Venue 8 VS Acer W4

[swanlee]

So now that the Surface mini is dead I'm done waiting and want an 8 inch Win 8 tablet

I currently have a Surface Pro and love it but really want something smaller with better battery life

My main uses will be web surfing and using it as a portable audio player. I use the metro app "media monkey" as my audio player which reads my dlna audio library through wifi and I will transition that function to the 8 inch tablet.

So battery life and sound quality out of the head phone output will be top priories.

Reasons I would consider the Acer is from what I've read it has better battery life and a faster hard drive

The Venue seems to have better built quality and has active pen support and 10 point touch

How is the head phone output on the Venue? Does it sound clean, is it powerful enough to really drive a decent pair of headphone?

What is the real everyday battery life like? As a portable audio player is their anything in it that really makes it better than the Acer?

Any advice is appreciated.

 

[quadtronix]

I can't speak for the Acer, never used one. But the Venue 8 pro, IMO, is spectacular! I almost want to say you can't go wrong with the Dell. However.... you mentioned wanting to do web browsing on it and I have to give you a heads up. When browsing (which is what I mostly use it for) if you tap or swipe to scroll too softly on the screen it sometimes registers as a double tap. Thus it zooms in or out by accident. It doesn't happen that often especially if you tap/swipe hard enough but thought Id mention that. Also when in airplane mode if you switch back to WiFi-on it can get screwy... and need to be rebooted. The way I have delta with that is to keep WiFi on at all times. That said, the connection is always great. Plus leaving WiFi on, I still get superb battery life!! Very surprising, I know. But its true. I use the 8 Pro alongside my iPad mini interchangeably and get at least 2 or 3 days from a single charge. The iPad mini has slightly better battery life though.

The two issues I mentioned may be unique to my unit. I have not read anyone else having these issues. Other than that though, I highly recommend this tablet... I'm writing this on it right now.

Edit: forgot to mention... I had the Surface RT but sold it. Get much better battery life out of the Dell and am happy I switched. I was waiting for the Surface mini too. its a shame, but at least we still have great options like these from other manufacturers. I can't say anything for the headphone jack, can't remember ever using it but the speakers on the Dell are amazing! Very loud, very good sound... hope I helped.

Sent from my Venue 8 Pro 5830 using Tapatalk

 

[Armada]

It's a great tablet, but wonky WiFi is a known issue. I'm hoping it's just a driver issue (probably linked to power states) that'll be tracked down. When it stays connected, which is most of the time, it's brilliant.