Tablets My Windows 8 Tablet Review--The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

as christmas present, got asus vivotab note 8. little tablet 8 inches, has 32gb of internal storage, full windows 8.1, , wacom active digitizer. wanted tablet write notes on. i’ve had week , far enjoy it. here review:

summary:

of hear windows 8 tablets either along lines of: “this awesome. runs full windows. ios , android toy os’s.” or “the windows desktop sucks on tablet.” going go middle ground here , talk experiences windows 8.1. going give good, bad , ugly.

after using ios, android, , windows 8 on tablet—it boils down looking for. find ios best stream lined tablet experience overall , in app quality. windows 8 tablets saving grace running full windows. on avn8, desktop usable, thing can on desktop side, can them more efficiently on laptop. however, there niche applications want full desktop , portability of small tablet.

don’t want read wall of text. here personal likes , dislikes:

likes:

• having full desktop
• running full web browser
• using paint.net , onenote active digitizer
• using light work computer when need it.
• using portable device operate 3d printer, use portable network monitoring device, etc.
• side side app pinning

dislikes:

• took me hours working right (forced updates, driver installs, “hacks” free space, etc.
• some apps missing features founds in ios , android counterparts.
• lack of touch optimization on desktop (some microsoft desktop apps (i.e. office) touch friendly though)
• lack of internal memory install windows store apps (some desktop applications not install sd card (office home , student looking @ you), there “hack” them external drive.)
• slow load desktop , modern applications. there not lag when in application. also, noticibly slower perform functions in applications. (note: mine uses 1.33 ghz intel atom bay trail.)
• (device specific) stylus not accurate want (even wacom drivers , calibration)

out of box experience
rating: 2/5

first night tablet pretty frustrating. applications, both desktop , modern took long time load. on top of that, unable download windows store. every app tried download or update stuck on pending. did when new install of windows isn’t working quite right—keep forcing updates until work correctly , uninstall junkware. fortunately, asus didn’t put bloatware on this. so, forced update, went bed , next morning tablet able download windows store , loaded apps faster.

tablet experience
rating: 4/5

overall, experience has been pretty good. can pin apps side-by-side, of apps display correctly. however, (like kahn academy) terrible when shrunken down. overall, think feature better on larger windows tablet , don’t use much. wish use multiple windows in portrait mode. live tiles nice previewing information without pulling down bar, still not on par android widgets.

metro side of things pretty simple. desktop side not optimized touch (ex. firefox let scroll , down without using side bar, left right scrolling have use bottom bar. can scale desktop works nicely default desktop apps , third party apps. have wacom stylus helps out.

have done considerably more work tablet work correctly have ever done ipad: installing wacom drivers , calibrating, changing desktop settings scale display, couple of hours of forcing windows updates, running windows cleaner , ccleaner free more space (when updated installed had 6 gb left), running symlink program move office sd card.

overall, looking purely @ tablet side, ipad 3 has streamlined tablet experience followed nexus 7.

performance
rating: 3/5

overall juggling few applications on desktop. have ran firefox , word @ same time , ran pretty well. if running gimp, firefox , word @ same time, slow down point of being annoying, still usable. have noticed little bit of lag—mainly scrolling web site desktop browser.

have noticed application slow load , perform tasks on both desktop , metro side. launched jetpack joyride on both n7 2013 , avn8 @ same time. time avn8 had loaded start screen playing on nexus 7.

have noticed weird quirks on metro side—ie totally freezing when switch app. gone when close , relaunch app. there see part small portion of start menu. rest blanked out. goes away when restart.

memory

people have griped how internal memory default windows installation takes up. day after got tablet, got 64gb sd card. mitigates of problem since can install programs , push media sd card, not work metro apps , desktop applications. have 7gb free after “cleaning up” drive. games windows store can fill internal memory quick.

stylus

stylus helps out lot on desktop side , awesome taking notes , doing digital art/photo editing. stylus little inaccurate around edges of tablet (this after installing wacom drivers). on sp3, stylus way better , active digitizer far more accurate.

apps
rating: 4/5

surprisingly, app store have lot of big name apps (ex. amazon kindle, evernote, facebook , twitter). on of apps, did find of apps lacking features compared android , ios counterparts. example, amazon app shows top 10 items per general category (it search though). fortunately, can run desktop or web version of many of these apps.

tried install bluestacks android emulator, play of favorite android games. pretty buggy , slow. had mess around registry run full screen. however, after got blue stacks use entire tablet screen, froze on app menu. on note, have heard genymotion better , might try in next couple of days.

the desktop

keep in mind, wanted tablet take handwritten notes, desktop little side benefit me.

think biggest advantage of having full desktop on tablet size browser. web pages display correctly , though web moving away plugins flash still have place. can run firefox favorite add ons.

use desktop inkscape, vlc, paint.net, wireshark , gimp. inkscape, gimp , paint.net nice active digitizer. other , firefox , chrome, stay in metro side of time. ordering case mini keyboard , might take in place of laptop when going out of town , have light work do.

 

i think 8" tablet pushing when thinking desktop advantage. except in case misses, ability connect larger screen/keyboard/mouse. if don't have need desktop questionable depending on use, although have found useful , yes own vivotab note 8. own surface pro 3 , find each have uses.

vivotab great little tablet. it's bit cheapie hardware, when put next ipad. imo there no comparison in terms of software if use more consumption device.

 

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