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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2014
The Asus VivoTab Note 8 is neat new entry in the Window 8.1 tablet market. It has a lot to offer at a very compelling price. It comes boxed with a charger, micro-USB power cable, some printed doc, a quick start guide, warranty, support info and a license for MS Office Home & Student 2013 edition. It also features a stylus and Wacom digitizer built-in, a nice 8 inch IPS display, and very decent battery life and performance from the Intel Atom Z3740 Quad-Core 1.3 GHz CPU. All of this comes at a very aggressive price point (a year ago tablets of this nature were selling for 2-3 times current pricing!). If you are in the market for a Windows 8 tablet, this unit is definitely worth consideration!
The 1200x800 8 inch IPS display has a tall vertical (portrait) or wide screen format, depending on how you position the tablet (3:2 aspect ratio). It's plenty bright, nice for videos, and the text is sharp. The resolution is a pretty good match for the display size, keeping text large enough to be readable. The built-in Wacom digitizer features 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity. The stylus will activate the screen from as far away as an inch or so and the palm rejection is very good. The stylus really is useful, works well, and is a definite plus for this tablet. (And it stores conveniently in the tablet itself as with Samsung's earlier models, which is definitely the right design choice.)
The included license for Office is a big plus for those who need it, especially at this price point. The included One Note also seems to work very well and might even be more useful to many. In my early tests, I was very impressed with the hand-writing recognition (conversion to text) functionality. Much better than I expected.
The tablet looks good to me (not snazzy, but fine) and the back has a nice soft feel to it. The front is pretty much the same as most others - black, shiny bezel and screen. The power button and volume buttons are also pretty typical, but did have a nice feel. One odd note is that the Windows "Start" button is on the edge of the tablet rather than the front. I'm not too sure about this design choice. I might get used to it, but I really liked, for example, the B&N Nook's HD+ tablet's easy to use front button. (So I mostly "swipe-in" from right to left to get the Start screen rather than using the button).
The tablet is fairly light and easy to hold, though the 7 inch size tablets are a little easier to use with one hand, the larger 8 is better for video and productive work, I think. It's the "sweet spot" for me, anyway, (I loved the Toshiba Excite 7.7" which also worked well for me). The 8.9 inch models are better for watching videos, but harder to hold and use for any lengthy period of time.
The display is very nice to my eyes, having good contrast and bright colors (and being plenty bright as mentioned earlier). I'm not obsessed with resolution and the resolution seems perfectly fine to me for this size display. Certainly, everything appears sharp and clear.
The Intel Atom Z3740 CPU performs very well and in use the tablet feels quick and snappy nearly all the time. The 2 GB of RAM seems sufficient for most purposes, more would be better, but I did not notice any major problems in normal use. You will experience some slow down if you try to do too many things at once. This is a tablet, not an ultra-book, after all. One area to note is that the included 32 GB of internal storage is almost completely consumed by the Windows OS and apps, so you will need to add a 32 or 64 GB micro-SD card for storage if you plan to do any real work on this thing. [Update: I installed a 64 GB microSD card. In PC Devices I then configured this as the default storage location for Music, Pictures, and Videos.]
So far, battery life seems right at the claimed 8 hours (Update: I think there's a mistake in the highlights listed on Amazon for this product where it indicates 6 hours, I believe 8 is correct as is shown in Asus info later in the listing.) or even better. I think you might easily get more if you are conservative. I can easily go all day without worry. For occasional use, you might go a week. At any rate, 8 hours or better is very good. Most tests I could find online seemed to confirm this. The included charger is a powerful 2 amps and the unit charges using a standard micro-USB cable which is nice. Thumbs up for no proprietary charging cable needed! (Charging time seems to be around 3-4 hours, even though they recommended an 8 hour initial charge before use in the quick start guide.)
I have not tested the cameras extensively yet. I don't use tablet cameras that much myself, these seem to be about average in my cursory use.
Initial set-up was a breeze, much easier than earlier Windows tablets I've tried, due to the fact that numerous post-setup updates were not needed to get everything working correctly. In this case, things worked properly out of the box, as they should. I was up and running in just a few minutes. Finally, windows tablets are now competitive with Android tablets, in this aspect. (I love both Android and Windows tablets, but this tablet changes the game, as you can now have a tablet running the full Windows 8.1 OS at the same price as an Android tablet. Yes, there are pluses and minuses to that, but the case remains that, before this, Windows tablets came at a high cost premium by comparison. Now the "cost" playing field has been leveled.)
I will be updating this review over the next week or two, as I gain more experience with this tablet, but based on my tests so far and my initial impressions, I am rating the Asus VivoTab 8 at 5 stars based on the exceptional value, features, and the included Wacom digitizer stylus. This tablet packs a lot into a nice package for the price asked.
