Insignia 8 inch "Windows 8.1 with Bing" tablet for $99 at Best Buy

[dgr_874]

Re: Insignia 8 inch "Windows 8.1 with Bing" tablet for $99 at Best Buy

A Few thoughts after a couple of days..

Had to return the original one for a different one as there was no Office apps installed on it so I could not activate the free trial of Office 365. I brought the second one home and set it up without issues.

Pro's

PRICE, PRICE, PRICE! I can not say enough about how nice of a price this is at. Only 99 bucks for a full windows tablet in your hands.

Battery life has been pretty good so far. Not spectacular but decent.

The tablet is pretty smooth even with the 1 GB of ram. Very rarely do I notice it slow down or stutter.

Comes with a 16 GB SD card.

Cons

16 GB of memory sucks. After I activated and downloaded my office 365 suite I had a lousy 1.5 GB of free space. Since metro apps can't be downloaded to a SD card on Windows 8.1 and the hack to move them from Windows 8 no longer works, I quickly decided to remove everything I could and I ended up with about 4.5 GB of space. I don't think that much will serve me for long at all. Hopefully Windows 10 will allow metro apps on a SD Card.

Screen is slightly blurry to my eyes but still acceptable.

Overall, I think I enjoy the tablet enough to keep it. It works for me because I have many other computers and tablets around the house that will easily make up for any shortcoming this device has. I have my surface pro if I really need more horsepower on the go. If you wanted to do any sort of real work on an 8" tablet, this is not the device you are looking for. Spring for one with minimum 32 GB and 2 GB RAM. But, if you want a simple table for mostly internet browsing or casual games and don't want to spend a lot, this may be what you are looking for.

I'll be happy to answer any questions anyone has.

 

[noirsoft]

Re: Insignia 8 inch "Windows 8.1 with Bing" tablet for $99 at Best Buy

link on bestbuy.com now
Insignia 8" Flex Tablet Intel Atom 16GB NS-15MS08 - Best Buy
On storage, since I use a Surface Pro as my daily driver, I don't need to install a lot of apps on the mini tablet, so the 10GB of built-in storage is enough for OneNote, Nook and a few games, and the 16GB SD card is a nice bonus (since replaced with a 64 GB card)

 

[MP2100]

Re: Insignia 8 inch "Windows 8.1 with Bing" tablet for $99 at Best Buy

Deadwrong03,
Yes there is a front and rear camera. Pretty nice for $99.

 

[MP2100]

Re: Insignia 8 inch "Windows 8.1 with Bing" tablet for $99 at Best Buy

Would also be interested to see what people think of the 1gb of ram. Been looking at the DVP or the Thinkpad 8 but for quite a bit less this tablet is intriguing. The 1gb of ram though has me holding out.

Posted via Sony Xperia Z2

The 1 GB RAM is (surprisingly) not a major problem. Task manager shows 700 to 900 MB in use all the time. But that's with between one program running, and 8 programs running. It seems to be swapping background programs out of memory? I don't know how that could be, since there so little space.

The 16 GB of flash memory is the worse limitation. It fills up fast. That's why they included the 16 GB micro SD card. Again, I appreciate the SD card being included in the low low price.

 

[WillysJeepMan]

Re: Insignia 8 inch "Windows 8.1 with Bing" tablet for $99 at Best Buy

1GB RAM may not be a problem because it is running the 32-bit version of Windows 8.1. I'm still waiting for Christmas to permanently unbox mine, but I'm looking forward to running some vintage Win16 apps on it. I have tons of "Microsoft Home" Infotainment titles on CDROM (as well as other CD-based apps) that I'll install on it.

 

[peestandingup]

Re: Insignia 8 inch "Windows 8.1 with Bing" tablet for $99 at Best Buy

Can someone test (or show me somewhere in writing) the maximum resolution output from the HDMI port? My monitor is 1920x1200 (I know for sure it'll do 1080p).

 

[ToddKlindt]

Re: Insignia 8 inch "Windows 8.1 with Bing" tablet for $99 at Best Buy

I recently published an unboxing video for this tablet. I've got a Dell Venue 8 Pro, and 3 of these $99 budget tablets. The Insignia Flex 8 is the best of the cheapo tablets, by far.

tk

 

[Geodude074]

Re: Insignia 8 inch "Windows 8.1 with Bing" tablet for $99 at Best Buy

This and the HP Stream 7 are the best tablets you can buy for $99. Shame about the 1GB of RAM though, that would be the only thing holding me back from making it my daily device.

 

[WillysJeepMan]

Re: Insignia 8 inch "Windows 8.1 with Bing" tablet for $99 at Best Buy

This and the HP Stream 7 are the best tablets you can buy for $99. Shame about the 1GB of RAM though, that would be the only thing holding me back from making it my daily device.

Since the Insignia is running the 32-bit version of Windows, 1GB of RAM is not really an issue... at least not in my testing. The 16GB SSD storage is the real issue. I had to set up a directory alias so that I can "fool" software into installing and storing on the microSD card.

 

[Geodude074]

Re: Insignia 8 inch "Windows 8.1 with Bing" tablet for $99 at Best Buy

Since the Insignia is running the 32-bit version of Windows, 1GB of RAM is not really an issue... at least not in my testing. The 16GB SSD storage is the real issue. I had to set up a directory alias so that I can "fool" software into installing and storing on the microSD card.

