Your Experience with W10 on Tablets?

[ODwyerPW]

I'm a longtime Windows user (Windows 2 to be exact). I have never owned a device with any other operating systems, sans a free BlackBerry Torch a few years back and of course cheap feature phones before we had smart phones. Yes, I had a Windows Phone featuring CE6.3 .

I'm surprised how cumbersome Windows 10 in Tablet mode is. My Windows tablet experience started with an Acer that had full Windows 8. It died quickly. I then moved to the state of the art at the time Nokia 2520 w/ Windows 8. I still have it (4 chargers later). I didn't mind Windows 8 RS because I never intended to use Desktop Centric Win32Apps on the Tablet... that's what my powerful Laptop (when I travel) and Desktop (in the office) are for.

Because the Nokia 2520 was orphaned (despite having the same SOC as my Nokia 1520) and would remain forever on Windows 8.1 RS, I upgraded in the very early Spring. This time, not caring about the fastest, my wife and I both purchased inexpensive Asus Transformer Minis (T102H) tablets, w/ stylus and clip on keyboards. They of course feature the Atom X5-z8350, which although introduced in Q1-2016, is no longer receiving support from Intel, which means no longer receiving new feature updates for Windows (I missed this news item when I purchased it in Q1-2017). A little surprised as this ATOM SOC is 64bit capable and has a better IGP than what I have by way of the I7-3770K in my desktop. So, what we have now for the tablets, is all we will ever get.. warts and all. Nothing more fluid coming for my tablets.

My wife and I also have Nokia 950XL Dual Sim phones, acquired in Q4 of 2016, and yes, like our also recently acquired Windows tablets, will also not receive new feature updates for Windows, thanks to it's having the SD810 chipset which does not support Windows 10 on Arm that requires an SD835 or higher (they haven't announced a higher yet) for it's x86 emulation. So what we have now for the cell phones, is all we will get.. warts and all. Which is fine... other than apps crashing more than they should..

Not replacing either the phones or tablets until 1. They drop.. 2. End of 2018 (I like getting 2 years+ out my devices... that seems reasonable).

OK... So what my wife and I both found was that navigating and using Windows Phone 10 to pull up / switch between all of our running apps and adjust settings was WAY EASIER than using Windows 10 on our tablets. Who in their right mind ever thought having to use the tiny microscopic Start Button on the razon thin Task Bar at the bottom of the screen was a good idea? Couldn't Tablet mode be a bit friendlier? Why can't gestures be optimized for Tablet mode as opposed to Desktop mode? I'm absolutely shocked how bad Tablet mode is to use... Did any of the developers try to use it?

I suppose, perhaps with C-Shell, we will have a more fluid/dynamic approach to UI between Phone (wait... it's ultramobile PC w/ touch and telephony) / Tablet / PC modes/uses. Who knows?... I'll check back at the end of 2018... unless of course I drop one of these devices. Meanwhile, nothing like purchasing 4 devices since November and having them all on life-support.. LOL..

 

[teddfox]

On anything BUT a surface pro?

I would say the OS is great for that!
My complaint is the tablets available running Win10.
it is lie the makers focused on low end crap. Even the one the MS store sells is crap. I returned it days later.
If we want Win10 tablets to be on par with an iPad mini or low end iPad, there must be compatible tablets that have the same speed and portability. MiPad 2 was a good try, but they do not have a US market and the miPad 3 does not carry a windows SKU. Dells tabs are thick and laggy as well as not pretty at all like a surface pro.

I am open to suggestions on tablets, but I have played with a ton.

 

[L0n3N1nja]

Call me weird but I use windows 10 on a few tablets from 8 inches up to 12, and I hate tablet mode. I just use the regular desktop interface and prefer it over Android at this point.

 

[Vikont]

In general, I rate my experience on Win 10 tablet as excellent. Maybe I was never a fan of Windows 8, but I'm enjoying Win 10 UI and functionality much more. By accident, I discovered that you need an at least 10" tablet to make it enjoyable. I was the owner of a 8" Asus, and loved it. Then the screen broke, and I discovered that it basically costs a price of the original tablet to have the glass replaced. So I decided to just buy a new tablet. However, there were no 8" on the market anymore, so I tentatively purchased 10" Acer 2-in-1, being cautious of a larger form factor. It turned out to be a much more enjoyable size, both in terms of the functionality and usability, and in terms of the batter life - they were able to stick much bigger battery into it, and that is an important factor. I still have about 50% juice left by the end of the day, while Asus would usually shut itself down by supper time.

