Lenovo No Longer Producing 8-inch Windows Tablets

[exfileme]

Lenovo has pulled out of the 8-inch Windows tablet race.

Lenovo No Longer Producing 8-inch Windows Tablets : Read more

 

[eklipz330]

"no one in america is buying our crappy product, so we're going to sell it to people who appreciate our crap"

 

[jasonelmore]

They can say whatever they want but i now for a fact that Dell has sold a crap load of Dell Venue 8 Pro's. As a freelance tech, it's the best tool purchase i've made in 2 years. I can do all of my paperwork and get all my signatures, plus do all my network testing.

combine it with a leather keyboard case and you've got a laptop the size of a bible.

 

[DarkSable]

It doesn't surprise me that 'us' Americans only want bigger flashier things. The rage over 4k monitors is that you can have a gorgeous 30"+ monitor. Are you kidding me? I'd take a 4k 24" monitor ANY day over those hideous things. It would have way higher pixel density, it wouldn't hurt your eyeballs to look at, it would be far easier to have in a small room...

 

[Bloob]

"Lenovo No Longer Producing 8-inch Windows Tablets" - "that the company has decided not to sell 8-inch Windows-based tablets here in North America"

Am I missing something or are those totally not the same thing?

 

[stevejnb]

As with many Windows based tablet devices, the Achilles heels of these things seems to be price. People have shown they're willing to pay a bit of money for a notably hardware flawed Android tablet if the price is low enough, and I'm sure there is a market that would do that for these devices - but not at that price.

 

[JD88]

Is the desktop even usable on an 8" tablet? Every time I look at them in the store I look at them again and come to the same conclusion: No it really isn't. If it's not, what you are left with is an 8" tablet running modern apps only. If that's the case, then it would seem like a tablet Android or iOS would be a much better option.

 

[teh_chem]

I'm not surprised. Windows tablets can be far more useful for productivity than content-consumption. As such, a larger screen is much more preferable. Curious how other OEM 8" tablets are doing, and how this is going to impact MSFT release their Surface Mini.

 

[Shin-san]

The Thinkpad 8's price wasn't bad, but there are a lot of full-sized laptops you can get for the same price.

 

[waethorn]

Misleading headline. It's not that they're NOT producing 8" Windows tablets - they're just not selling them into the North American market anymore.

 

[VegasGuy55]

Already denied by Lenovo, so this article really is pointless - http://www.winbeta.org/news/lenovo-we-are-not-getting-out-small-screen-windows-81-tablet-business

 

[stevejnb]

Is the desktop even usable on an 8" tablet? Every time I look at them in the store I look at them again and come to the same conclusion: No it really isn't. If it's not, what you are left with is an 8" tablet running modern apps only. If that's the case, then it would seem like a tablet Android or iOS would be a much better option.

Uh... you're really pawning an opinion off as fact here JD. Lots of people are using the desktop on 8 in tables quite well and, frankly, it's nice to have since a lot of things can be done on the desktop that simply can't be done off of it. What's more, you completely ignore that it's especially nice to have when you output to a larger screen, something that a lot of Windows 8 tablets do quite well. You also downplay that. Metro is itself is far from a shabby tablet GUI and its vastly superior multitasking alone makes a strong case for using it ahead of iOS and Android for work if one were to completely ignore the tremendous utility of having a desktop.

Great for you that you've come to conclusion that some MS product isn't up to snuff - big shocker coming from a guy who has shown the rational detachment and freedom from bias that you have when it comes to MS products. The fact that quite a few people are using the desktop successfully on 8 inch tablets rather undermines your opinion as something we should take seriously on the issue though.

 

[icemunk]

It might have something to do with the upcoming $100 8" windows 8.1 tablets that will be coming out in the next month or two...

 

[2Be_or_Not2Be]

They can say whatever they want but i now for a fact that Dell has sold a crap load of Dell Venue 8 Pro's. As a freelance tech, it's the best tool purchase i've made in 2 years. I can do all of my paperwork and get all my signatures, plus do all my network testing.

I'm curious - besides the price difference, does the slower Atom processor make a difference? Is the performance acceptable because it's just a test tool?

I have wondered why people would buy a Atom-based Venue Pro over a Surface Pro, besides the obvious one - the price differential.

 

[RedJaron]

I'm curious - besides the price difference, does the slower Atom processor make a difference? Is the performance acceptable because it's just a test tool?

I have wondered why people would buy a Atom-based Venue Pro over a Surface Pro, besides the obvious one - the price differential.

The newer Silvermont architecture is much better than the older Atoms. It takes some key ideas from the Sandy/Ivy/Haswell architecture to make things more efficient. My co-worker runs Sim City 5 and Civ5 on his Dell Venue without much problem.

 

[stevejnb]

Wait, I thought the Dell Venue was passively cooled? If so, Civ V running on a passively cooled tablet? My Iconia W700 - using an i5 processor - kicks up the fan pretty fast when playing Civ V. Doesn't have trouble running it, but it does get warm even with the fan.

 

[RedJaron]

Wait, I thought the Dell Venue was passively cooled? If so, Civ V running on a passively cooled tablet? My Iconia W700 - using an i5 processor - kicks up the fan pretty fast when playing Civ V. Doesn't have trouble running it, but it does get warm even with the fan.

You're comparing a 17W chip running at 1920x1080 to a 2.2W chip running at 1280x800 ( with lower detail settings. ) It can get a little toasty, but no more than say an iPad playing Infinity Blade. Try to put it through some demanding stuff for too long, and yeah, you might see some thermal quirks.

 

[stevejnb]

Thanks - neat to know anyways. I was running under the assumption even mid level full blown games like Civ V were beyond passively cooled machines at this point - nice to know that is not the case. Definitely increases my interest in an Atom powered Windows 8 tablet...

 

[w8gaming]

Well when it comes to watching video or reading books, a 8" W8 tablet works just as well as an Android or iPad. In fact, the video playback (desktop app) in Windows is far superior than Android or iPad with zero compatibility issue whatsoever. Unlike other platform you might encounter video format which cannot sync the sound properly or no sound at all. As for using desktop in a small 8" form factor, some of us know how to properly navigate it but I supposed not everyone has good eyesight.