BillJ
Active Member
I picked up a Dell Venue Pro 8 to supplement access to my files and reference materials while at work. As portable as my Surface Pro2 is, it won't fit in my pocket (without alterations in my pants...)
The VP8 is a grand nugget of technological prowess for sure: I have been able to configure it to be exactly like my SP2. With Skydrive, all my data is shared with either device. OneNote entries are similarly accessible and editable.
What is a bit unnerving is that for the most part, the performance of the small tablet is very similar to the SP! Webpages load in about the same amount of time, and programs take no longer to load in the Venue than in the SP. If I do a side by side comparison, I can see that the SP2 is faster by a few nanoseconds on any particular task, but when using the Venue still is quite zippy.
The Surface Pro display is obviously far superior, with larger size and crisper images. However, the Dell is not too bad...
SP with type cover is 2100 grams, the Venue is about 800 grams. SP costs about 3x as much as well.
There comes a point where raw performance per se is no longer a discriminatory issue. For example, while driving in the city you will get to your destination no more quickly in a Ferrari than in a Ford Focus. We may have come to this with personal computing as well. The BayTrail chips in small tablets can now run productivity programs "well enough" for people like me, who simply depend on information exchange.
BayTrail handles Windows 8.1 just fine. This make me wonder why there would be any need for WinRT at all. In fact, I probably don't need all the power of my Surface Pro. I look forward to seeing a whole new generation of light, quick devices. Windows 8 does seem particularly well placed to remain the OS of choice for these high-performance machines.
The VP8 is a grand nugget of technological prowess for sure: I have been able to configure it to be exactly like my SP2. With Skydrive, all my data is shared with either device. OneNote entries are similarly accessible and editable.
What is a bit unnerving is that for the most part, the performance of the small tablet is very similar to the SP! Webpages load in about the same amount of time, and programs take no longer to load in the Venue than in the SP. If I do a side by side comparison, I can see that the SP2 is faster by a few nanoseconds on any particular task, but when using the Venue still is quite zippy.
The Surface Pro display is obviously far superior, with larger size and crisper images. However, the Dell is not too bad...
SP with type cover is 2100 grams, the Venue is about 800 grams. SP costs about 3x as much as well.
There comes a point where raw performance per se is no longer a discriminatory issue. For example, while driving in the city you will get to your destination no more quickly in a Ferrari than in a Ford Focus. We may have come to this with personal computing as well. The BayTrail chips in small tablets can now run productivity programs "well enough" for people like me, who simply depend on information exchange.
BayTrail handles Windows 8.1 just fine. This make me wonder why there would be any need for WinRT at all. In fact, I probably don't need all the power of my Surface Pro. I look forward to seeing a whole new generation of light, quick devices. Windows 8 does seem particularly well placed to remain the OS of choice for these high-performance machines.