It's not a powerhouse by any means, but it allows me to do emails, both work and personal, browsing, news, social media, an occasional movie or a game. I mostly run excellent built-in first-party Microsoft apps, but occasionally I fire off a desktop app as well, like a VPN client or an office chat client. The form factor is small enough to still make the tablet very portable, and the availability of a detachable keyboard and a Bluetooth mouse can turn it into a mini-laptop, when necessary. Having owned several Android tablets in the past, I cannot see how their clunky UI can be superior to beautiful Win 10 tiles in any way...

 

[eddydu]

Hey does the lumia 1520 count as a tablet?? That was a huge phone which I missed dearly. I currently still have and use a surface pro 2. I love the size and feel that I am not ready yet for the little bigger screen. I also had a dell venue 11 pro and an hp stream 7. I thought that win 10 on small screens were not effective but on 10 + it worked great. win 10 on small screen works well, but wished it had more apps.

 

[jack69453]

I use it with my 12 inch tablet as well and its not really horrible. But there are things that can be improved for sure. The task switcher as mentioned before. What I also would like is for when you swipe up the get the task bar to reappear. You should also get the icons by the clock, including the hidden ones. And if there is a program opened in desktop mode, you should be able to see it on the taskbar as well.

 

[jsham1963]

I like it on my TW801 tablet. It has the Creators update and runs pretty smooth and works fine for web browsing and for e-books(kobo). I prefer the vertical scrolling vs the horizontal in Win 8.1.

 

[tylerregas]

I bought a Dell Venue 8 Pro back when 8.1 was still out and 10 wasn't even official yet. I really liked it then, but was eager to upgrade. That was a mistake. I like 10 a lot, but tablet mode shouldn't be called tablet mode. I miss the charms bar for quick access to the start menu, the far superior multi-tasking, and the better start page layout. Sure, 10 has a lot of great improvements, but it also took away what made it fantastic on tablets.

Otherwise, it's fast and efficient and can run a load of apps. My wife likes to keep open about 40 tabs open in Chrome and complains that her Dell latitude d620 runs slow. I tell her it's the tabs, but she refuses to listen. To prove it to her, I logged into her account on my tablet and opened all of her open tabs. That little machine handled them all brilliantly.

She still doesn't want an upgrade

 

[Felix Wong]

I've been using Windows tablets since the Surface R/T. Currently, I have a Surface Pro 4, which I use as a tablet close to 50% of the time, mostly while riding a recumbent bicycle on a trainer in the basement or consuming media on the sofa, chair or bed. In those cases, the kickstand is in the out position with the keyboard completely detached, as it allows for a more immersive experience with a closer screen.

I think Windows 10 is excellent for tablet use. The main differences between it and Windows 8 is you can't swipe in the last application with one swipe from the left, and swiping in from the right brings up the notification center instead of the charms bar. But I appreciate Windows 10's notification center more than Window's 8 charms bar, which was mainly only useful for sharing from an app.

I can see how some people could miss swiping in from the left to bring in the last application as in Windows 8, but I find Window 10's left-swipe gesture of showing open applications you can choose from more intuitive. I know you could do that in Windows 8 by doing a full rightward swipe from the left and then a half leftward swipe, but that was kind of an awkward swiping motion.

The auto-hide Windows taskbar in tablet mode only option (which came with the Anniversary Update) further improved the experience by giving you more screen real estate. I think Microsoft Edge is great for touch too, particularly because it allows swiping for back and forward web page navigation. I know some folks lament that the URL bar is at the top instead of the bottom like in Windows 8's Internet Explorer in tablet mode, but the conventional (top) position is ergonomically acceptable and certainly more familiar. A bottom URL bar might be (slightly) preferable if you were actually holding the tablet in your hands since it would be closer to your thumbs, but I am never doing that as I am always using the well-designed kickstand instead.

Two things that could make the Surface Pro 4 a better tablet include getting out of standby as quickly as a phone can, and having significantly more battery life. But those things are probably more hardware-related than Windows 10 software-related, and the 2017 Surface Pro is supposed to improve those two things somewhat.

