Surface Pro is not the only choice

[lafester]

Dell Venue 11 Pro hands-on review: A Surface Pro 2 rival - PC Advisor

First video of the dell venue 11 pro. Looks pretty nice with the transformer like keyboard with battery. Nothing is mentioned about the digitizer/pen however which it is supposed to have.
Nice thing is you can configure it how you want... baytrail or i5 up to 8gb ram and 256 gb storage.

 

[chezm]

Dell Venue 11 Pro hands-on review: A Surface Pro 2 rival - PC Advisor

First video of the dell venue 11 pro. Looks pretty nice with the transformer like keyboard with battery. Nothing is mentioned about the digitizer/pen however which it is supposed to have.
Nice thing is you can configure it how you want... baytrail or i5 up to 8gb ram and 256 gb storage.

embargoed until later today according to website...gotta check out tonight or tomorrow

 

[lafester]

There are quite a few videos up now looks like the embargo is over.

 

[chfhyh]

looks interesting. it has under powered CPU though. i am interested to see what the XPS 11 will be like. hope it has the battery life of xps 12

There are quite a few videos up now looks like the embargo is over.

 

[lafester]

looks interesting. it has under powered CPU though. i am interested to see what the XPS 11 will be like. hope it has the battery life of xps 12

How is it underpowered? You can get 8gb I5 if you want.

 

[chfhyh]

it uses Y series, 11.5w CPU with 4200HD graphics

How is it underpowered? You can get 8gb I5 if you want.

 

[lafester]

it uses Y series, 11.5w CPU with 4200HD graphics

Ahh ok. Trade off for a fanless device?

 

[chfhyh]

Yes

Ahh ok. Trade off for a fanless device?

 

[chezm]

Looks cool but I've had bad experiences with Dell in the past...so its not an option id take. Still cool to see other OEM following the model.

 

[amoodie]

I have no idea why more people aren't going crazy for the Sony Tap 11 tablet. It's got lots of power and according to the reviews, 8 hr battery life. If I didn't already have a Win 8 tablet, that would be the one I would get in a heartbeat.

 

[lafester]

I have no idea why more people aren't going crazy for the Sony Tap 11 tablet. It's got lots of power and according to the reviews, 8 hr battery life. If I didn't already have a Win 8 tablet, that would be the one I would get in a heartbeat.

Well the setup makes it pretty much impossible to use as a laptop so that kind of ruins it for me. The tablet itself looks nice.

 

[chfhyh]

yoga pro is out of the race since it has single channel ram which hinders HD4400...

 

[thejoyofsobe]

I'm personally very interested in the Sony Tap 11. yes, it lacks "lapability" but it's also 11.6" which is really the size i feel like is necessary to run Visual Studio on. Moreover it's got GPS, NFC and SIM card slot.
The keyboard ostensibly appears to be more usable for my purposes than the Type Cover as it's physically wider, already wireless (i.e. no $60 add-on which requires as separate battery) and you don't have to hit an oddly placed Fn key to access the F1-12 keys and the placement of the Page Up/Page Down/Home/End keys is more intuitive to me than the Type Cover.
For people like me who intend to be constantly using Miracast the IR blaster might even prove useful and for left-handed folks like myself the placement of the digitizer clip is nice.

That's not to say it's a perfect machine. It's a Y series i5 processor with HD4200 graphics for which Sony claims only a 6 hour battery life so more tests are necessary to corroborate that recent 8.5 hour "light browsing" test result. The stylus is N-Trig rather than the more common Wacom and unlike the Surface Pen, it requires a AAAA battery and I hate changing batteries. Moreover when held vertically there's some noticeable shading issues on the prototypes at IFA and you can't use it in your lap.

