New Atom chips already a flop?

[HeyCori]

When I first heard of Merrifield/Moorefield, I thought they were bring that extra juice to make Windows 8 a more pleasurable experience on a tablet. Sadly, from what little information I could find about the new Atom chips, it still seems like we're still a generation away. Some sites say the new Atoms are on par with the Snapdragon 801, which isn't bad, but not the leap I was hoping for.

I'm not sure if I can trust another Tegra device, especially considering Nvidia's rather poor support for the Tegra 4 (constant audio/video problems on the Surface 2). Even an i3 device feels a bit like overkill for me. I really wish there was something in between Merrifield/Moorefield and the i3 that's available in tablet form. More specifically, something that could run full Windows 8.

 

[theefman]

Have you actually tried a Bay Trail Atom device? Didnt follow your link but from my own experience current Atom chips are good enough for everyday usage, more so the Z37xx series in higher end devices. Unless you're planning on running the latest games an Atom device will do fine for just about all computing tasks. So no, far from being a flop I think.

 

[muneshyne21]

I think the Z37XX series is the first atom to bring a respectable experience to Windows 8.1 tablets. I thought the middle ground between atom and i3 is the Pentium N series. They probably cost the same as an i3 but significantly more than an atom.

 

[coolqf]

When I first heard of Merrifield/Moorefield, I thought they were bring that extra juice to make Windows 8 a more pleasurable experience on a tablet. Sadly, from what little information I could find about the new Atom chips, it still seems like we're still a generation away. Some sites say the new Atoms are on par with the Snapdragon 801, which isn't bad, but not the leap I was hoping for.

I'm not sure if I can trust another Tegra device, especially considering Nvidia's rather poor support for the Tegra 4 (constant audio/video problems on the Surface 2). Even an i3 device feels a bit like overkill for me. I really wish there was something in between Merrifield/Moorefield and the i3 that's available in tablet form. More specifically, something that could run full Windows 8.

I think the problem is more related with Windows 8 than with the Atom architecture. Full Windows 8 innately requires more CPU, RAM, and HD, a keyboard, has to provide legacy support, etc. (No clue why they don't just limit the OS to the last 4yr of devices, it'll free up so much resources)

For the above reasons, I don't think cherry trail will give you what you want. At its most basic level, Win8 (full) requires double the resources as iOS or Android and their respective apps are subpar when you compare them to their MS Store brethren.

I have a Pentium N3530 hybrid and it's pretty zippy thanks to the SSD upgrade But the MS Store apps.... I rather just reach for my tablet or phone.

 

[HeyCori]

Have you actually tried a Bay Trail Atom device? Didnt follow your link but from my own experience current Atom chips are good enough for everyday usage, more so the Z37xx series in higher end devices. Unless you're planning on running the latest games an Atom device will do fine for just about all computing tasks. So no, far from being a flop I think.

We have a Bay Trail tablet at work but it's not in my department so I haven't used it extensively.