Recommend Win 8.1 tablet

[champion-7891]

Hi.

I want to buy a Win 8.1 tablet, 8 inches. The following are the options available to me and they are very similar in price

HP Stream 8 (32 GB)
Dell Venue 8 (32 GB) - Ven8-3333BLK
Lenevo Idea Miix 2 (32 GB)
Acer Iconia W4-820 (32 GB) - W4-820-2894

basically need it for web browsing, streaming (flash is required), emails etc.

Would have liked to get a 10"+ with KB dock but they cost almost twice as the above ones.

I am looking for personal recommendations so would very much appreciate it if those who have used the above can help me.

 

[vi edit]

Love my Venue 8. SD slot, great looking screen, decent sound and battery is good. I've seen refurb ones going for $120 on Slickdeals every couple of weeks. Great deal there.

 

[jacktesterson]

I'd go with the VivoTab 8 from Asus.

I've had it and the Dell Venue 8 Pro in the past and the footprint and weight off the VivoTab 8 made the difference. I didn't care about Stylus functionality.

Screens and everything else were quite comparable.

 

[ControlD]

I am pretty happy with my Venue 8 Pro from a build quality standpoint. For the price they are really hard to beat. I wish some of the apps were better written (looking at you Kindle), but that has nothing to do with the quality of the hardware in general.

 

[cronos]

Run with this for $100 and don't look back:

http://www.microcenter.com/product/437499/TW801_Tablet_-_Black

Multi-Touch Touchscreen IPS 16:10 8" 1280x800 Display
Intel Baytrail-T Z3735D 1.33GHz Quad-Core CPU
2GB RAM & 32GB eMMC Storage
Windows 8.1 + Bing
Expandable up to 128GB via microSD card

1 x Micro USB 2.0
1 x USB 3.0
1 x SD (SDHC/SDXC)
1 x Micro HDMI
1 x 3.5mm Audio Headphone/Microphone Combo Jack

 

[luv2liv]

Run with this for $100 and don't look back:

http://www.microcenter.com/product/437499/TW801_Tablet_-_Black

Multi-Touch Touchscreen IPS 16:10 8" 1280x800 Display
Intel Baytrail-T Z3735D 1.33GHz Quad-Core CPU
2GB RAM & 32GB eMMC Storage
Windows 8.1 + Bing
Expandable up to 128GB via microSD card

1 x Micro USB 2.0
1 x USB 3.0
1 x SD (SDHC/SDXC)
1 x Micro HDMI
1 x 3.5mm Audio Headphone/Microphone Combo Jack

THIS!
/thread.

i have the 7inch version and thats great too. connected to my HDTV for streaming movies. the micro USB can be converted to full size USB with OTG cable if u need more full size USB port

 

[blackdogdeek]

Run with this for $100 and don't look back:

http://www.microcenter.com/product/437499/TW801_Tablet_-_Black

Multi-Touch Touchscreen IPS 16:10 8" 1280x800 Display
Intel Baytrail-T Z3735D 1.33GHz Quad-Core CPU
2GB RAM & 32GB eMMC Storage
Windows 8.1 + Bing
Expandable up to 128GB via microSD card

1 x Micro USB 2.0
1 x USB 3.0
1 x SD (SDHC/SDXC)
1 x Micro HDMI
1 x 3.5mm Audio Headphone/Microphone Combo Jack

I got the TW801 when it was $140. $100 is an incredible deal. I use this as my daily desktop connected to a 24" AOC and wireless keyboard/mouse.

 

[cronos]

I got the TW801 when it was $140. $100 is an incredible deal. I use this as my daily desktop connected to a 24" AOC and wireless keyboard/mouse.

I saw it when it was $140, then it was $120, and now it's $100 and I just couldn't pass it up.

 

[kmmatney]

I just bought the Winbook TW100 (10") from Microcenter, open box for $149, and love it. I also have an iPad 4, and have had Android tablets in the past. Win 8.1 tablets have a lot of quirks, but once you get used to how things work, it's fantastic. I was a bit worried about buying open box, and I have to admit my first few hours of using the device were horrific. Things were grinding to a halt and amazingly laggy. The lagginess was due to Windows downloading and installing dozens of updates. I finally just left it alone for a long time so it could finish, and then kept manually running windows update until everything was finished. After that, things worked great.

It's really amazing how much you can do with this thing. Windows 8.1 "with Bing" is fine - no different than standard Windows 8.1. Even if the Microsoft store is not quite as expansive as Android or Apple - it doesn't matter as you have the entire Windows ecosystem. Hook up a keyboard and mouse, and you can get real work done, and for a tablet - the screen is huge. I was pleasntly surprised at how well desktop apps can work with the touch screen, by manually calling up the keyboard. it's not perfect, but not bad either.

If you can get up to $150, don't hesitate to buy an open-box 10" Winbook. You just miss out on a year of Office with OpenBox, but you can just install an older version of Office or Libreoffice. Win 8.1 has quirks for sure, but overall you can't beat the Winbooks for the money.

 

[champion-7891]

thank you very much for your recommendations

also, how easy is it to connect external displays to these tablets?

 

[blackdogdeek]

thank you very much for your recommendations

also, how easy is it to connect external displays to these tablets?

I got a micro-hdmi to hdmi cable for my TW801 for about $15 from microcenter and it doesn't have any issues driving my 24" 1080p display. There might have been a few properties I had to set but those took all of 30 seconds I think (I think I had to set the external display as the primary display and turn off the tablet's screen).