 

[Felix Wong]

Oh, now that I am thinking of what else could make Windows 10 even better for tablet use, I would wish for:

• Implement Word Flow (swiping) on the virtual keyboard as in W10M
• Give a voice input option for the keyboard as in W10M
• Allow full-screen mode in Edge. I know you can already do this by pressing Shift-Win-Enter, but you need to have the keyboard attached to do that!

 

[Drael646464]

Couple of times based on my experience - play with scaling, till its good to use. Precise scaling helps useability. If your using an old legacy app, sometimes it comes out tiny - compatibility settings can fix it.

An eight inch tablet is a bit fiddly without a stylus - okay in tablet mode, but I don't even use tablet mode on a larger tablet (desktop with full screen start menu is fine for me).


Only thing that's really missing for me is shape writing. Thankfully that's coming. The could also refine the UI for smaller tablets - something between win10m and windows might work well for 8 inchers.

I'd honestly never use anything else now, the software is so much more powerful/higher quality - but its not perfect, due to it being a sort of hybridization where cshell and UWP are still works in progress. But that's a bridge every OS maker will have to cross eventually IMO.

If MSFT is smart they won't sit on cshell for too long, and will bake something for the tiny tablets when they do.

 

[Urbautz]

I now have my 3rd Windows Tablet (and before one Crapdroid). I started with Lenovo Miix, where i had some performance issues. 3 years ago i switched to a Surface 3 (non-Pro) and also used this for work when off-site. I retired my Laptop completly.
2 weeks ago now i did a double switch: Surface 3 replaced by Dell XPS13 with inking support, Lumia950 replaced by Honor 9. While I deeply miss the "just good" Win10m and keep searching for Apps making Android less annoying, yesterday (and so far today) i haven't even turned on my work desktop. The Dell is just fast enough. I have a USB-C-Dock so only one plug to pull and i'm on the run.

 

[Drael646464]

Don't buy any tablet or phone with less than 32 GB of internal memory. Devices with 7 to 8 GB of internal memory are useless because future OS updates eventually take up all the internal memory on your device. At some point you won't have enough free space left to install OS updates.

On windows especially important, as some apps like office insist on being installed on the system drive. Plus the eMMC or ssd runs faster than a microsd ever can. 64 does me nicely.

 

[aXross]

As a user of 8-inch Windows tablet alongside with bigger Surface Pro, I find that Windows 10 tablet experience is rather usable and okay, but far from great especially when we talking about tablets from 10-inch and below, especially the 8-inch I am using. So my experience is about on 8-inch which where the tablet experience on Windows 10 are truly tested.

Start screen
This is my first point of my tablet experience in Windows 10, all in all it is okay but bit unpleasant experience. It works okay for opening apps and showing Live Tiles, but usability is a big letdown from Windows 8.1. There are few sub-points I want to tell.

• All Apps - The experience is subpar, especially when coming from Windows 8.1 and even using Windows Phone/Mobile. Every time I want to access All Apps, I have to use my other hand and try to hit that All Apps button on the left side of the screen. This is inferior to the sliding gesture from Windows 8.1 (not the joke from Windows 8) and from Windows Phone/Mobile, which brings inconsistent experience if you have one. I don't know what gotten in their minds of not implementing slide gesture to open All Apps since the beginning and even now. It seriously need an ability to slide from right to left like on Windows Phone/Mobile to bring consistency across form-factors, usability and more natural interaction using touch and even for trackpad users. Seriously, I enjoyed having able to access All Apps using trackpad when using Start screen but we can't do that anymore even on Start menu when All Apps are hidden.
• Jumplist - This is where Windows 10 is better than Windows 8.X, the Jumplist feature first introduced with Windows 7 which is a wonderful underrated feature. The problem is when using on touch/tablet, the accessibility of Jumplist is more of an afterthought, especially when comparing or experience from iOS and Android similar feature. This needs to redesign the interaction on how to access additional Live Tile function using touch, and I propose that the current drag-and-drop mode should be replaced by Jumplist or better yet Interactive Live Tile when you tap-and-hold a Live Tile. Just move that Drag-and-Drop mode under a ellipsis sub-menu together with other non-task-related functions. Also it would be better if this gives a bit more polish with touch, such as slightly zoom the Live Tile when you open the menu like what Windows Phones used to do, this will give more focus and aligns to Fluent Design System principle Depth.
• Semantic Zoom - A forgotten feature which was actually great, now it only available on some Microsoft apps. Windows 8.1 got this feature when you can zoom-out to show the simplified overview of Live Tile groups to quickly jump to selected group. Though on All Apps list its still there when you only tap the letter header but there is no Pinch-to-Zoom gesture like it should be.
• Drag-and-drop - This is still a bit broken at times and unpolished experience. When you start dragging a Live Tile or apps from Apps List, it takes a split second then reappears and bit slow to use. The Windows Mobile/Phone is still better at this. Lastly there is still a bug that sometimes that Live Tile became invisible.

