Venue 8 Pro and Logos 5

I recently purchased a "scratch and dent" Dell Venue 8 Pro 64gb from the Dell Outlet.  It was listed at $229 plus an additional 20% off coupon.  I was nervous about its condition, but it is like new in every way.

I'm running Logos 5 on the internal memory (since it is my primary reason for owning the tablet) and I'm installing all other apps on the 64gb microSD.  My Logos files are approximately 35gb but I have about 8gb free for indexing.  It works wonderfully!  I couldn't be happier with it.

What about this one instead?

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2457932,00.asp

Also which of the two units above will be soon outdated and which currently is the best please?  Doesnt Logos need a digitizer Bill?...I tend to think so on my overheating Surface Pro which I am eager to ditch.

I found this on one review

"The Dell Venue 8 Pro is a Windows 8.1 entry-level tablet that certainly corrects the problems that can crop up when from using mobile tablets like the iPad or Google Nexus families. But is it a replacement for a Windows laptop PC? On that, we're not so sure."

I second Duane and Bill's experience.  I have the VivoTab Note 8 and the performance is a very pleasant surprise.  I actually bought a Dell Venue 8 also and felt that it had a better built, but decided to return it because that particular unit had a faulty microUSB port, and I opted for the Note 8's stylus.

I wasn't very impressed with the Note 8's stylus.  It is harder to use than I expected.  However, with Logos 5 the most mobile way to highlight text is with that stylus, and with some setting tweaks, it by and large works and allows me to select and highlight text.  The alternative would be to bring my bulky Microsoft bluetooth mouse around with me.

Duane / Bill -- Can you enlighten me how to connect either of these machines to a larger external monitor?  What connectors do I need to have?

Thanks,

Peter

Duane Erstad, Ph.D. said:

I have been using Logos 5 with a 32 GB Dell Venue 8 Pro with a large micro SD card for some weeks by this time.

I have the same setup, I like it too.

A few items worth mentioning that I've discovered through experimentation, all help to improve speed:

• Format SD card to NTFS, 
• Try and get a card at with at least twice as much space as the size of your Logos library. The indexer really likes the extra elbow room.
• Buy the highest quality class 10 card you can afford. I noticed quite a difference between the Sandisk Ultra, the Extreme, and the Extreme Plus. With the latter being noticeably faster.

I doubt it, because the internal eMMC is faster than a Class 10 microSD card. That said, on my Asus, there isn't much difference at all between running Logos from the internal drive vs. the microSD. I tried both.

Bill Anderson said:

I doubt it, because the internal eMMC is faster than a Class 10 microSD card. That said, on my Asus, there isn't much difference at all between running Logos from the internal drive vs. the microSD. I tried both.

I did the same as Peter. I moved the recovery partition to a thumb drive. They had allocated almost 8GB to that partition. Having recovered that I have plenty of free space. [:D]

Plus, remember that Office comes free on both of these machines.

Josh;

I fear outmoded is a relative term. More to the point, it relates to our spoiled child within. [:P] I have bought several machines in the last decade. Recently I dug out an old Dell laptop ....Pentium 4, XP, maxed out at 2GB ram. Funny thing is....it  runs L4 very well. I also have a netbook ...atom processor...also 2GB ram. Not quite as fast...but it searches faster than I type. So you see, These machines don't wear out, or get slower. .... We get progressively more spoiled. [:P]

Duplicate post. 

Thanks Paul, I'll camp their site to see if they restock em.

My experience with Miracast isn't with the VP8, but rather with the Yoga 2 Pro.  I normally stream shows from TV.com with it to our bedroom TV.  There is a noticeable delay for streaming...the picture on the TV is always a few frames/seconds behind the laptop.  However, the effect is likely not as prounounced for a simple desktop app like Powerpoint. I'll see if I can try it and report back.

Josh,

Just FYI -- I have read that some Venue 8 pro owners report thermal issues. Knowing this is important to you, I would investigate this.

Bill

Duane Erstad, Ph.D. said:

I'd be eager to hear from Bill how his stylus integrates with Logos and a tablet. If anyone has had good experience with Dell's active stylus, I'd really like to hear about that as well.

