7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

In my view this deserved a thread all to itself. Intel has attempted several times at cracking the mobile market be it with MIDS or UMPCS. Unlike previous attempts this generation doesn't have the battery life and cost problems of previous generations. Most UMPCs were lucky to get 5 hours of battery life, with newer Intel Atom chips you can get much more. 7 and 8 Inch Windows tablets retail for 100 - 300 dollars with a free copies of Office an incredible value considering UMPCS were 500+ dollars and netbooks were 300+ dollars. Not only were UMPCs very expensive they also were limited to very small companies not so well companies, where as modern 7 or 8 inch Windows tablet have many manufactures both mainstream and indepedent. Despite many Windows Tablets having 7 or 8 inch screens they are just portable as older devices due to small bezels and bodies. I can still fit a 8 inch tablet in my pocket.

Why a desktop OS on such a small device? For one thing Desktop user interface aren't that bad to use on such a small device. But a desktop OS has much better web browsing due to better plugin support such as adobe flash and other features. Desktop OSes also have better game libraries and better emulators, with newer Intel Atom chips gaming becomes much more a real possibility. Even though some apps have been ported to mobiles, many mobile versions of apps lack functionality found in desktop versions. There is better peripheral and accessory support on a desktop os. There is also artistic applications like sketchbook pro, mypaint, artrage, or Krita. Office apps are much better on the desktop. Having a full OS unlocks all sorts of potential.

Many 8 inch Windows tablets support stylus functionality through an active digitizer which is a deciding feature for me.

None of the current Windows tablets offer built in keyboards but bluetooth keyboards are sufficient replacements.

7 and 8 inch Windows tablet due have limitations. Most smaller Windows tablets only have 1gb or 2gb of Ram. Most smaller Windows tablets only have 1280x800 screens, with some exceptions. Plus Windows can take up significant storage space. Not deal breakers for me but must be kept in mind. So always buy tablets with higher ram and storage configurations and have micro sd card available. Hopefully future hardware addresses these limitations.

I think I will replace my Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 with an 8" Windows tablet with active digitizer when I feel the need to truly replace it. Though I will probably wait for the next generation of hardware.

There literally dozens of models but these ones Interest Me

Pipo W5
http://liliputing.com/2014/11/pipo-w...ws-tablet.html
Vido W8s
http://tablet-news.com/2014/08/19/vi...n-the-package/
Fujitsu Stylistic Q335
http://microsoft-news.com/fujitsu-st...let-announced/
Asus Vivotab Note 8
http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/06/asus-vivotab-note-8/
Dell Venue 8 Pro (Synatiks wrather than wacom stylus)
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/...y-want-to-buy/
Potential Future Toshiba Encore 2 Write
http://liliputing.com/2014/09/toshib...ws-tablet.html
HP Stream 7
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8760/hp-stream-7-review
Panasonic FM-Z1, Rugged 7 inch Windows Tablet with special capactive touch that enables stylus input without a digitizer. Core i series options available
http://www.techradar.com/us/reviews/...c=rss&attr=all
http://www.ruggedpcreview.com/mt/arc...the_iphon.html
http://www.panasonic.com/business/to...blet-fz-m1.asp
Toshiba Encore WT7
http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/03/t...indows-tablet/

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

I am just looking for a good tablet with good implementation of wacom stylus, but nothing.

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

Yup, well, my observation is that Windows is a bit better than
Android in a tablet format,
but it is still the same stifling Windows.
With all the broken Tuesdays you can stand...
-
That said,
(Speaking from having poked around inside)
You might be advised to stay as far away as you can
from anything that says SoC
and get something that has a real CPU (core i3, i5 , or i7)
Try to make certain that the comms chips are not,
repeat - NOT - Broadcom.
And be careful about accepting a unit
that has a single USB port for charging-and-connectivity.
+
I almost considered the Panasonic Toughpad FZ-M1
except for that last point
I have weeks of blisters from trying to live with
a Windows pad that has only a single USB port,
and to say that I loathe the thing would be an understatement.
I call it my tablet for onion-chopping now.

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

Same as avove comment ;)

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

A core I series makes sense for something bigger and closer to laptop size, but an Intel Atom is plenty capable. Plus an Intel Atom enables lower power, higher battery life, less cost, and smaller sizes.