All told if it the i5 128GB version comes in at $1199 as expected and i can reliably get 6 hours from normal usage as opposed to some thinking it might even dip below 5 then Sony's probably won me over. The Surface Pro 2 is more powerful in a thicker body with a smaller screen for roughly the same amount of money once you add a Type Cover and the wireless add-on. For me the Surface Pro 2 is a close second right now but hopefully we'll seem them both (along with the Dell Venue 11 Pro and the yet-to-be announced Lenovo Yoga tablet) in stores to try out in person.

 

[mkslive]

How do you guys compare the Dell Venue Pro to Surface Pro 2? Is is a valid option? I really want the XPS 11, but I need a new PC sooner rather than later, and the XPS 11 has not got an official date in Norway yet.

 

[chfhyh]

I think the device really is designed for bay trail for what I read. it has a small battery like 37 wh for the i5 configuration. again, it has a Y series i5 too, which is slower.

btw, xps 11 might also have Y series core and only 40 wh battery, not confirmed though

How do you guys compare the Dell Venue Pro to Surface Pro 2? Is is a valid option? I really want the XPS 11, but I need a new PC sooner rather than later, and the XPS 11 has not got an official date in Norway yet.

 

[yanglee]

Surface Pro does not support Connected Standby, this is a deal breaker for me.

I have checked probably all major players and Sony VAIO Fit 13A will be my next notebook/tablet.

Sony VAIO Fit 13A specs:

12 hour battery life (14~15" versions only 7.5 hour)
1.31 kg
Stylus (N-trig)
Up to i7-4500U
Up to 8 GB RAM
Up to 512 GB SSD

It probably will support Connected Standby just like Sony VAIO Duo 13.

Presale will start in second half of October. Price starts at 129,800 yen (1337 USD).

I cannot post my source here because it's in Japanese (Sony Japan). The last time I posted a link to a non-English website caused my account being automatically suspended by the forum system.

Update: Also reported by Engadget.

 

[yanglee]

The battery life of the new Sony VAIO Duo 13 is crazy, they claim the world's longest battery life - about 19 hours!

 

[chfhyh]

thanks, but it cannot be 12 hours battery life... the same website rates vaio pro 13 10 to 13 hours, when in reality, it only lasts about 7 hours with CPU throttling. i think it is safe to say the battery will be about 7 hours as well for 13A.

Surface Pro does not support Connected Standby, this is a deal breaker for me.

I have checked probably all major players and Sony VAIO Fit 13A will be my next notebook/tablet.

Sony VAIO Fit 13A specs:

12 hour battery life (14~15" versions only 7.5 hour)
1.31 kg
Stylus (N-trig)
Up to i7-4500U
Up to 8 GB RAM
Up to 512 GB SSD

It probably will support Connected Standby just like Sony VAIO Duo 13.

Presale will start in second half of October. Price starts at 129,800 yen (1337 USD).

I cannot post my source here because it's in Japanese (Sony Japan). The last time I posted a link to a non-English website caused my account being automatically suspended by the forum system.

Update: Also reported by Engadget.

 

[yanglee]

thanks, but it cannot be 12 hours battery life... the same website rates vaio pro 13 10 to 13 hours, when in reality, it only lasts about 7 hours with CPU throttling. i think it is safe to say the battery will be about 7 hours as well for 13A.

Since I cannot post links to non-English websites, I attached a few screenshots below (URL is also captured, you can copy to web browser).

My Japanese is quite bad. But I read battery life of:

VAIO Fit 13A: about 12 hours;
VAIO Duo 13: about 19 hours;
VAIO Pro 13: about 26 hours;

After checked the battery life for the new VAIO Pro 13, I think something must be wrong with my Japanese reading comprehension. How could it possible, 26 hours?!

 

[yanglee]

thanks, but it cannot be 12 hours battery life... the same website rates vaio pro 13 10 to 13 hours, when in reality, it only lasts about 7 hours with CPU throttling. i think it is safe to say the battery will be about 7 hours as well for 13A.

Ah, sorry mate I miss read your post. I thought you thought my data might not be from the official site, so I posted the screenshots.

7 hours is not too bad for me although I hope it could be 8+ hours.