I will continue to test to make sure there are no significant problems or glitches, as yet undiscovered, and will update if needed.
Hardware Notes:
- Includes dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.
- Includes a microSD card with OS recovery software. (Remove and keep in a safe place!)
- Ports: One micro-USB, one 3.5 mm Headphone, one microSD card. No HDMI.
- GPS hardware on-board is Broadcom GNSS.
Usage notes:
- Making handwritten notes with MS One Note on this tablet is actually easy and useful. - Drawing diagrams and annotating them works fairly well (for simple things, anyway).
- Included Home Office means you have some serious app power on-board out of box for productive work.
- Not impressed by the "cameras," but as an avid photographer, I never am.
- As you would expect, "desktop mode" is not the preferred mode, however, thanks to the digitizer stylus, it is actually usable. Still, as a tablet, the metro/modern interface is much easier to use.
- As with most tablets, speakers are OK, not great. Use headphones or external speakers for best sound.
- Some nice security features like secure boot, disk/data encryption, and so forth available.
- Can use an OTG USB cable (not included) to connect USB devices.
- Has Miracast capability, but I have no compatible displays, so unable to test this feature.
- Includes 1,000 GB of Web Storage free for one year. Plus some free SkyDrive (MS) cloud storage as well.
2014/03/26 Note: I purchased a MS Surface Pro Pen/Stylus (here: Microsoft Surface Pro Pen ) as man reported it's better than the included stylus. While the included stylus seems fine, it is very thin, the button is hard to find and activate, though it does have the advantage of storing in the tablet itself. The surface pro pen is thicker, more comfortable, the button is very easy to locate and activate, and, to my surprise, it seems to actually work a bit better. I find it takes less pressure to activate (click) things with the surface pro stylus. It's not a huge deal, but if you will be using the pen a lot, then might be worth it. I, myself, like it much better. Oh, and it also has an active eraser on the top end which the included pen does not, which can be handy.
2014/03/29 - Everything is working fine. The surface pro stylus is definitely better and easier to use. I now think of the stylus that came with the tablet as my "backup" stylus, safely stored in the tablet in case I forget my pro stylus.
** See comments for info on a possible pen issue some have reported. Mine is working fine so far. Will update here if I learn any more about it. **
2014/04/11 -- Everything continues to go well with my Asus Vivo Tab Note 8. No issues.
2014/04/21 -- Continues to work fine and has recently had some good reviews elsewhere. Low battery drain and overall good battery life is very enjoyable. Stylus continues to be a big plus, as is the nice display screen.
2014/12/19 -- Still loving it. :-)
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The 1200x800 8 inch IPS display has a tall vertical (portrait) or wide screen format, depending on how you position the tablet (3:2 aspect ratio). It's plenty bright, nice for videos, and the text is sharp. The resolution is a pretty good match for the display size, keeping text large enough to be readable. The built-in Wacom digitizer features 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity. The stylus will activate the screen from as far away as an inch or so and the palm rejection is very good. The stylus really is useful, works well, and is a definite plus for this tablet. (And it stores conveniently in the tablet itself as with Samsung's earlier models, which is definitely the right design choice.)
The included license for Office is a big plus for those who need it, especially at this price point. The included One Note also seems to work very well and might even be more useful to many. In my early tests, I was very impressed with the hand-writing recognition (conversion to text) functionality. Much better than I expected.
The tablet looks good to me (not snazzy, but fine) and the back has a nice soft feel to it. The front is pretty much the same as most others - black, shiny bezel and screen. The power button and volume buttons are also pretty typical, but did have a nice feel. One odd note is that the Windows "Start" button is on the edge of the tablet rather than the front. I'm not too sure about this design choice. I might get used to it, but I really liked, for example, the B&N Nook's HD+ tablet's easy to use front button. (So I mostly "swipe-in" from right to left to get the Start screen rather than using the button).
The tablet is fairly light and easy to hold, though the 7 inch size tablets are a little easier to use with one hand, the larger 8 is better for video and productive work, I think. It's the "sweet spot" for me, anyway, (I loved the Toshiba Excite 7.7" which also worked well for me). The 8.9 inch models are better for watching videos, but harder to hold and use for any lengthy period of time.
The display is very nice to my eyes, having good contrast and bright colors (and being plenty bright as mentioned earlier). I'm not obsessed with resolution and the resolution seems perfectly fine to me for this size display. Certainly, everything appears sharp and clear.