Task View/Task Switcher
On tablet mode, the experience in Task View is still unpolished and limited since Windows 10 first introduction.

• The lack of proper animation/motion is the most prominent afterthought in Windows 10 on tablet mode, it still only fades in and zooms from center, not from where it was actually located from the X-Y coordinates on the screen. Compared this on Windows Phone/Mobile for example, and even from desktop mode, this is unacceptable UX afterthought. The experience is disjoint and unnatural. Especially when you swipe from the left-edge, it makes a disconnect behaviour from the user's finger direction. For a modern OS like Windows 10 and from the previous UX implantation they did with AERO 3D Flip View, Windows Phone/Mobile Task Switcher, and Windows 8.X Task Switcher. What they did in Windows 10 isn't well-thought like its still an alpha state.
• I think the combination of ability to drag-and-peek action from Windows 8.X Task Switcher would be still great for Windows 10 when you slide your finger from the left-edge. It is more natural and easier when you want previous app to be snapped with your current app.

Windows Snap
This is something what I love about Windows on a tablet since 8, and its been improved with Snap Assist on Windows 10. Still as usual polish still needs a bit of work and limitation that hasn't been addressed still.

• Vertical Snap - Still a big limitation that hasn't been addressed since Windows 8.1. This allows the app to be snapped even on portrait orientation on tablet mode. Especially on tablet, having this is needed and highly desirable capability that Windows 10 still lacks. Not to mention the rather annoying sometimes that you can't even rotate the tablet when you already snapped something, since vertical snapping is not supported.
• Multiple horizontal snap - Windows 8.1 got this that we lost on Windows 10. It was great for large tablets such as Surface Pros to giant 20-inch tablets. Having more than 2 horizontal snaps that are resizable gives more freedom and flexibility to multitasking workflow on tablets. Microsoft is emphasizing productivity and yet they reduce the amount of Windows Snap in tablet mode starting Windows 10. Also, for large tablets and especially hybrids that are getting more common these days, having both vertical and horizontal (quadrant snap) similar on desktop mode would be desirable.
• Animations - This again, though not as bad on Task View animation in tablet mode, the animations on Windows Snap is bit disjoint, even on desktop mode (but the experience are bit better). They have to address this as part of Fluent Design System.

My People
A nice new feature that improves the communication and sharing experience in Windows 10. A feature that has been delayed for Creators Update and now they are finally releasing it with Fall Creators Update, the problem -- it is still half-baked, unpolished and seemingly not ready. On tablet mode, My People is even got worse implementation.

Since My People UI in Fall Creators Update is literally a window and not a flyout UI, it behaves like not like what we expect from their concept design as intended. This means on tablet mode, it acts just like another app, which consumes screen real-estate that tablets limited at, complicates the multitasking, and the experience isn't much different from opening an app. It should behaves like Facebook Chat Heads on smartphones and on small tablets. For big tablets that have more Taskbar space, then it should have pinned People like on desktop mode when allows.

Compact Overlay
I love this feature in Creators Update and use quite a lot on desktop use. On tablet? It is the opposite even though this capability makes more sense and useful for tablet than to the desktop. Compact Overlay behaves just like a dumb always-on-top tiny window, not an intelligent, responsive and touch-friendly floating mini-window.

