Dell Venue Pro 8 Hands on Review

After reading a great review of the new Dell Venue 8 Pro Windows tablet,  i bought a 32 GB version from Amazon for $279.00. I later learned that I should have bought the 64 GB version for another $40 because the OS uses up about 60% of the "32 GB" which actually only shows up as being 23 GB in Windows explorer. But I was very excited about the possibilities of the best of Windows and a tablet all in one.
Service was great and I had it in less than 24 hours.
I've had 3 iPads, a Samsung note 10 and 2 Nexus 7 tablets.
I thought it was time to give Windows a try.
I've used Windows for years and am in the technology field so I wasn't new to windows, though I'm not a big fan of microsoft's complexities.
I got the unit. It was well packaged, nice quality. Good looking screen although I did have to take off the auto brightness setting and then I could actually see how bright the screen was.
As I began to use the Venue, I realized how great the interfaces for iPad and Android are. They are designed for tablets. Tap and touch. You just click the Apps.
But Windows just isn't ready for tablets yet.
The Metro START screen looks like it should be easy, but many of the APPS / tiles just take you into the windows desktop. There you have to try to use a large finger to select files with tiny print. Try double clicking or right clicking on the middle item in a list.
More times than not I clicked the wrong item.
I actually tried a stylus and did a bit better. That's great as long as you always remember to bring your stylus.
I connected a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. That made it easier, but in reality I don't always want to have to use a keyboard and mouse. I have laptops for that.

My primary computers are Macs and I have been pleased with the ability to seamlessly sync the core items of life (contacts, calendars, reminders/tasks, and photos between devices.
I learned that windows no longer syncs that stuff with Google anymore. So the most common link is gone. Android has some nice apps called Smooth Sync for Contacts and Smooth Sync for Calendars as well as an app called shote which handles the notes. Drop box will take care of syncing files and pictures from the camera.

I was excited to read that the iCloud Control Panel would sync contacts, calendar, photos, bookmarks and tasks. But in actual practice I found that the syncing only happens with Outlook. NOT the calendar and contacts that are part of the Windows Tablet Start screen. So you have to have Outlook running. And that is not reflected on the main screen. When the sync begins it asks if you want all the photos to sync (which in my case was 13000 and so the choice is no. So forget your photos syncing. Oh and one other caveat. DO NOT CLICK MERGE BOOKMARKS. I did thinking that I didn't have many bookmarks in Windows so no big loss if they were added to my Mac bookmarks. What it should have said was how would yo unlike to wipe all you Mac bookmarks and replace them with a hodge lodge of windows "Favorites"? Thank God for backups.

I tried to set up my favorite apps and found that many are not available in the Windows store. For example, Yelp is a very handy restaurant review app available on both the Apple platform and android. It's not available on Windows tablet. Instead there is an app called Zalp, which allegedly combines Yelp and Zagatt. I gave it a try and picked 4 different commonly known restaurants. It said nothing found in either Yelp or Zagatt.
I liked the look and the size of the Venue, but Windows on an 8" tablet is not easy to use.

I liked the idea of "Full" windows on a tablet, but "really" try doing anything work on an 8"tablet. Right clicking? dragging and dropping, alt tabbing between screens? How to make yourself crazy in one easy lesson.
It's not close to the Android or apple interface. So no matter how many techie features Windows boasts, this thing is a pain in the neck. I was very happy to go back to my Nexus and iPad.
Good luck but this is not the user friendly choice of a tablet.
I returned it in less than 24 hours.

Oh and one I forgot... within an hour I picked up some malware. A program that allegedly tested my performance on my hour old Venue and found I need to sign up for their performance boosting utility. Really.

No more Windows for me thank you!!