Dell Venue 8 Pro tablet Review and Specification

The Dell Venue 8 Pro is a great first Windows 8.1 tablet. With very few frills, the 8-inch tablet gets the basics right, providing a true Windows 8.1 experience in a small, portable, and light package.


The Dell Venue 8 Pro tablet comes with the Intel Atom Z3740D quad-core processor and the full Windows 8.1 operating system. It does not come with a keyboard dock, something that’s included on a similar Windows 8.1 tablet around the same price point, the ASUS T100.

The tablet sports an 8-inch IPS LCD screen with 1,280 x 800p resolution, powered by a quad core Intel Atom processor clocked at 1.34GHz with Intel HD Graphics, and supported by 2GB of RAM. Despite being only 0.35 x 5.25 x 8.5-inches in dimension, and weighing only 13.4 ounces (less than a pound), the Venue 8 Pro packs a 4830 mAh battery that gets the tablet anywhere between eight and a half to nine and a half hours of normal use.

The super-discounted tablet comes with a 32GB solid state drive at its cheapest, of which only about 11GB will be left for actual use, after you count the Windows 8.1 installation. Luckily, there's a cheap storage expansion option in the Venue 8 Pro's microSD card slot. There are a few other caveats with the Venue 8 Pro, including the fact that it doesn't have a full-sized USB port, HDMI port, or display connector, and a physical keyboard or stylus costs extra.

The Dell Venue 8 Pro was just added to Microsoft’s lineup in October. It’s a great tablet, especially at the $99 price, if you are one of the lucky few to get it at that price this Monday. Even at the $199 price, it’s still a pretty decent deal.