Vivotab Note 8 - Buy now, or wait?

I'd wait a bit longer. While May 20th is an interesting date, June "something" will be more interesting. That's when the rumored Surface Mini will hit the stores and get into the hands of users. While the AVN8 is conceptually interesting, too many problems keep me away from it. ASUS support history doesn't help either.

Personally I can't afford a closet full of stuff that sounded good but didn't work well. My gut tells me the Surface Mini *should* stay out of the closet. We'll see.

Of course, YMMV.

 

I've had an AVN8 for nearly 75 days so far. I've had a CPU failure and the display on the second unit has two lines of bad pixels. The failure rate on the tablet is frightfully high. On the other hand, I use it constantly and it travels with me everywhere I go. It is perfect for work. It is just built like crap and likely to fail. I just can't see anything in the foreseeable future that can take its place - MS Surface Mini included. So, I purchased a 2 year extended warranty and am hoping that will suffice to prevent being without the unit for too long when (not if) it fails. When it works, however, there is nothing on the market as perfectly designed to suit my portable tablet needs. Plus, it works quite well for productivity on the road with a decent Bluetooth keyboard. Here is a picture of the M80TA and keyboard next to my 13.3" Thinkpad X301 Notebook. It looks like Mini-me.

 

Well.....I hope your current one can get past the 90 day mark....which from what I've been able to gather is the longest reported usage before the digitizer fails.

I totally agree with you that size/capabilities make the Asus note 8 so damn useful...just a damn shame the failure rate is so high. Now that I've been able to experience the digitizer failure and now caught up on all the threads regarding it, I have to rescind my recommendation to purchase this tablet. Since the failure rate can happen at the 90 day mark.....really no unit is safe from potential failure.

 

I am assuming a 100% chance of failure for my unit. I have already had to exchange one and I will have to bring this unit back to MS for failing pixels in the display. Pen failure, yea most likely. Why do I like this table so much again? My problem is that I like it better than all the alternatives until I can get another 8" BayTrial Wacom tablet.

 

and I applaud you for your perseverance Bronsky.......but even if you assume 100% failure rate....ultimately the device has lost your confidence, and for my uses that's a very bad thing.

for the past three months I've gotten quite used to schlepping the Note 8 around everywhere as my sole device because it worked. It's not so much of a issue when you can make do without the pen...but I use the note 8 for art 95% of the time . While the tablet itself may work, let the lack of the digitizer makes it near useless for me.

Most likely I'm going to have mine RMAed by Asus......but even if it comes back working, I'm never gonna feel as comfortable taking it around as my sole device anymore since the threat of the digitizer failing is so vast and likely.

prior to the failure I would grab my note 8 and leave for the day without a second thought. But now doubt is gonna be there and I'll be more inclined to bring a back up tablet (tpt2) with me as well. But now that I'm bringing 2 tablets with me......kind of defeats the purpose of bringing the note 8 at all.

 

You know, when I read my own post, I sound crazy. The bottom line is that I have my old Fuji tablet as a back up if I need it and the Asus just performs so well. But 100% failure rate ... what am I thinking?

 

The appeal of this device (aside from the ringing endorsements of everyone on this forum and the near-perfect proportion: performance) is pretty straightforward:

With the Venue 8 Pro, the question remains "is the pen working yet?" With the Vivotab it's "has your pen stopped working?"

 

I can't speak for others, but, if one day I'm without my tablet on the go, and the pen fails it isn't that big a deal. If I absolutely must write something down I'm sure I can find paper somewhere. Most likely though it is going to fail at my desk where I use it the most and have a backup.

 

And I'm just the opposite. I use it strictly as a portable (super-portable?) and it becomes excruciatingly annoying if the pen suddenly stops working. I bought the Surface Pro 2 in order to specifically annotate PDF files, but it is simply to heavy for a female's muscles. After ten to fifteen minutes I just can't hold it any longer. The AVN8 is soo much easier to hold in one hand while going through the text with a stylus in the other. Going to a coffee shop or sitting by the ocean and actually do work while enjoying life at the same time is such a boon to productivity. Worrying about possible pen failure? Just the opposite!

 

Yea, I get it. I think many people should probably steer clear of this thing until they figure this out. For me though, I just don't worry about it. It will likely work for at least a couple months without failure and once it does I'll have one bad day where I have to send it in.

It is different once the first symptoms have shown and you are fighting with it trying to figure out if it is really dead or not, but I'm just going straight to the backup at that point and sending it in.