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

Answering the obligatory question of running crysis. To answer the question yes! Crysis can run with reasonable performance on Intel atom provided setting are reduced.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP0kXGRJGFQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeRXxmVxUX0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryaNlslwOD0
Civilization Brave New World
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIw1NoNo5_4
Civilization V Beyond Earth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_noljl5wHg

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

A mobile device with a keyboard would mean that shortcuts would work wonders with a keyboard-driven interface. Not to mention that the stylus is pretty nifty.

I suppose the only deal-breaker for me when it comes to these Windows tablets is...well...Windows. Despite not sharing the same architecture as a PC, the Pyra pretty much has me covered when it comes to the same kind of functionality. I know I can load a Linux distro on it, but what's the point of buying a Windows computer if I'm gonna do that anyway?

I do take issue with some of these claims though:

I agree, but it really depends on the device. A Windows tablet's saving grace (or, rather, the reason for its existance) is the keyboard cover. So yeah, a UI such as the Windows desktop or GNOME or what-have-you would work out nicely.

Actually, that's something I should mention. I REALLY don't like how compact the keys are on the Windows tablet cover. It's my preference to have the keys spaced out on a non-thumb-driven keyboard.

Flash is still available on ARM through the appropriate libraries, and it's easy to get the Pepper plugin for Chromium. Even so, Flash isn't a common sight on mobile devices on grounds that it's simply not needed as it were 4 years ago. Hell, I don't even have Flash installed on my computer.

Otherwise, I do agree that desktop browsers have better plugin support (although I'm not sure if that will be the case for long with Firefox, since it's looking to gain more and more interoperability by the day).

Completely agreed on the game libraries. That's not even a question. However, I'd rather not play a game like Civilization with such a small screen. In fact, most of the games I'd want to play on a proper PC I'd either want a bigger screen or better specs (of which I can control). I'd also want to be able to play all day. No way I'm getting a day out of a Windows tablet playing Civilization without plugging it in.

As for emulators, you may have a point with Gamecube/PS2 (although even that seems to be changing as well), but you could run the majority of pre-PS1/N64 emulators on a toaster. PCSX reARMed is highly optimized now, and can run on a wide variety of mobile devices (just look at the Pandora). Same for Reicast (somewhat).

Such as? Sure, for consumption-oriented devices/OSes, that's definitely the case. However, one can definitely get LibreOffice4 for Debian Wheezy ARM in a heartbeat (+all the features/issues the latest build comes with). As the planet's becoming more mobile-oriented, this is changing.

Only by the nature of most mobile devices is this true. As demonstrated by Texas Instruments, Hardkernel's ODROID boards (and various other single-board computers for that matter), and Linux as a whole, this is drastically changing.

The Pandora has Sketchbook, MyPaint, and GIMP as well. On a Windows tablet, those apps work a lot better because of bigger screen+better stylus though, so if you mean that it's better to have those apps on a device like the Windows tablet, then I agree.

However, that would only be by nature of working on a tablet, not the OS.

Only by nature of having a larger screen and a proper keyboard. Again, one can get LibreOffice4 for ARM. And, if you have a powerful-enough single-board ARM computer to run KDE proper, then you can get the entire Calligra suite as well.

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

I wasn't comparing Linux on ARM to a similar os on x86. Most phones ship with Android which has somewhat limited capabilities compared to a desktop os on either ARM or x86. A device with a full linux os or something similar on an ARM processor is definitely worth using. The problem with the PYRA as nice as it is, it isn't widely available or purchasable and probably costs more than a 7 inch or 8 inch windows tablet.

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

Dell Venue 8 Pro running Ubuntu on a Live USB
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WrRngZ4giE
Fedlet is a Fedora Linux distro with support for Intel Atom tablet
https://www.happyassassin.net/fedlet...trail-tablets/
https://plus.google.com/+AdamWilliam...ts/KcpHJ1LiPjN
A video of Fedlet running. The main issues with running Linux on an Intel Atom tablet are 32 bit UEFI (some distros support and it can be manually added), touchscreen optimization (no built in virtual keyboard and other features) and drivers for certain things (not as bad as it used to be and getting better).

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

http://www.sammobile.com/2014/12/23/...4-mobile-dram/
A sneak peak of what next gen hardware could look like. Intel atom tablets don't use conventional ram modules and use mobile ram like arm processors do. With 4gb ram in mass production then smaller Windows tablets can have more ram and overcome the 2gb ram limitation and it also means smaller Windows tablets will eventually ship with 64 bit windows and 64 bit firmware.

