a day due to a weak 1GB ram offering on the mini, was very nice for a change.

Packaging on the DV8, is just a barebones cardboard box, which to me is fine. I pay for the product, not the box like Apples luxurious Louis Vutton packaging.

First impression, nice tab! I really enjoyed the feel, nice and solid build quality. I then powered it on and spent a good 3 hours with it. My overall impressions after 3 hours, is that this tablet is a helluva bargain at $150. $150 for a 32GB full android OS tablet with expandable storage up to 64GB. Honestly, the ipad mini retina feels like a complete rip off in comparison. I could buy almost 4 of these DV8s to one ipad mini retina.

For the money, the screen is excellent. Obviously its not a high end screen, but honestly I did a side by side comparison to my mini retina, and yes the mini is sharper but its not a huge difference. I would say the DV8 screen is easily on par with the 1st gen mini, if not a bit sharper. Colours are great, icons are nice and crisp.

Pros: You dont have to break the bank for a 8" slate. Vibrant display for the price; Comfortable soft-touch design

Cons: Older version of Android

The Verdict: The mini retina is $370 more than the DV8. Thats 3.5X! Is the IPMR worth $370 more? To me, its not. Double the price? Yes, but 3.5X is a complete fleecing. I just feel the DV8 is a much better value. FOr someone who just wants to browse the web, check email, and play the occasional light game, this tab is a solid buy.

I agree, it's a great deal. I got Venue 8 Pro with full Windows 8.1 and Office for 99 bucks, what a steal! It's probably the only small tablet out there that you can actually write apps on. For me, as a Windows programmer, it's a dream come true. Sure, Windoze is Windoze and still has tons of quirks, but the sheer power of running ANY desktop software on it is amazing.

Maybe I can even run OS X in virtual machine.

 

[Misskitty]

I agree, it's a great deal. I got Venue 8 Pro with full Windows 8.1 and Office for 99 bucks, what a steal! It's probably the only small tablet out there that you can actually write apps on. For me, as a Windows programmer, it's a dream come true. Sure, Windoze is Windoze and still has tons of quirks, but the sheer power of running ANY desktop software on it is amazing.

Maybe I can even run OS X in virtual machine.

Isnt the Pro a more powerful CPU?

 

[samiznaetekto]

Isnt the Pro a more powerful CPU?

It's quad-core Atom Z3740D @1.33GHz, 2GB of RAM, pretty snappy.

 

[spinedoc77]

I agree, it's a great deal. I got Venue 8 Pro with full Windows 8.1 and Office for 99 bucks, what a steal! It's probably the only small tablet out there that you can actually write apps on. For me, as a Windows programmer, it's a dream come true. Sure, Windoze is Windoze and still has tons of quirks, but the sheer power of running ANY desktop software on it is amazing.

Maybe I can even run OS X in virtual machine.

The OP is talking about the Dell Venue with Android on it, it's a different tablet. Although not to derail too much, IMO the Dell Venue Pro with Windows handily trounces the ipad IMO. Heck, it can even run Android through Bluestacks and it runs it pretty darned nicely.

 

[samiznaetekto]

The OP is talking about the Dell Venue with Android on it, it's a different tablet.

I know, I'm just sharing the excitement of shedding the iSheep skin and getting good deals on great devices.

 

[MRU]

So we are going to compare iPads at full retail price to Dell tablets in a black friday sale pricing ?

That seems a very fair comparison......

 

[balamw]

So we are going to compare iPads at full retail price to Dell tablets in a black friday sale pricing ?

That seems a very fair comparison......

The 16 GB Venue 8 (Android) is regularly $180, and can often be had for $150. While the discussion keeps bringing up the Windows 8.1 Venue Pro (MSRP $299) the OP was making a comparison to the Android vesion.

B

 

[ozaz]

So we are going to compare iPads at full retail price to Dell tablets in a black friday sale pricing ?

That seems a very fair comparison......

Even at their regular price, they're still very compelling.

Dell Venue 8 32GB (Android): $210
Dell Venue 8 Pro 32GB (Win): $299
iPad mini Retina 32GB: $499

 

[MRU]

Even at their regular price, they're still very compelling.

Dell Venue 8 32GB (Android): $210
Dell Venue 8 Pro 32GB (Win): $299
iPad mini Retina 32GB: $499

I agree they are compelling, I was more referring to the poster that said they picked up one for $99 .....

I wish they were as cheap here - sadly they are not - though at €299 its the same price here as the 16GB non retina iPad mini.

I was tempted to get one (for bit of corel painter on the go) when I saw it had a stylus - however after seeing how poorly the stylus performs in comparison to say the Samsung Note devices or Microsoft Surface Pro - I decided against it.

 

[Ccrew]

I know, I'm just sharing the excitement of shedding the iSheep skin and getting good deals on great devices.

Frankly, while I'm agnostic as to OS and device, I can't consider your review even remotely viable given all the "sheep" references. The purpose of a review is to intelligently compare, not bash one side because you chose the other.

 

[AppleRobert]

I never considered it to tell the truth. The price while I agree tempting, you get what you pay for.

http://mobile.pcmag.com/?origref=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%3B_ylt%3DAuOYqmWRi9T_DCrdyn6_CzgzQVxH%3Ftoggle%3D1%26cop%3Dmss%26ei%3DUTF-8%26.tsrc%3Dyfp-hrmob-900%26p%3Ddell%2Bvenue%2B8#!/article/529c9fd3cb0071c99a6afb41-dell-venue-8

And why compare it to an Ipad with so many android tablets out there with good discounted prices? The screen nowadays is a backwards move versus a Fire, Nook, etc and they aren't even the bigger guns in the market.