• Dragging - Compact Overlay on tablet mode and even just using it with touch is tricky to use. You can only move it around with its invisible titlebar which auto-hides, instead of just able to drag around anywhere on the window as long as there isn't any button or UI controls. They have to address it by having the whole mini-widow to allow dragging when you hold-down for a second.
• Snapping on edges - Another missing thing on Compact Overlay is it doesn't automatically snap on edges of the screen. This makes managing another floating window tedious, especially for tablet use (even on desktop too). Typically they are just suited anywhere near the edge of the screen, but not really sticking to the edge. It doesn't have to be only stick near the edge, but when you drag near it, it should. There will be just an option to turn off this feature.
• Animation - Switching from full app window to Compact Overlay mode is always jarring and disconnected. That is because the lack of animation that show the motion where the content is transforming from and into. There is no visual feedback what is happening to the window, it just happens and up to the user where the window is. They really have to take note from what Apple did with Picture-in-Picture implementation which is really polished.

Microsoft Edge
This is the best browser so far for touch and tablet use in Windows 10, but not as great as what Metro IE did. Its still too "desktop" even on tablet mode. The always full-on UI chrome takes some space that is limited on tablets especially for 8-inches and below. It needs auto-hide behavior and even moving that addressbar at the bottom for better ergonomics for small tablets. Currently, Edge is acceptable for large tablets but not something from 10-inches and below.

Even then, there is a weird bug on Edge that still persist where sometimes the web page renders the desktop version with smaller scaling and you can't even interact with it, this is a bug mostly on mobile. There is another bug where context-menus are sometimes smaller than it should be.

On tablet, scaling are inconsistent between portrait and landscape, not great experience in regards to this which force me to always adjust the zoom level when switching between them. Microsoft Edge should smart enough about that and it should even automatically loads the mobile version if necessary on portrait mode.

Taskbar
I don't have too much problem using a Taskbar on tablet, even on small tablet but it still needs improvement.

• Pinned apps - We need pinned apps on Taskbar even on tablet mode, but it needs a button and seperate slide-out panel to show pinned apps. This will solved the issue when using it on portrait mode and remain Taskbar clean while not loosing the functionality.
• Taskbar overflow - Not necessarily just for tablet mode, but Taskbar needs better implemantation of overflow pinned apps. Currently when there is too many apps on the taskbar, it still literally use Windows 95 implementation to scroll through oveflow taskbar apps. Seriously, take a look how Android launchers done with their docks, just swipe it left and right. For mouse users, there will be just a big next and previous arrow buttons.
• Taskbar behaviour when switching full-screen apps - It need better behaviour when apps goes to full-screen such as sliding it down. It gives predictability of the UI behaviour when something changes on screen by using such animation, improving overall experience.

Gestures

• Action Center - The swipe/flick gesture is okay, but not as natural as when you can literally drag/slide Action Center to open and closing it, following your finger. It gives better feeling and feedback to the action of the user than just flicking finger that felt unpolished and artificial. It can also allows the user to peek through the Action Center contents, just like what we can do on Windows Phone/Mobile.
• Hamburger menu - Not necessarily for tablet mode only but still worth mentioning. This needs a standard sliding gesture like how Android hamburger menu as been implemented and few 3rd-party Windows apps that developers put more effort than what Microsoft does on Groove Music hamburger menu. Though on tablet this is tricky since sliding from left edge already reserved for opening Task View, so it doesn't really make difference. Though for apps that have exposed collapsed Hamburger menu like on News app for example, this is worth implementation. This thing should been addressed with Fluent Design System standardising UI components.

File Picker (and File Explorer)
This is the hardest part which is highly tied from Windows Explorer shell which is largely not touch-optimized and inconsistent UI design aesthetics from UWP and XAML Shell UI. Though they really have to at least make changes on File Picker even its not UWP to be touch-friendly with updated UI that is more consistent to usual UWP apps. This includes File Explorer. We need at least updated UI for these important areas of Windows 10, even its not UWP as we wait it to be fully mature and ready. We need at least a good stop-gap implementation before UWP File Explorer together with Cshell without a lose of feature.

Action Center on Lockscreen
Not necessarily just for tablet experience, but comparing it to Android and iOS, it is a big limitation not able to access notifications and other Action Center shortcuts while on Lockscreen. This affects the overall tablet experience in Windows 10 as users on tablet compared to desktop, ability to quickly view and interact to notifications without unlocking is common and make things easier for user.