Duane, I have the Asus Vivotab Note 8. As you described with your Dell Venue Pro 8, the Asus runs very cool. 

As far as the stylus goes, the stylus on the Asus integrates with Logos wonderfully. Highlighting is a breeze, for example. I scroll with my finger and then use the pen to invoke other actions, like bring up the library, close out resources, etc. The only problem is that being a Wacom digitizer, accuracy degrades around the edges of the digitizer. I get around this by running a Logos window that is slightly smaller than maximized.

Bill

JoshInRI said:

Also, I tried one locked down at Walmart and it was so dark...too dark in fact.  Is the resolution really as crummy as some say online?

What about brightness? (I just read Bill's comment on the heat...so I may pass or wait.)

The resolution and brightness of the Dell Venue 8 Pro are fine, as far as I'm concerned. My DV8P will get warm when running videos and games. That really doesn't bother me. I would say the Dell Active Stylus is good, but not great. It works pretty well for highlighting and navigating in Logos. It runs on a AAAA battery, so you need to keep those on hand. Also, you have to purchase it in addition to purchasing the tablet. I like using the handwriting option on the on-screen keyboard to enter text in search boxes, etc.

My Verdict on your Verdict: >>> The Bold text in your quote >>>

JoshInRI said:

My verdict on this hardware

• It will soon be improved.  >>> All hardware will be antiquated soon.  
• The screen is too dim. >>> You have been told that is not true. Have you actually tried the Venue?
• There is some evidence that occasionally it runs "hot". Again, An Unfounded assertion. The coolest running machine I have encountered.
  I do not need another handwarmer - I own an original Surface Pro HOT SLAB already. Feel free to slam what you know about. Please try the Venue before bashing it.

To date there is no Windows 8 inch machine that I think runs Logos 5 effectively with a readable font that is  "retina-like".
No wonder Logos hasnt invested a lot of time or energy into developing touch capability yet. >>> There are many posts form Logos employees that state that they are, indeed, working on touch issues. You need to do research before posting.  I have previously defended your right to whine. But, Please whine factually. [:P]

 

JoshInRI said:

Open up 20 commentaries at once and leave it running for 30 minutes or more = instant radiation.

JoshInRI said:

Open up 20 commentaries at once and leave it running for 30 minutes or more = instant radiation.

[Y]

Windows 8.1 has a Start/Windows "button" built into the taskbar. It could not be more convenient. It really makes a physical Windows button obsolete.

The newest bios and firmware updates have successfully addressed the sketchy pen functionality. I use a generic capacitive stylus ( $2 on eBay) It works just fine. The only con is the issue of highlighting. The oem stylus has a button. I suppose that could be used to facilitate highlighting. ... but it's $30 and it's just not that big of a deal to me. The touchmousepointer app solves that problem for now. (A bluetooth mouse is still another option.) I still expect Logos to make improvements in touch and pen capabilities that may be even more seamless solutions.

This is a great thread.  Thought I'd throw in my year long experience with the Dell Venue 8 Pro to assist anyone thinking of buying one or a similar device.  My library would not fit on my 32Bg V8P so I used a SD card.  This worked OK on and off but was not really stable.  Inevitably Indexing would fail.  Also the SD card would just disappear as a drive with the only resolution being to reseat the card.  So recently, I traded in my 32Gb V8P and bought a used 64Gb version. This has solved all the issues I had and has worked beautifully.

So, my personal recommendation to anyone considering buying a Bay Trail Windows tablet would be to be sure you get one that has 2GB of RAM and at least a 64GB eMMC primary drive.  I would stay away from the newer HP and Dell devices that have cut the RAM back to 1GB and only have 32GB eMMC drives. YMMV.

Having said all that, once you've used one teaching you will love it.  I can lay out my V8P with the Dell keyboard and a BT mouse on a standard podium.  I can flip between Logos, Web, PowerPoint, You Tube etc as I teach.  Additionally I am using  Netgear PTV3000 to wirelessly transmit to my projector (this works great for static images - for video I hardwire).