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

More Intel Atom Tablet gaming.
Starcraft 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3Yi3RKknDw
Quake 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7O4antw168
Civilization 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtMojoKwagI

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

http://liliputing.com/2014/12/hp-pro...n-support.html
This Tablet also interests me. It is an 8 inch tablet with 2gb ram, a slightly newer intel atom the Z3736F and a active digitizer pen. I looked at the HP product sheet and the pen appears to be a synaptics digitizer as the pen on product sheet is similar to the Dell Venue 8/10 pro pen. It could also be an atmel active digitizer. Either way it looks like the Wacom and N-trig has been broken. We should see more windows tablets at CES.

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

For some reason, all these WindowsRT and Windows 8.1 tablets have been a big let down.
Common problems have been:
- build quality
- thickness
- weight
- battery life
- low memory
- slow processor
- screen quality

And when those downsides are not negated, then there is the issue of Windows. Its legacy support is great, but doesn't bode well for touch. But when you go to use the touch ui, the learning curve is stupendous. Much much worse than Android, which is touted as "not great" at least in comparison to iOS. On top of this, once you pass that learning curve all you see are the cracks in the armour. You keep scratching your head why they designed things that certain way because it makes no sense and is very counter intuitive.

I think at this point if the average person wants personal electronics get a:
- smartphone (iPhone 6, SGS4 or better)
- an iPad (cheap iPad 2, iPad mini 2, iPad Air 2)
- a laptop (Macbook Air/Pro Retina, Yoga Pro, XPS 13, Acer S7, Ativ, Elitebook, etc)

The hybrid revolution never quite happened.

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

I am the last person ever to say anything positive about windozy-things, but there are some who are pretty satisfied.
My wife uses an Asus W8.1 tablet (with some atom-i-dont-remember-whatsoever-cpu) and she is quite happy with it.

I made it pretty clear from the start I will be not maintaining/administring it for her because Windows is poison for my soul and I would die if I touched the thing. She has managed quite well with it herself.


My list on what an user really should get is:
- smartphone; The Jolla device
- tablet: The Jolla tablet
- laptop: a secondhand Lenovo T60 (or X60s if you want a smaller one)

Anything else is waste of your money and bad for your health.

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

Dude, I get where you're coming from but the point was from an average consumers point of view.

Lenovo T60... sure Windows7 is not too sucky, but this thing is aged bro. And not aged like wine, but like milk. Better to settle for something from 2012 (Ivy Bridge) and up. Upgrading of 2 years (and up) can ensure you upgrade at the major release, ie the tick of the "tick tock cycle".

Jolla Tablet is vaporware as far as the average consumer is conserned.

Jolla phone is small, slow, hard to get, difficult support, little third party interested as far as the average consumer is concerned. Its a very small niche. Blackberrys, Symbian, webOS, FirefoxOS, Ubuntu Phone.... all niche.

In fact, its hard to even recommend a Windows Phone 8.1 device.

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

Why I advocate those older Lenovo T* models is because the build quality of those devices is terrific; most of the laptops that are specced with "modern" chipsets are really crappy when regarding the display, keyboard and the general toughness of the devices.
If you desire real quality you need to shell out way ove 2000 euros.

And well why would you want to use any version of Windows is really behind my comprehension. The device I'm typping this with is running Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS for example...


So can you tell me why an user would want to select a system that is "not-a-niche-product", what benefit would that bring to you?

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

[Edit] Sorry offtopic..

Woah exactly same set what I have/am going to have! Expect I have one first hand T60 and one got for free from defense forces. I recommend also!:3

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

I used to use openSUSE as stable, and Fedora for experiment.
Family all used Windows (98, XP, 7).
Uni had Macs (OSX) and Windows.

Then life kicks in, and I found myself getting more and more frustrated with somethings in linux distros. Mainly drivers, and some browser problems. And occassionally having to dig/research things to do stuff. Though most of my frustration was with Fedora. Then openSUSE really slacked off/fell behind Ubuntu and Fedora (although I still say they're the best :P). And I really hate Unity/whatever direction Ubuntu is going.

So after all that, I got a Windows 7 laptop and just being using that as my main computer. I later realized it was superior simply for the fact that I could do some things for work, and got leave earlier from work. Just upload it from my house wifi when I got home.

Soon after I noticed my N900 was collecting dust and failed to start. Got a new battery and it didn't work. Managed to fix it thanks to TMO and played around with it again. Then later noticed it was picking up dust again. And when I got the OG NOTE, I've pretty much been experimenting with it. So whatever time I had for experimenting the desktop computer and N900, has gone into work and just playing around with the NOTE (and later note 3).