Verdict
For now these are the things I come across when using Windows tablets especially for small ones. Overall its not that bad, but far from great either. Tablet experience in Windows 10 are highly an afterthought. I'm also afraid to say that iOS 11 finally caught-up to Windows 8.X tablet experience and even got some better stuff too, with only Windows 10 Snap Assist, and multiple horizontal snap from Windows 8.1 are missing. Pen capabilities on Windows 10 on Creators Update are also still great thing about it when you got a pen-enabled tablet, which is still better than iOS for the most part. If using Windows 10 on small tablets like 8-inch ones? Well, that's where tablet experience on Windows 10 falls apart.

 

[dcoward]

I have a NuVision 8" Full-HD tablet running Win10 Creator Update. While it isn't a perfect OS for a tablet, I really like having Windows on a tablet. My Android tablet is SO FRUSTRATION since it does not interact with my PCs and Laptops on my home network without 3rd party hacks. With Win10, this tablet sees my laptops and files, and I can get and cut, copy, paste, rename stuff without taking over the other system.

Several of the Store apps are great, like Netflix, TED, MyTube!, TubeCast, Skype, etc., but many are either missing or weak (looking at you Amazon). I hope that improves. I like how apps like Spotify can wrap their app and I get it from the store. This is a cool direction.

I hope MS ports the Windows10 Mobile features that will make for a tablet-friendly environment. Currently Win10 CU File Manager is powerful, but difficult to work with on a small tablet with high resolution (and fat fingers). My fear is MS will introduce a tablet-friendly File Manager that is gutted of the features we power-users need (even on a tablet).

>>Easy to use apps don't have to be dumbed-down; instead they need to be well-designed.<<

BTW, I also like how I can install x32 apps on this tablet! I can keep using my favorite utilities (Notepad++, Beyond Compare, download managers, VLC desktop, etc.) until they get replaced with clean full-featured UWP apps.

Another VERY COOL feature of having Win10 OS on this 8" tablet: I can hook up a multi-USB adapter, plug in a USB keyboard and mouse, Wi-Fi to my home network, and do real work. I can install and print to my networked HP LaserJet printer without hassle, I can use my scanner, I can hook up external hard drives, and flash drives, and I can hook up an external HDMI monitor. In other words, it just works. It is a REAL PC, just in a very small form factor. THIS is great.

But, while I like this tablet a lot, this model is slow and limited in RAM and internal storage (I added a 128GB microSD! so cool), but at < $100 who can complain! But because it is slow and small, it isn't a main driver. But if this tablet had pen support, and had a faster CPU and more RAM and internal SSD at a good price, it'd be a totally awesome device. I'd use it all the time while travelling or just lounging. I'd probably use my laptop less and less in that case. I drool over Surface and Surface Pro devices, but the cost is beyond me. To make a dent in the consumer market, MS really needs to push out a low end device comparable to Android tablets (even better if CHEAPER) with pen support as standard. This will drive down the costs and increase the consumer footprint. May it happen!

 

[dcoward]

For the most part that has been my experience too on an 8" tablet. I only switch it to Tablet mode if children are going to play games on it. Generally I keep it in normal Desktop mode. It works great this way. Seamless with my laptop experience. Some widgets are difficult to "click" with a fat finger, but I still prefer it this way. And when using good apps like Netflix, it quickly switches to Full Screen anyway, like a "tablet". Overall I like the experience. It'd be even better with pen support, but my cheap tablet doesn't have that.

 

[TheFerrango]

Ugh.



Definitely a step back from Windows 8.1.

Horizontal scrolling in the start screen made a lot of sense, and I liked the layout more.
The charm bar is also something I miss quite a lot, it had all the useful things just there.

The tablet also feels a bit more sluggish than with Windows 8.1.

That might be just my cheap chinese tablet though.

On the pros, Win10 vastly improved my touchscreen's precision somehow, and the ability to install apps on the sd card is a life saver.

So pros to Win8.1 for UI and snappiness, and pros to Win10 for the ability to install apps and a better browser.


I'm still fairly certain that my next tablet won't be a Windows one, though.
Let's see what time will provide

 

[Happyiowan]

I bought an Acer Iconia Tab8 to watch videos. I have had general frustrations with the windows tablet for several reason. First, the keyboard opens with every new screen. The pop blocker is very poor. It will not save sign-ins for secure video like Netflix or HBO. To top off the list it will now not play unsecure video at all. When I attempt to access unsecure content, the websites open additional windows which immediately exit me from my desired window. When I return to the correct window, the tablet is blocking my viewing. Considering I bought the tablet with larger memory to watch video, the tablet is now garbage to me. I tried changing my security level and several settings but nothing worked. My frustration level is at level 10 and I have now disposed of my tablet. The problem with unsecure video is new and was the last straw that deemed my tablet as garbage. Windows 10 sucks and I feel like they were trying to babysit my usage. I am an adult and can decide where I want to view my videos.

