After 3 iPads I think my next tablet is going to be Windows. That surprises even me, but I played with a HP Stream 8 at the Microsoft store and I'm impressed by how good it is at $179. I'm hoping that by next year we will have a 8" Windows 10 tablet that has a Intel Broadwell processor, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD that is around the size/weight of the current iPad mini. I use my tablet for reading, email, web browsing, watching videos, and work so this would be perfect. MSOffice is surprisingly usable on the small screen with Touch mode enabled. It was amazing to be able to run full fledged applications.
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Windows 10 tablets
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Bear in mind though - it is not full windows but an ARM version. I found myself suddenly wanting to do a lot more with my Windows Tablet (Surface) and couldn't stand the limitations - so ditched it for a Pro .. and sold it because it was too heavy for a tablet.
So ended up with a Galaxy Tab S and it is gorgeous ... So if Office / Web / Mail is all you ever want - then the cheaper windows ones are indeed the right thing - if you are a geek and tend to want more - its not
Actually there are a number of tablets that run the full version of windows and are not ARM based. The OP can find one with a little research.
I myself rock with a surface pro, which is NOT arm based (the plain old surface is)
Oh I know they exist. But it comes at a price - or in this case - weight - and I doubt you can find a full-windows based tablet the size / weight of an iPad Mini
Actually they're out thereOh I know they exist. But it comes at a price - or in this case - weight - and I doubt you can find a full-windows based tablet the size / weight of an iPad Mini
Dell Venue 8 Pro 32GB Signature Edition Tablet
You get an 8" tablet running the full version of windows, for only 199.
I am also excited for a Win 10 tablet. I would rather wait for one that comes with Win 10 out of the bat for the better specs.
Depends upon your definition of "reasonably affordable".
I picked up an 8" Insignia Windows 8.1 Tablet for $99 @ Best Buy. Very solid build quality but the 16GB storage kills it.
The Dell Venue 8 Pro is $199.
HP and Toshiba both have Windows tablets for $129-$300
Yeah, that HP Stream 8 I played around with ran an Intel Atom with full Windows 8.1 (Not RT). Its a little crippled with 1GB RAM and 32GB SSD but for $179 you can't really complain. Especially since it comes with a year of Office365 (normally $99) and lifetime 4G data (200MB quota/mth).
I am going to wait though because I'm waiting for the hardware to catch up with the newly released Intel Broadwell microarchitecture chips. At the very least the Broadwell Y (aka Core M) with a 3.5W TDP will allow light and thin tablets yet with decent x86 performance. I want something the size/weight of say an iPad2 but with a full powered x86-64 performance. Then I can run my full Office and Eclipse.
Actually they're out there
Dell Venue 8 Pro 32GB Signature Edition Tablet
You get an 8" tablet running the full version of windows, for only 199.
I'll be damned
Picked up a TW801 windows tablet from Microcenter a few weeks ago for $119. Quad core cpu, 2gb ram, 32 gb storage, sd card port (up to 128gb card), full size usb3 port, hdmi port, etc. This thing rocks. The hdmi puts out a beautiful picture on my LG 3440x1440 curved monitor. I can run usb drives at high speed through the usb3 port. And interestingly, I can sync up my retina ipad with it through itunes. Has full windows 8.1, ran a ubuntu virtual machine on it to see if I could, runs great. Gets close to ten hours on battery. Overall, incredible deal.
Surprisingly, I'm thinking the same. I'm in school and right I've been using a Nexus 7 (2012) as my text book and document reader. The school is giving us an Office 365 subscription soon, and with my Nexus 7 feeling slow, replacing it with a Windows tablet becomes a no-brainer. That also means I'm going to switch from using Google Drive to store my school work to One Drive. I'm basically going from one month, only using Office for Mac 2011 in the Microsoft eco-system, to spending a good portion of my time in it.
Actually they're out there
Dell Venue 8 Pro 32GB Signature Edition Tablet
You get an 8" tablet running the full version of windows, for only 199.
Lovely. Full desktop Windows on an 8" screen. There are people on this forum complaining because a rumored 12" MacBook Air doesn't have a powerful CPU, and then there are others who think this Atom powered Windows tablet with 2GB of RAM is great. Funny that.
For 199, you're getting a product that has the ability to run windows and all your apps. I think there had to be some sacrifices at that price point. The atom processor falls into that category. I've long wondered how the atom processor stacks up in a tablet. I had an old netbook running on an atom processor, it was slow - very slow. I'm sure things improved a bit but how much, I don't know.
I'm based in the UK but picked one of these up in my local supermarket just before Christmas.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Linx-Tablet-Z3735F-storage-Windows/dp/B00O636WPY
For the price (including the keyboard case) it's a steal. Full Windows 8.1, 2GB RAM, 32GB storage, MicroSD card slot and HDMI out. It also came with a years subscription of Office 365.
For the price the build quality is pretty good too. It has a soft Nexus like back and doesn't feel cheap or creak. Whilst it's not going to replace my iPad, it's great having a little Windows machine in my bag. It runs most things I've thrown at it with no problems at all including my old Steam games, XBMC etc.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Linx-Tablet-Z3735F-storage-Windows/dp/B00O636WPY
For the price (including the keyboard case) it's a steal. Full Windows 8.1, 2GB RAM, 32GB storage, MicroSD card slot and HDMI out. It also came with a years subscription of Office 365.
For the price the build quality is pretty good too. It has a soft Nexus like back and doesn't feel cheap or creak. Whilst it's not going to replace my iPad, it's great having a little Windows machine in my bag. It runs most things I've thrown at it with no problems at all including my old Steam games, XBMC etc.
What's wrong with an Atom powered windows tablet with 2gb RAM? I've got a 8" Asus vivotab Note and I absolutely love the heck out of it. Desktop on 8" may not be great, but you cannot discount the incredible utility of docking it to a monitor/keyboard/mouse and having a FULL computer at your disposal.
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The new Atom processors are a completely different beast than the ones in the old netbooks. Clovertrail was the first iteration in a tablet and it was very decent, but not super great. Baytrail is today's iteration and it will run most anything you throw at it, even photoshop (with smaller files), many modern games at low settings, etc. Cherrytrail is supposed to rival Haswell chips and will remain a good low price alternative to Broadwell when they both get released this year.
The Atoms have come a long way since the netbook days. You can even play Call of Duty: MW3 or Crysis on a $120 tablet (albeit with lower settings). Perfectly playable though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbRqFO86inY
I have a quad core i7, 16GB RAM, nVidia discrete graphics Thinkpad w530 and the $179 HP Stream felt faster loading apps and performing normal tasks, helped no doubt by the SSD vs my 500GB HDD.
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This looks really tempting. I'll pop by Microcenter this weekend and try it out. I used to have to lug around 3xThinkpad T40 to run demos for our clients, which went down to 2xThinkpad T60s, and is now down to 1x w530. With this Winbook and the fact that all our demos now run in the cloud instead of VMs I can just bring along a tiny tablet and run a microHDMI->VGA to the projector.
That's good to know, I may have to pick one up
I have a 100 dollar gift card from MS, so getting a tablet there will be short money
Actually they're out there
Dell Venue 8 Pro 32GB Signature Edition Tablet
You get an 8" tablet running the full version of windows, for only 199.
Yeah, but look at the manufacturer.
Yeah, but look at the manufacturer.
I know, but then there's others as well, like lenovo and what not.
I have heard (and read) good things about the Dell 8" tablet - just because its dell doesn't mean its automatically crap.
So far though I'm happy with my SP3, the 12" tablet is nicely sized.