Linux just got too tedious for me.
And I didn't really have any friends who were interested in it.
They all used Macbooks or Windows, and had iPhones or GalaxyS'.

Oh, I also started playing video games, I bought a PS3... so that too.


To fill a niche purpose.

I [The Average Consumer] wouldn't buy a Windows Phone, they're simply inferior. But I could justify getting a Lumia 1020 for its camera purposes.

I wouldn't buy a Blackberry, but if it was necessary for a work network, then yeah its justified.

I wouldn't buy a Jolla Tablet, but if I'm interested in linux, or developing as a hobby, then yeah I would.

I don't know if that clarifies it. If my mum wanted a tablet, I wouldn't get her the Jolla Tablet, I'd get her the iPad. etc etc.

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

I have had a kind of opposite way-to-go :)

Long time ago, in the early nineties I used Windows, both at home and at work. I had also installed Linux in a computer at home and played with it a lot on the side, but my main computers were running various windows releases, from NT3.51 and later NT4.0, W95 and W98.
(and my first Linux was slackware, when kernel was still ~0.9 something)

The last Windows version I used was XP, and I think I gradually stopped using that around -04 or something. Linux had grown up so that it filled my desktop needs at work too, and at some point I also convinced my wife to switch using Linux.
(on the spring of 2000 I had switched jobs, and started to work on a department that did all the SWDEV on linux servers anyway, so desktop machine was just for the documentation, surfing, etc stuff)

My Linux distro history is something like this; Slackware -> RedHat -> Debian -> Ubuntu
(and I am still running Debian on my server machines, desktops are Ubuntu)

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

http://www.cnet.com/products/toshiba...-write-8-inch/
THe product from the Intel slide is real. It looks cool.

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

That might be the tablet I land on. Seems pretty nice, finally a nice tablet that seems cheap enough with wacom tablet support.

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XInP9lLHUJI
A hands on with the 10" version.

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

http://liliputing.com/2015/01/asus-u...notebooks.html
The Asus Chi 90 looks like a Sony Vaio P series.

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

I like ASUS'es, good keyboards, trackpads, quality and support.

$299 seems cheap for a tablet AND keyboard.
The only problem is lack of storage (64GB, its almost all full) and the sucky Windows 8.1 OS.

But I sort of like the specs of 12.5 inch screen, 2560 x 1440 resolution, Core M processor, Tablet, Pen and Keyboard layout. I hope there's options for 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, and that it has all the standard. Hopefully it won't cost too much, $999 seems like a fair target.

Let's see what Lenovo and Apple bring to the table.
And maybe those other players too (Acer, Toshiba, HP, Dell etc).

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

Portege or Encore 2?

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

That Asus Chi series doesn't mention microSD. That's a deal breaker - well that and it's running 32-bit Windows 8.1 instead of 64-bit. To be honest, once Windows 10 comes out, I'll see how well they've sorted out touch controls because it's an real unhappy mix in Windows 8.1.

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

Another hands on video with the Toshiba Encore Write 2, this video also includes the 8 inch version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPhtjZ1B_yA

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

The Dell Venue 8 7000 looks amazing! I wonder if this one has stylus support? If yes, I'll definitely get this instead of the Toshiba Encore 2

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

http://liliputing.com/2015/01/toshib...ng-europe.html
Toshiba made a competitor to the Asus Chi T90, with the features missing from the Asus Chi T90.

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/20/78...of-new-tablets
HP made several Android and Windows Tablet, each offers pen functionality.

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

http://www.umpcportal.com/2015/03/at...ails-revealed/
Intel unveiled a new series of Intel Atom processors. There is a reference model with an 8" (1920x1200) screen with 4gb ram.

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

Hmmm. I'll wait to see it once its out.
Intel's Atom chips have experienced the same problems as nVidia's Tegra chips:
- there's decent performance
- but too much draw, limiting it to tablet devices
- too expensive
- limited availability, mostly due to Intel/nVidia giving the chips away to vendors for free


We'll see how it compares to devices like the nVidia Shield Tablet, Nexus 9, and iPad Air 2.
Just give it 8in, Windows10, 4GB RAM, heaps of battery. I'm curious to see how this will perform with a QHD/1440p resolution and how much it will tax the battery life, because currently Windows sucks at it when looking at those Core M/Core i5 products.

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

I just got hold of a nokia 8inch tablet running windows rt, will try to post some pics later

Re: 7, 8 Inch Windows Tablets
 

winrt? I thought the product was scrapped since rt sucks even more than regular windoze... (yeah, can you imagine it is even possible :D)