Hands on with Dell Venue 8 Pro

In the previous post, we've highlighted the basic pros, cons, device specifications, features and hardware/software capabilities of Dell’s all new Venue 8 Pro. Coming to a conclusion that, the Venue 8 Pro is a great combination of a high quality experience of software, hardware and design along with a perfect price point was pretty easy. One of the best things I liked about this new tab is its split personality, where just a single tap to Desktop icon will give you an experience of Windows 8 on your tab as if you are working on your laptop. For the past two weeks, I was on an office trip and I thought that this is the best time to explore this device, so I kept it on the business travelling setting and let the device work for itself. Let’s see what all it made me come across.

Office on the Go

Ok, to start off with the capabilities of the Venue 8 Pro, let me tell you that I am writing this article on Venue 8 Pro with Microsoft wedge keyboard. This keyboard is Bluetooth enabled and is specifically designed for tablets. To begin with, this gave me a strange feeling at first to type on a keyboard with a little device in sight. The little keyboard and the screen can make you go weird at first because all of us have a habit of using the laptop. For rigorous and complex spreadsheet usage this won’t be a good option, but if you are on an office trip, a conference or a meeting then keeping a computer in your pocket can be wondrous.

Quick Note Taking

Apart from the many things I liked about the Venue 8 Pro is the stylus. It is an optional accessory with the tablet. Also, sharing copies with coworkers, searching the notes without converting my handwritten notes to text and the awesome editing cannot be matched with any other device; it has certainly not matched with any of the device I have used so far.

Although, initial reports of the device were not any breakthrough, but after an update by Dell, it has been a gem of a device. This firmware update is only available via the Dell’s website but not internally on the tablet. The screen is flawless to use and using the pen will be no big deal like seen in other tablets.

Travel Assistant

Since I was on a business trip, most of my time was spent up in the air, thus my most of the time was spent in the airplane. So, Venue 8 Pro turned out to be my best friend from catching up news to reading, sorting emails, watching series to occasional movies. I have read few books on the Amazon Kindle app, played a couple of games and also found that the Calendar and Mail applications were quite effective even when there was no need of the full outlook application.

Shall I buy it?

Now here comes the question, should you get Dell Venue Pro 8 for yourself? Let me tell you again, I might not have fallen completely in love with this one, but it combines a lot of functionality into a small price package. Well, I believe it targets the non-tech-savvy user who uses simple apps, games but one cannot think of running full version of Microsoft Office 2013 or Photoshop on the little device. Thus, if you want just an enterprise device, want to go mobile on Windows platform there can be nothing better than this at this price.