The Intel Atom Z3740 CPU performs very well and in use the tablet feels quick and snappy nearly all the time. The 2 GB of RAM seems sufficient for most purposes, more would be better, but I did not notice any major problems in normal use. You will experience some slow down if you try to do too many things at once. This is a tablet, not an ultra-book, after all. One area to note is that the included 32 GB of internal storage is almost completely consumed by the Windows OS and apps, so you will need to add a 32 or 64 GB micro-SD card for storage if you plan to do any real work on this thing. [Update: I installed a 64 GB microSD card. In PC Devices I then configured this as the default storage location for Music, Pictures, and Videos.]
So far, battery life seems right at the claimed 8 hours (Update: I think there's a mistake in the highlights listed on Amazon for this product where it indicates 6 hours, I believe 8 is correct as is shown in Asus info later in the listing.) or even better. I think you might easily get more if you are conservative. I can easily go all day without worry. For occasional use, you might go a week. At any rate, 8 hours or better is very good. Most tests I could find online seemed to confirm this. The included charger is a powerful 2 amps and the unit charges using a standard micro-USB cable which is nice. Thumbs up for no proprietary charging cable needed! (Charging time seems to be around 3-4 hours, even though they recommended an 8 hour initial charge before use in the quick start guide.)
I have not tested the cameras extensively yet. I don't use tablet cameras that much myself, these seem to be about average in my cursory use.
Initial set-up was a breeze, much easier than earlier Windows tablets I've tried, due to the fact that numerous post-setup updates were not needed to get everything working correctly. In this case, things worked properly out of the box, as they should. I was up and running in just a few minutes. Finally, windows tablets are now competitive with Android tablets, in this aspect. (I love both Android and Windows tablets, but this tablet changes the game, as you can now have a tablet running the full Windows 8.1 OS at the same price as an Android tablet. Yes, there are pluses and minuses to that, but the case remains that, before this, Windows tablets came at a high cost premium by comparison. Now the "cost" playing field has been leveled.)
I will be updating this review over the next week or two, as I gain more experience with this tablet, but based on my tests so far and my initial impressions, I am rating the Asus VivoTab 8 at 5 stars based on the exceptional value, features, and the included Wacom digitizer stylus. This tablet packs a lot into a nice package for the price asked.
I will continue to test to make sure there are no significant problems or glitches, as yet undiscovered, and will update if needed.
Hardware Notes:
- Includes dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.
- Includes a microSD card with OS recovery software. (Remove and keep in a safe place!)
- Ports: One micro-USB, one 3.5 mm Headphone, one microSD card. No HDMI.
- GPS hardware on-board is Broadcom GNSS.
Usage notes:
- Making handwritten notes with MS One Note on this tablet is actually easy and useful. - Drawing diagrams and annotating them works fairly well (for simple things, anyway).
- Included Home Office means you have some serious app power on-board out of box for productive work.
- Not impressed by the "cameras," but as an avid photographer, I never am.
- As you would expect, "desktop mode" is not the preferred mode, however, thanks to the digitizer stylus, it is actually usable. Still, as a tablet, the metro/modern interface is much easier to use.
- As with most tablets, speakers are OK, not great. Use headphones or external speakers for best sound.
- Some nice security features like secure boot, disk/data encryption, and so forth available.
- Can use an OTG USB cable (not included) to connect USB devices.
- Has Miracast capability, but I have no compatible displays, so unable to test this feature.
- Includes 1,000 GB of Web Storage free for one year. Plus some free SkyDrive (MS) cloud storage as well.
2014/03/26 Note: I purchased a MS Surface Pro Pen/Stylus (here: Microsoft Surface Pro Pen ) as man reported it's better than the included stylus. While the included stylus seems fine, it is very thin, the button is hard to find and activate, though it does have the advantage of storing in the tablet itself. The surface pro pen is thicker, more comfortable, the button is very easy to locate and activate, and, to my surprise, it seems to actually work a bit better. I find it takes less pressure to activate (click) things with the surface pro stylus. It's not a huge deal, but if you will be using the pen a lot, then might be worth it. I, myself, like it much better. Oh, and it also has an active eraser on the top end which the included pen does not, which can be handy.
2014/03/29 - Everything is working fine. The surface pro stylus is definitely better and easier to use. I now think of the stylus that came with the tablet as my "backup" stylus, safely stored in the tablet in case I forget my pro stylus.
** See comments for info on a possible pen issue some have reported. Mine is working fine so far. Will update here if I learn any more about it. **
2014/04/11 -- Everything continues to go well with my Asus Vivo Tab Note 8. No issues.
2014/04/21 -- Continues to work fine and has recently had some good reviews elsewhere. Low battery drain and overall good battery life is very enjoyable. Stylus continues to be a big plus, as is the nice display screen.
2014/12/19 -- Still loving it. :-)
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