Not sure why you think running 32 bit Windows will make 1 GB of RAM not an issue. 32 bit means it's less efficient than 64 bit. And 1 GB of RAM means there's less RAM, which is bad considering 2 GB of RAM isn't a lot to begin with.

The Lifehacker Guide to 64-bit vs. 32-bit Operating Systems

Does 64-Bit Use Double the RAM?

A common misconception about 64-bit Windows is the amount of RAM that is actually used—some people seem to think it will use double the RAM, while others incorrectly assume a 64-bit system will be twice as fast as 32-bit.

While it's true that 64-bit processes will take a little extra memory, that is a result of the memory pointers being a little bigger to address the larger amount of RAM, and not an actual double in size. Imagine, if you will, an ancient library filing system that has a card to tell you where to find the book in the library—if you got a bigger box to hold the cards, the library would not double in size, you'd just be able to find the book you were looking for more easily.

 

[Geodude074]

Re: Insignia 8 inch "Windows 8.1 with Bing" tablet for $99 at Best Buy

Also, I'm not sure why you think the 16 GB of storage is the issue as well lol. With Windows, as long as the device has expandable storage, like you found out you can just easily install your apps/media onto the expandable storage. So the 16 GB of internal storage is a nonissue.

 

[WillysJeepMan]

Re: Insignia 8 inch "Windows 8.1 with Bing" tablet for $99 at Best Buy

Not sure why you think running 32 bit Windows will make 1 GB of RAM not an issue. 32 bit means it's less efficient than 64 bit. And 1 GB of RAM means there's less RAM, which is bad considering 2 GB of RAM isn't a lot to begin with.

The Lifehacker Guide to 64-bit vs. 32-bit Operating Systems

Does 64-Bit Use Double the RAM?

A common misconception about 64-bit Windows is the amount of RAM that is actually used—some people seem to think it will use double the RAM, while others incorrectly assume a 64-bit system will be twice as fast as 32-bit.

While it's true that 64-bit processes will take a little extra memory, that is a result of the memory pointers being a little bigger to address the larger amount of RAM, and not an actual double in size. Imagine, if you will, an ancient library filing system that has a card to tell you where to find the book in the library—if you got a bigger box to hold the cards, the library would not double in size, you'd just be able to find the book you were looking for more easily.

32-bit is not less efficient than 64 bit. There is generally a larger storage and RAM footprint with 64-bit than with 32-bit. Obviously it isn't double, but it isn't the same either. So from a technical standpoint, 32-bit Windows will handle 1GB of RAM better than 64-bit Windows, relatively speaking.

In the mix of applications that I've run on the Insignia, I have not seen 1GB RAM be an issue.

 

[WillysJeepMan]

Re: Insignia 8 inch "Windows 8.1 with Bing" tablet for $99 at Best Buy

Also, I'm not sure why you think the 16 GB of storage is the issue as well lol. With Windows, as long as the device has expandable storage, like you found out you can just easily install your apps/media onto the expandable storage. So the 16 GB of internal storage is a nonissue.

It IS an issue because starting with Windows 8.1, Modern UI apps installed from the App Store cannot be installed on removable media.

That alias workaround is only good for legacy apps (like the Zune desktop software) that refuse to install or access data stored on removable media.

 

[MP2100]

Re: Insignia 8 inch "Windows 8.1 with Bing" tablet for $99 at Best Buy

Hi PeeStanding. I tested mine with a microHDMI cable. It displayed 1920x1080. By default, it only displays 1280x800. But use the Charms menu to change the display to "Project". That blanks the tablet screen, and shows full HD resolution.

 

[fangt317]

Re: Insignia 8 inch "Windows 8.1 with Bing" tablet for $99 at Best Buy

I just bought one today for $119.
Anyone else have an issue with the poor sound quality from the earphone jack? When I watch a video clip the background sounds are clear but when someone speaks, it sounds like the Deceptacons.

 

[WillysJeepMan]

Re: Insignia 8 inch "Windows 8.1 with Bing" tablet for $99 at Best Buy

I just bought one today for $119.
Anyone else have an issue with the poor sound quality from the earphone jack? When I watch a video clip the background sounds are clear but when someone speaks, it sounds like the Deceptacons.

Yes. Unfortunately that is what I call, "broken by design". It isn't a manufacturing defect that affects some devices but a design flaw that impacts all units. Insignia did a poor job with the headphone jack (noise isolation, etc.)

I've had mine since December 2014, and it has just developed an ever-so-slight "buzz"... the type that one hears with a fluorescent light. It is only noticeable when the room is dead quiet and I hold it up to my ear, but it's there.

​

 

[Clark Bennett]

Re: Insignia 8 inch "Windows 8.1 with Bing" tablet for $99 at Best Buy

This is the first tablet I've purchased. I wanted a full windows machine in a tablet format.
It works well enough, though I think I would prefer the browser to operate more like it does on my android. The full desktop experience is difficult to navigate even with a stylus.
I down loaded and installed Sketchup 2015 Pro a 3D modeling program and am happy with the performance (so far), but using the touch screen and stylus is a learning experience.
Overall I'm happy with the tablet.
Windows 8.1 not so much, but I think I just need to get used to using it on an 8" screen.