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Venue Review – A Teenager’s Take!

Thursday, 05 December 2013

Harry Brelsford

Geek Speak

1 Comment

geoff dell venue review In our continuing effort to keep it real, we set Geoff Brelsford, a senior at Bainbridge High School, loose with the new Dell Venue tablet these past few weeks. Here is his report:

(pictured: Geoff’s entire world is Windows 8.1 with his Dell Venue tablet, Nokia phone and desktop. It’s total integration between devices.)

The new Dell Venue tablet is perfect for the person who is always on the move. With Windows 8.1 and the introduction of online SkyDrive, anyone with a Microsoft account can access their information from anywhere in the world, provided they have internet access. What this means is that the tablet has become the ultimate tool for the traveler and the people on the go. It works great for getting work completed while moving from office to home, for working on something you want to use later on a different device, and for writing down quick notes or uploading pictures. The new Dell Venue tablet make use of this system to be able to reach across the globe to get that project you stored at home onto the tablet.

Pros:

Great Use of Microsoft Windows new operating system, Windows 8.1.
Able to access cloud programs with ease, great for quick changes to look at later on a desktop/laptop.
Tablet is small, convenient, and easy to carry.
Battery life is decent, lasting between 12 and 16 hours per use.
Easily connects to all parts of my life.
Interface is easier to use and the Dell Venue has great touch screen capability.
Connects to the cloud so all information is available via SkyDrive/One Note.

Cons:

No USB port, which means that user can only plug in power cord and headphone jack.
Requires a Windows email account to set up all online uses.
I experienced two issues with the keyboard system:
- I found that trying to type by hand was a bit shaky, causing a lot of misspelled words.
- The keyboard didn’t always pop up when I was trying to type in a text field.

The Windows Marketplace is not quite yet as established and diverse as the Android and Apple Martketplaces, but that may change.
While the Dell Venue is versatile, it cannot fully replace some key functionalities of a desktop or laptop.

Overall the Dell Venue is a great tablet to use as a complement to existing computer hardware. I would recommend it to the person who has a nice laptop and wants to maximize usage of work/personal computers with another device.

-- Geoffrey Brelsford

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Harry Brelsford

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Comments 1

Anthony E. Scandora, Jr. on Saturday, 28 December 2013 08:35

I like mine except for the part about the Dell Wireless 1538 802.11 a/g/n Adapter going out to lunch. I haven't yet discovered the trigger, but sometimes I turn mine on and there is no Wi-Fi service. Check Control Panel, Device Manager for Network adapters and the Wireless 1538 isn't there. Reboot usually brings it back. When rebooting my first one failed to bring it back I returned it to the store, and after resetting it to factory just before turning it in the 1538 finally came back.

My second one has the same problem. Every once in a while I turn it on and the 1538 is gone, even after Windows Update had nothing left to do. Microsoft Partner support told me to update the driver from Dell's web site. This is not a no-name white box. I'd like to think Dell is a major vendor that qualifies for drivers in Windows Update, particularly on a struggling product line, but they never asked me. I haven't run the updated driver from Dell long enough to know if it solves the problem.

Other than that, I like the device. It's small and light enough that I can hold it in one hand while I have a bagel or an iced tea in the other, and large enough that I can read PDFs and web pages comfortably. I stay mostly on the Modern side, and I prefer it to the Google Nexus 7 (7" Android) tablet I used before. The Desktop side is obviously too small for production work, but that's not what I bought it for. It does let me run Windows applications well enough for occasional very casual use, which is all I need and lets me go to many places without a relatively heavy laptop.

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My second one has the same problem.  Every once in a while I turn it on and the 1538 is gone, even after Windows Update had nothing left to do.  Microsoft Partner support told me to update the driver from Dell's web site.  This is not a no-name white box.  I'd like to think Dell is a major vendor that qualifies for drivers in Windows Update, particularly on a struggling product line, but they never asked me.  I haven't run the updated driver from Dell long enough to know if it solves the problem.

Other than that, I like the device.  It's small and light enough that I can hold it in one hand while I have a bagel or an iced tea in the other, and large enough that I can read PDFs and web pages comfortably.  I stay mostly on the Modern side, and I prefer it to the Google Nexus 7 (7" Android) tablet I used before.  The Desktop side is obviously too small for production work, but that's not what I bought it for.  It does let me run Windows applications well enough for occasional very casual use, which is all I need and lets me go to many places without a relatively heavy laptop.

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