Need an alternative Surface tablet with good design!!!

[Draconica5]

My aunt just lost her Dell Inspiron Duo. She has used it for over 3 years.

Now she asking me for help to find a new tablet PC with good design and under $500. I'm kinda in trouble with finding some windows 8.1 tablet PC to review and examine because in my country those are not in good selling.

My aunt only needs web browser, MS Office, and 3rd party Vietnamese IME (Which can't be use on RT version). So she doesn't need a core i tablet PC. We have seen an Asus T100 and it really has a cheap design, she doesn't like it. The hard thing is... She already seen my Surface Pro 2 and really love the surface design language. Of course I can choose Surface RT or 2 and I can root WinRT to make it run exe format files but it will not get any update in the future => not suitable for long term use.

TL;DR: My aunt want an alternative Surface tablet with good design and under $500.

Please leave a comment and give me some advices I appreciate it.

 

[xandros9]

You cannot root RT and expect it to run x86 exes. It simply won't work. A few would run like .net applications IIRC, but the vast majority would simply not.

Thankfully her needs are modest and fits well with this price range, but the need for surface design does not.

The original Surface Pro can be had for $500, so that's something.
Dell has some solid, but not very Surface-y Venue tablets, and the previous gen Latitude 10 (which may be found for cheap used)
The thing is, I don't know if what you're looking for is available in that price range. 8" tablets are a major option down there, but you may need to push the budget or look into used/refurbished/last-gen hardware.

 

[RajeevT]

What about this one that someone mentioned recently? Full Windows 8.1 so all your x86 programs will run, and might even be available in your country (or can be delivered there).

 

[Draconica5]

What about this one that someone mentioned recently? Full Windows 8.1 so all your x86 programs will run, and might even be available in your country (or can be delivered there).

China product away have a lot of scandal. I'm kinda have concern about that. Can you make some review about that tablet?

Still need more advices, guys.

The Vietnamese IME keyboard (Telex & VNI) on WP8.1 are really good! But there aren't available on WinRT or Win8.1 (typical Microsoft logic, eh?). I just heard that WP9 and WinRT will be merge, so there might be have those IME we need? Should we wait for that?

 

[RajeevT]

China product away have a lot of scandal. I'm kinda have concern about that. Can you make some review about that tablet?

You can ask the guy who made that thread to review the tablet.

I just heard that WP9 and WinRT will be merge, so there might be have those IME we need? Should we wait for that?

Are you willing to wait a year or so for that to happen and for devices with that OS to be released?

 

[rdubmu]

You should be able to find a Surface Pro 1 in your price range, used or new. ebay, maybe other sites.

 

[coolqf]

How about the inspiron 11 with the new Pentium n3530?