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News Dell launches £149 Windows 8.1 Venue Pro 8 tablet

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Gareth Halfacree, 3 Nov 2014.

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  1. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Gareth Halfacree, 3 Nov 2014
    #1
  2. Xir

    Xir Modder

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    Xir, 3 Nov 2014
    #2
  3. Flibblebot

    Flibblebot Smile with me

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    Really? Something else on your mind, Gareth? :D

    If this is the same CPU that's in the Hudl2, it's fine for Android but wouldn't it struggle with a full-blown Windows installation? I don't really see the point of full-fat Windows on a tablet, especially since there's no bundled keyboard? :confused:

    Given a choice, I'd probably plump for the Hudl2 at £20 cheaper - Office365 for Android is due out in a few weeks anyway.
     
    Flibblebot, 3 Nov 2014
    #3
  4. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    It says "dual-core" on the main (linked) page on the UK site, but "quad-core" on the summary when you do a search for the product. Intel says it's quad-core (with no multithreading), and I'd be tempted to think Intel knows best and Dell has simply made a mistake - but I can't rule out the possibility that Dell has bought a bunch of broken quad-cores and used 'em as working dual-cores to keep costs down.
    Aaawwww yeaaaaah. I'll go fix that, ta!
     
    Gareth Halfacree, 3 Nov 2014
    #4
  5. Shirty

    Shirty W*nker! Super Moderator

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    How in the hell they expect Windows to even boot properly with only a gig of RAM, let alone do anything worthwhile of having a full-fat Windows installation, is beyond me.

    Dell must have seriously engineered that particular build of 8.1!

    I mean, the smartphone in my hand has 3GB for goodness' sake (not that it will ever need it - the phone will have died long before Android and its apps need desktop levels of ram I suspect).
     
    Shirty, 3 Nov 2014
    #5
  6. xaser04

    xaser04 Ba Ba Ba BANANA!

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    It runs fine on my Toshiba Encore which is basically this tablet but with 2GB of RAM. Normal tasks that don't hit the I/O hard arn't really any slower than my core i7 laptop. The Baytrail Atom is a massive step up from the older Atoms.

    Plug it into a monitor (The encore has HDMI out) and couple it with a BT keyboard & mouse and it is a perfectly usable office / media consumption / light* gaming machine.

    *It plays things like HL2 / BF2 absolutely fine.

    losing 1GB of RAM might be a step too far though.
     
    xaser04, 3 Nov 2014
    #6
  7. Corky42

    Corky42 Where's walle?

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    Who needs more than 1Gb ram or a keyboard. It's got Windows 8 so only needs 1Gb, and with it's lovely tile based GUI who needs a keyboard. :naughty:

    I think Dell are being to generous personally, what with the extra 300Mhz and a whole 12Gb drive space going spare.
     
    Corky42, 3 Nov 2014
    #7
  8. flibblesan

    flibblesan Destroyer

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    I'm seeing £169 on the Dell website. Where is it £149?
     
    flibblesan, 3 Nov 2014
    #8
  9. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Ooh, the cheeky buggers - the site said £149 this morning! I'll add a note on the article.

    EDIT: Just to prove I'm not going mad, here's Google's cache of the page showing the £149 price. For when that expires, here's a piccyture.
     
    Last edited: 3 Nov 2014
    Gareth Halfacree, 3 Nov 2014
    #9
  10. Atomic

    Atomic Gerwaff

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    It's likely the magical currency conversion rates where 169€ = £169
     
    Atomic, 3 Nov 2014
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  11. Yslen

    Yslen Lord of the Twenty-Seventh Circle

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    Will be interested to see how this performs. I use my laptop for plain text writing and not a lot else. Trouble is there's a definite lack of decent editors for Android, so a cheap windows based solution might be just the ticket. If it's not dog slow.
     
    Yslen, 3 Nov 2014
    #11
  12. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Might be worth mentioning that you can currently buy the HP Stream 7 tablet, which has *identical* specs except that the 1280x800 IPS screen is 7" rather than 8", for under £100. Oh, and HP correctly identifies the chip as a quad-core.
     
    Gareth Halfacree, 3 Nov 2014
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  13. Xir

    Xir Modder

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    What the Heck is a Hudl ???
     
    Xir, 4 Nov 2014
    #13
  14. Shirty

    Shirty W*nker! Super Moderator

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    Shirty, 4 Nov 2014
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  15. Snips

    Snips I can do dat, giz a job

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    That HP Stream 7 looks a bit tasty for £99 inc a proper OS as well. I was thinking of getting a small tab and that just sold me big time.
     
    Snips, 4 Nov 2014
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  16. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    It's a good deal, innit? Buy it direct from HP and use the code 4OFFHP and it's £95!
     
    Gareth Halfacree, 4 Nov 2014
    #16
  17. Xir

    Xir Modder

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    WHy does Microsoft insist on selling a stand alone Windows for nearly that price???
     
    Xir, 5 Nov 2014
    #17
  18. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Because they can. First rule of capitalism: charge what the market will bear. In the case of stand-alone Windows packages, it's a tiny minority of the market so you're free to gouge the ever-loving Christmas out of 'em. The vast majority of people don't buy Windows, they buy a PC (or, in this case, tablet) *with* Windows. That makes OEMs Microsoft's biggest and best customers, so they get the best deals. People who buy Windows - even upgrade versions - at retail are a tiny minority of the market, and have to bear costs that the OEMs don't such as advertising, packaging, production, distribution, the retailer's cut¹ and so forth. They're also largely a captive audience: what are you going to do, not use Windows? Crazy talk!

    ¹: Here's a fun example from my job as an author: my royalties are paid on the net, not the gross, which is half the retail price of the book. So, if my book costs £20 on Amazon, the publisher only gets £10 and I only get a percentage of that. The other £10 is kept by Amazon and once costs (warehousing, payment processing, distribution, customer service and so forth) are deducted becomes Amazon's profit. A retail boxed copy of Windows is no different, although Amazon's cut as a percentage may be lower - or may be higher, I have no idea - and there'll be VAT to take into account (so a £20 software package results in £3.33 for HMRC, £8.33 for the creator and £8.33 for Amazon, assuming a 50/50 split like my publishing example).
     
    Gareth Halfacree, 5 Nov 2014
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  19. Xir

    Xir Modder

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    Understood, but for software, all I need is a valid Key and a link, so most of these costs are naught, much as with an Ebook, you save yourself the print (but need a host).

    Because they can is the best answer, probably.
     
    Xir, 6 Nov 2014
    #19
  20. Yslen

    Yslen Lord of the Twenty-Seventh Circle

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    Interesting. Is it any good?
     
    Yslen, 6 Nov 2014
    #20
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