Here’s a rundown of everything you need to know about the two new tablets.
Dell Venue 8 7000 Series
Dell offered a tantalizing sneak peek at the 7000 Series Venue 8 tablet during the Intel Developers Forum in San Francisco this September, but now it’s finally here. The Venue 8 7000 Series tablet sports a gorgeous, 8.4-inch OLED screen with a 2560 x 1600 pixel resolution. Dell says the tablet boasts an edge-to-edge infinity display and contains more than 4 million pixels. The stunning screen is housed in a machined aluminum casing that weighs 305 grams and measures just 6-millimeters thick. For the record, that’s exactly 0.1-millimeter thinner than the svelte iPad Air 2, which measures 6.1-millimeters thick. Thanks to that infinitesimal difference, Dell’s new Venue can proudly say it’s the thinnest tablet on the market.
The tablet is powered by the quad-core Intel Atom Z3580 processor, running at 2.3GHz, alongside 2GB of RAM. Dell packed just 16GB of storage into the device, but added a MicroSD card slot that can be expanded up to 512GB. In terms of connectivity, the Venue offers a MicroSD card reader, one Micro USB port, and a headphone-microphone combo jack. The tablet supports 802.11 ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and Miracast. Although it runs Android 4.4 KitKat, hopefully it will get the Lollipop upgrade soon.
Dell added a special depth-sensing 8-megapixel back camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera for video chats and the like. The new Venue sports a 5900mAh battery, as well, which should keep things going for a while. It looks like one of the most high-end tablets Dell has made so far. The pricing for the tablet is still unknown, but Dell says it will arrive later in the year.
Dell Venue 8 Pro 3000 Series
Dell’s other tablet offering isn’t as high-end or as fancy, but it does run Windows. Dell already introduced the Android version of its Venue 8 3000 Series tablet to the masses, but now it’s bringing a Windows version to the market.
The Dell Venue 8 Pro features an 8-inch IPS screen with a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution, just like the 7-inch Android version of the tablet. It’s powered by an Intel Bay Trail quad-core Atom processor and 1GB of RAM. Dell offers a 32GB hard drive option and two color options: black with a textured “Spindle” pattern and gloss white with a smooth finish. The tablet is just 8-millimeters thick and weighs 391 grams.
As far as connections go, the Venue 8 Pro Sports a MicroSD Card reader, Micro USB, as well as a headphone and microphone combo jack. It’s running Windows 8.1, comes with Office 365, and supports 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Miracast, and Bluetooth 4.0. Dell packed a 16Whr battery into the tablet and tacked a 1.2-megapixel Webcam on the front and a 5-megapixel shooter on the back. Overall, the Windows version is very similar to the Android model we tested earlier this fall. It’s available for order now and starts at $200.
