A cheap 8in Android tablet, but it's no bargain.
The Venue 8 is Dell’s latest Android tablet. If it looks familiar that’s because it comes wrapped in exactly the same hardware as the Dell Venue 8 Pro, but runs Android 4.4 KitKat instead of Windows 8.1.
From the outside both tablets look identical, cased as they are in the same sturdy, black plastic. The narrow borders to the right and left of the screen (when held vertically) make it somewhat tricky to hold and use with one hand, though the ribbed rear compensates for this somewhat with its easy-to-grip texture.
At 338g, the Venue is virtually the same weight as the metallic iPad Mini 2, so it’s light enough to carry around without difficulty. The Venue is a tad thicker than Apple’s 8in tablet to accommodate a handy microSD card slot for adding more storage to the built-in 16GB. One design improvement would be to raise the power and volume buttons (which are flush with the casing) to make them easier to press.
Text looks very sharp thanks to the 1920x1200-pixel resolution of the 8in display which is far higher than the 1280x800 resolution of its Windows 8.1 counterpart. However, the display looks washed-out and colour accuracy suffers as a result. The five-megapixel camera isn’t very good either. Even in bright daylight, photos were spoiled by a lack of sharpness and lots of noise.
The biggest problems with the Venue 8, however, are responsiveness and battery life. Although its dual-core 2.13GHz Intel Atom Z3480 processor excelled in our 3D graphics and web page-loading tests, it struggled to run multiple apps at the same time due to its meagre 1GB of memory.
Another frustrating element is the touchscreen, which often lagged behind our finger gestures (such as typing or scrolling). Battery life wasn’t up to snuff either. When playing videos continuously, the battery lasted just over seven hours, which is way behind other mini tablets.
The version of Android 4.4 KitKat on the Venue 8 is almost completely unchanged from Google’s original design. Dell’s only additions are software from Intel and Maxx Audio that are supposed to improve video and audio quality, but they made little difference in our tests.
We like the Venue 8’s tough build quality, but unless you’re really smitten with it and its SD card slot, Asus’ similarly priced Nexus 7 is far better value. It’s much more responsive and has a longer battery life.
SPECIFICATIONS: 8in 1920x1200-pixel touchscreen • 2.13GHz Intel Atom Z3480 dual-core processor • 1GB memory • 16GB storage • Intel Integrated graphics chip • Android 4.4 KitKat • 338g • 9x130x216mm (HxWxD) • One-year warranty
VERDICT: A low price, sturdy design and an SD card slot can't hide this tablet's numerous flaws, from slow responsiveness to short battery life.