 

[Drael646464]

I bought an Acer Iconia Tab8 to watch videos. I have had general frustrations with the windows tablet for several reason. First, the keyboard opens with every new screen. The pop blocker is very poor. It will not save sign-ins for secure video like Netflix or HBO. To top off the list it will now not play unsecure video at all. When I attempt to access unsecure content, the websites open additional windows which immediately exit me from my desired window. When I return to the correct window, the tablet is blocking my viewing. Considering I bought the tablet with larger memory to watch video, the tablet is now garbage to me. I tried changing my security level and several settings but nothing worked. My frustration level is at level 10 and I have now disposed of my tablet. The problem with unsecure video is new and was the last straw that deemed my tablet as garbage. Windows 10 sucks and I feel like they were trying to babysit my usage. I am an adult and can decide where I want to view my videos.

Windows 10 does not feature a "pop up blocker", that is something that either comes with, or is installed onto, a browser, of which windows 10, as an operating system has many (more AFAIK than any other operating system).

Same with password saving features and basically everything else you mentioned - those are either built into, or installed ontop of, as extensions, to the browser. They are not features of the operating system.

If you don't like the software it comes with, install something else (like chrome, opera, or any of the probably nearly one hundred browsers).

Personally for your problem I'd probably have suggested something like opera, with an extension to save your passwords +

Also, streaming services like Netflix have apps. You don't need to access them from the browser. So I'd say use an app, where there is an app.

Bit to late now, you've thrown your tablet in the garbage, but there it is anyway. Although I will say this, I would basically never recommend eight inches as a tablet size for windows. Maybe if you travel a lot, take a train every day, and it's got 4g, and its android, 8 inches might be worthwhile. Otherwise even android you should go bigger. 8.9 minimum. And windows, without a an active stylus - its pretty crappy on eight inches. I believe some of those eight inchers had god aweful 1gb of ram. 2gb is probably too small IMO, which is I think where Acer Iconia Tab8 comes in, 4gb is where it finally starts to run smooth IMO.

That also has a pretty old chipset. Cherry trail is about IMO, where cheaper windows tablets started to shine, especially as some of them came with 4gb.

So yeah, despite my observations about your issues, I still probably think your tablet was a ****ty experience. Not because it was windows, but because it wasn't well suited to windows. Too small a screen for a tab with no stylus, and not enough beef to be a smooth experience for a desktop OS. That CPU and ram might work fine for a mobile OS, like android, but windows is a real time OS, with a lot more going on under the hood in terms of software layers. As such, its really come into its own in the budget market, more recently.

I feel a bit jilted too about the eight inch windows tablet era. It seems like a great idea, everyone was making them. But in the very best case scenario, they were useful only to business people who travelled at ridiculous frequency - and even then, it was too small, and had no keyboard.

That said, people used to use android devices with 512gb ram, tablets included. You might even people still selling devices with 1gb of ram (2gb is where android starts to become fluid, proper). So for everyone its been a case of the hardware catching up.

 

[Some Gadget Geek]

I am one of the unlucky few to own a tablet powered by the Intel Atom Z2760 - namely, the ThinkPad Tablet 2 from Lenovo. At the time I bought the hardware it was only about 2 years old, and worked fabulously with Windows 8.1 including the digital pen, docking station, and Bluetooth keyboard attachment. But since upgrading to Windows 10, it has become increasingly problematic and buggy and as such I have set it aside, looking for a better replacement. I don't even know whether the fact that Intel has discontinued support for Windows 10 on this SoC is worth rejoicing at. Windows 10 is obviously meant for full-blown PCs and 2-in-1s over slate-type tablets, from the evidence that many of the tablet-friendly features of Windows 8 (such as the charms) have been removed. And besides, the sale of small Windows 10 tablets has waned in recent years. There was a reason Huawei never made a Windows 10 slate tablet, only Windows 10 2-in-1s or laptops.