Of the 3 Penabled 8-inchers, Asus Vivo Note 8, HP Envy Note 8, and Dell 8 5855.....the Dell is simply the Best speced The Asus has good old EMR Wacom (pending on your digitizer cable luck), but a Low res screen, Micro USB, and Baytrail Atom The HP and Dell use Wacom AES....which in some ways is superior on a 8inch device (no parallax, better edge accuracy, no cursor drift), both use the slightly better Cherry Trail Atom, and both have high res 1080 screens. but HP made a huge mistake by making its 8 Envy Note only available in one configuration......2GB of Ram, and 32GB Emmc storage....while the constant $100-$200 sale prices are nice....those specs just limit too much what you can do with it. I had both the Asus Note 8 32GB & 64GB.......even for a few art apps......32GB is just woefully inadequate. Dell made the smart choice to make its 5855 available in higher configurations....mostly the 4GB of Ram and 64GB Emmc config was highly coveted. Sadly the Dell 5855 isn't nearly available or as cheap as the HP Envy Note. Making it more complicated is that Dell put out an earlier model with the Synaptics Pen....even if you find an auction or a sale for the Wacom model....it might be the Synaptics model instead. The Dell also uses USB-C, which future proofs it a bit better then micro USB. I still think its a shame Intel Killed the Atom line.....we probably won't see another decent 8-incher till Core M can be shrunk down to that size.
There were two DV8P 5855 4gb/64gb scratch and dent models available on the Dell Outlet for $199. They're out of stock now! Since I can't use my own devices online at the school I teach at I requested for the district to purchase a model. I wish I would have sprung for it myself, but it's out of stock now. I just wish I could use my own devices onlline.
I agree that the demise of the Atom is disappointing, but I think it's a symptom, not a cause. The phablet seems to have killed off the market for smaller tablets in general. Within the span of about a year Windows launched Windows 10 (obviously built around the larger Surface devices), Intel killed off the Atom, and OEMs stopped manufacturing and pushing smaller tablets. Oh, and Samsung made it's first penabled 12'' Windows tablet while iPad came out with the massive iPad Pro. I don't think any of those developments are unrelated, and they are all following market trends. Which leaves this small, dedicated community of small tablet devotees behind. I read about a year ago that Microsoft and OEMs were looking at putting snapdragon processors into Windows tablets, but I won't hold my breath.
That is actually happening, Windows 10 for ARM devices is in the works. I believe it is the longer battery life that is the allure, rather than smaller size, but maybe both will happen. Twitter is to communications as haiku is to literature.
My ATVN8 is still going strong, never replaced a thing on it (only once I had to open it to wiggle the cable). However, I almost lost the digitizer once already (it's getting loose in its socket, I find it laying on the street while I went back to my car... I use my ATVN8 as shopping list). I don't have a problem with battery life, I never had a problem with battery life on the ATVN8 either. I never use it continually and if I do, I'm generally sitting at a desk with the ability to charge. And that's where I really like the Dell over the Asus: USB-C! Dell made a few weird decisions on this one: same name, 99% same formfactor... It made searching for the one I wanted a pain. Luckily, as I wanted the 4Gb/64Gb version, that was a good way to differentiate Me neither, unless they manage to let simple x86/x64 run on snapdragons. That's why I want a full windows tablet and not an Android. I want to run legacy applications. You'll just have another Android-like device, where you can only install from a store and the reason to buy it would be completely gone for me.
I find legacy software difficult to use on that form factor. It can be done, but it is no pleasure. Balbutio ergo sum
Man, oh man I wish I had bid on this! http://www.ebay.com/itm/282351698270?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT It went for $51!
It might be difficult, at least some things are, but at least you can do it. Not everything runs well or even runs, but things like Calibre work perfectly. I even have some older games installed on it (via GoG). Also something as simple as the windows explorer I miss greatly on my Android or Windows Mobile. It all feels so... clunky...
Missing Explorer is something I have no problem relating to, but trying to hit some of the boxes in the UI, even with the stick pen, is a lot like playing slot machines, a lot of misses and then a small insignificant hit. Balbutio ergo sum