 

[DeathTheKid]

If Dell has the support they had a couple of years ago, then it is not worth $150. My past laptop and Desktop were Dell's and when you need support like to replace a broken device they leave you high and dry.

 

[RickTaylor]

By itself, the 7.9 inch screen with a 4:3 aspect ratio of the iPad mini was enough to persuade me to choose it over the Nexus 7. While the Dell Venus 8 looks like an improvement in this regard, it's still has a 16:10 aspect ratio, and looks like it has a screen nearly half an inch narrower than the mini. The mini is just wide enough for me to read pdf's comfortably on it, but I wouldn't want to go smaller. Also, wouldn't it be more appropriate to compare the Dell 8 to the original mini, which has a similar resolution? The original mini is still more expensive of course, but the difference isn't as large.

 

[ab2c4]

Glad to hear the DV8 works well. The wife and I just bought one for our son for Christmas. I looked at its specks, read reviews on it and for the price it sure looks like a great value. Hopefully it performs and holds up well, but at the $175 we paid for it, it seems like well worth the chance. I really like that it is almost stock Android. I have a Note 2 phone and I often wish Samsung didn't install so much software on it.

My wife and I recently bought the ipad Air and a Kindle Fire 7 HDX, both of which we are very happy with. I wish I could justify buying it but the LG G Pad 8.3 (both the LG version and the Google Play Edition) is a very tempting tablet to me. The wife's 7" HDX is just too small in my opinion and I think the 8" tablet will be a great size, hence another reason we bought our son the DV8 along which it's price.

 

[ab2c4]

We got the DV8 today and I booted it up for about 15 minutes just to make sure nothing is wrong with it before we wrapped it up for Christmas.

It's a great tablet for the $175 we paid for it. The screen is decent for 1280x800, speakers are pretty good, and while not quite as fast as my ipad Air there definitely wasn't any lag while using it and it was plenty fast enough and smooth. Although it's not quite stock Android, it's pretty darn close and I really like that.

Lastly, it feels really good in your hand. The rubber back made it very comfortable to hold and provided just enough grip to it. This is one change I wish Apple would make to the iPads. I don't like the aluminum back on my Air to be honest, it makes it kind of slippery to hold unless I have it in a case.

 

[BigHonkingDeal]

The OP is talking about the Dell Venue with Android on it, it's a different tablet. Although not to derail too much, IMO the Dell Venue Pro with Windows handily trounces the ipad IMO. Heck, it can even run Android through Bluestacks and it runs it pretty darned nicely.

I have the Dell Venue 8 pro, an iPad Air, Nexus 7 and a Kindle Fire.... Typing this on the Dell right now. But when all is said and done I still prefer the IPad in overall experience.

 

[spinedoc77]

I have the Dell Venue 8 pro, an iPad Air, Nexus 7 and a Kindle Fire.... Typing this on the Dell right now. But when all is said and done I still prefer the IPad in overall experience.

Yeah it's nice to have choices.

 

[sjinsjca]

I never considered it to tell the truth. The price while I agree tempting, you get what you pay for.

http://mobile.pcmag.com/?origref=ht...article/529c9fd3cb0071c99a6afb41-dell-venue-8

And why compare it to an Ipad with so many android tablets out there with good discounted prices? The screen nowadays is a backwards move versus a Fire, Nook, etc and they aren't even the bigger guns in the market.

Try http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2427743,00.asp

Agreed... you'll find this unit in the cutout bin for a reason. Not a bad tablet... for 2012. For many folks it'd be adequate.

 

[Tinmania]

Frankly, while I'm agnostic as to OS and device, I can't consider your review even remotely viable given all the "sheep" references. The purpose of a review is to intelligently compare, not bash one side because you chose the other.

"All" the sheep references in his review? Try just one.

Talk about exaggerating.


Michael

 

[BigHonkingDeal]

Yeah it's nice to have choices.

I will say this after using the dell for the last few days.... even though windows 8 still needs a lot of work it feels like they are moving in the right direction. I'm not sure that I can say the same about IOS.

 

[Ccrew]

"All" the sheep references in his review? Try just one.

Talk about exaggerating.

"other than the extra $170 to be an isheep."
"I pay for the product, not the box like Apples luxurious over the top Louis Vutton packaging"

2 out of the gate without the rest of the negative references. Go study journalism. A review is supposed to be an equal comparison, not stuffed full of personal biases.

From: Someone that works in the technical journalism field.

 

[Dontazemebro]

"other than the extra $170 to be an isheep."
"I pay for the product, not the box like Apples luxurious over the top Louis Vutton packaging"

2 out of the gate without the rest of the negative references. Go study journalism. A review is supposed to be an equal comparison, not stuffed full of personal biases.

From: Someone that works in the technical journalism field.

For someone who works in tech journalism, you should have noticed that the person you quoted is not the OP.

And I'm referring to the person you originally quoted.

 

[Ccrew]

For someone who works in tech journalism, you should have noticed that the person you quoted is not the OP.

And I'm referring to the person you originally quoted.

Actually, the two in quotes were from the OP and quoted in response to Tinmania saying there was only *one reference.

Have a nice day!

 

[Tinmania]

"other than the extra $170 to be an isheep."
"I pay for the product, not the box like Apples luxurious over the top Louis Vutton packaging"

2 out of the gate without the rest of the negative references. Go study journalism. A review is supposed to be an equal comparison, not stuffed full of personal biases.

From: Someone that works in the technical journalism field.

You must not be very good at it: you were 100% incorrect in asserting the OP used "sheep" repeatedly. Your rebuttal doesn't do anything to prove otherwise. The second quote, above, has absolutely nothing to do with calling anyone "sheep."

Now we have exaggeration along with not owning what you wrote. Bravo.


Michael