Dell Venue 8 and 11 Pro -- Stylus Problems and Possible Fixes....

much of the discussion about this important issue is getting lost amongst the rave reviews of the Venue 8 Pro.

Since this issue is a dealbreaker/dealmaker for many wanting an 8" formfactor device you canthrowon a beltclip with full portability and full Windows on it, I thought it'd be best to try and consolidate everyone's experiences. As for mines...


....we cant expect a full Wacom experience, but the continued inking alphanumerics once we've stopped writing one of them is a huge issue.

For example, in writing the word Dell, our hands NATURALLY transition from the bottom left corner of the D to the beginning next letter, which is usually the line in the "e." Well, once the stylus is lifted from the D, it continues to ink in the direction of the e, then it continues to ink from the bottom of the e to the top of the l,...the same for the next l, and we're done if we only have to write one word. Well as you might guess all of the lifting stray ink errors make for an ok drawing experience but an absolutely horrible note-taking experience.

Get rid of the trails and stray marks where the pen can stop communicating with the digitizer panel once it's lifted every time and....again...it wont be Wacom,...but I'd certainly be happy with it because the placement of the pen to where it begins to write is pretty darn accurate. At this point,....all that we need to know is, is this fixable, or is this inherent?

 

I still can't believe Delll will ship a new product without any testing.

Maybe they test the stylus on windows 8, so it could be some software issue with Windows 8.1.

 

I would never want to understate Dell's potential to blow it on a key feature - much less overall quality control! I want to believe this is a "new Dell," and certain of their new products suggest at least their design innovation has returned, but as we all know, the devil is in the details, and these models seem to have come out of the gate too quickly to have all of those ironed out. My standard policy - often violated by impulse! - is never to buy the first production run of an entirely new product unless it is more for learning than for actual use, and as long as it is 100% returnable.

 

Thank you for your purchase of the Dell Venue 8 Pro. We appreciate your feedback on the stylus, and apologize for your experience. A firmware update for the stylus will be available next week to address this issue.

 

That is a extremely bold statement, and one that a lot of people may have been wanting to hear. I don't suppose there is any way to corroborate that? Or for you to confirm that you are a representative of Dell? I think that would go a long way to sway opinion back to Dell's favour, after releasing such a lack luster pen performance.

 

Totally agree that this is the most important post we've seen on the DV8 so far. Just need verification.

 

Yes, #Iwork4Dell. A firmware update will be posted next week. Thank you for your patience.

 

Hope it fixes most of the stray marks! #unnecessaryhashtagthisainttwitter

 

I wonder if the fix will make the pen at all usable for any drawing? It is not my primary reason for the tablet, but I would not mind having the option... #IamSuperman... (That's all I have to do to be Superman, right?)

 

Eerie!

Should we be paying attention to the being behind the hashtag?

 

I was just going to say, if you search for the hashtag in twitter, you may find the guy you're looking for. Supposedly a Dell certified systems expert.

 

I posted this over in the owner's forum.. I wrote a little diagnostic/test application to simulate what could be done with a bit of timing adjustment in the driver/firmware. Give it a shot if you have a pen and see if your results improve.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/97577931/P-Test3.zip

Edit: Updated the app to add some new options.

 

DPrice7, I played a bit with your diagnostic program using the 64gb of the Venue 8 Pro. I think the stylus can be saved with a good firmware patch. I have two observations, first: the stylus seems to be hyper-sensitive. It records pressure ranging from 1-10 on your diagnostic program when the stylus hovers above the screen and makes no contact. This leaves stray marks all over the screen.

The setting that seemed to provide the best result on the handwriting was the shorten stroke, set to about 50. For my style of writing (printing), it was acceptable. If the firmware can dial down the sensitivity by about 10 on your diagnostic scale, and shorten the stroke by 50, the stylus would be perfect for taking notes. Thanks for the diagnostic tool.

 

Thanks for making this thread!
Will the pen input update be automatic or will someone post a link to it once it becomes available. Sorry, just used to Android Play Store updates on apps, keep forgetting my DV8P is a full Windows PC.

 

There is an official Dell forum discussion regarding the Poor Pen Function and the Dell representative there seems to be unaware of this promise and just states that "we are in discussion with the manufacturer to try to get a solution" (or something to that effect). Do you think it would be possible for you to inform you colleague if he is unaware, it would be nice if we could get a unified answer on this.


Time I Enjoy Wasting is Not Time Wasted....

 

I wouldn't worry to much about it. Knowledge between Dell representatives is weak at best (true for most customer relations). People have received email responses from Neil Hand (VP of Dell tablets) and he's saying a software fix is coming. He's pretty high up so unless the people lied about getting emails, some form of improvement is bound to come.

 

I do hope so......with a potential 'hack fix' for the charging issue appearing to get closer, I still may be persuaded.

If Dell manage to pull this off they will potentially change the game and I bet the V8P.2 will be amazing (if the criticism is listened too) - I know we are a 'relatively' small number of potential users but this price/form factor could easily bring Windows back into the game - I'm a avid Android fan and this is the first windows device for a good 5-8years that has gained my attention, fingers crossed it works. I certainly haven't seen this much chatter about a windows device for a very, very long time.


Time I Enjoy Wasting is Not Time Wasted....

 

You are being surprisingly catty. If you don't want to buy the product, don't buy it. Let the people who have the product have a discussion about the stylus without trolling all the current owner threads.

 

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be, I really want this product to work, just frustrated trying to get the information. Once again I'm sorry, on reading it back I agree and have edited my post to try to correct the cattiness.



Time I Enjoy Wasting is Not Time Wasted....

 

Sorry, I too am a little frustrated with Dell and I snapped at you.

I do actually think runner is a dell employee, since he did use the weird hash tag. And I am desperately hoping that there will be a fix for the stylus soon. With my writing style its not so bad, but my gf finds it totally useless as of now.