Hands-on with Dell Venue Pro and the second generation of Windows 8 tablets

I recently got my hands on a Dell Venue Pro Windows 8.1 tablet and an active stylus to go with it. Here are my brief impressions on the product and what it means to the Windows 8 ecosystem and Microsoft and Dell's shared dreams for tablet domination.BackgroundMicrosoft launched its own tablet line with the Surface tablets in 2012. The original Surface RT was a disappointment inspite of having some good hardware innovations. The Surface Pro reportedly fared better but with poor battery performance and a relatively high price to entry, didn't make much of a dent in the iPad dominated market. The Windows 8 OS was also fresh off the oven and had its own quirks that people took time to warm up to.In 2013, Microsoft launched an updated version of the Windows 8 OS with some much requested features and also changes under the hood. It also shipped the second generation of its Surface tablet with better hardware and the new software. The first year of Windows 8 was a big failure from the other OEMs standpoint because of poor sales and competition from Microsoft itself. With the 8.1 launch, that situation seems to be rectified and a whole bunch of traditional Microsoft partners are launching tablets with the new OS. One such is Dell. Dell recently launched its Venue Pro Windows 8.1 tablet.DellDell made its bones by selling good custom built PCs and laptops for a relatively low cost to the customer. Over the years, as the PC business has slowed down, Dell has felt the pinch. Until now, its tablet strategy has been marked by uninspired hardware and lack of differentiation. The Venue Pro is its latest attempt at revitalizing its tablet story and capturing a sliver of the growing tablet business. With the Venue Pro, Dell addresses two audiences. The home user who needs a relatively affordable tablet (Venue Pro starts at $299) and the business user (with Windows 8.1, active stylus support and an Intel based solution).HardwareUpon unboxing, I was greeted by a solid looking plastic device that good to hold. The tablet has an 8 inch HD screen that looks good against last years tablets but a tad less impressive compared to the 2013 class of Kindle HDX, Google Nexus 7" and iPad Mini with retina display. All of them cost within the ballpark of the Venue Pro but with better displays. Not that the Venue Pro's display looks bad. It looks perfectly fine but given that it launched in late 2013, Dell could have gone in for a higher resolution display.[gallery ids="1430,1431,1432,1433,1434,1435,1436"]There are multiple hardware buttons to get familiar with. On the right hand side of the potrait display, there is the power button and volume controls. On the top right corner, there is an unusual button that allows the user to jump between applications in the Windows OS. I am not sure if that warranted its own hardware control and who the target audience is, but it felt weird getting used to. I was hoping that I could use it to take pictures on the camera, but not so.  PerformanceWhile the hardware is comparable to peers and the pricing is competitive, much of how the tablet will be viewed will come down to two things- performance and apps. We will talk about Apps in a later section. For now, let us focus on the overall device performance.[gallery ids="1450,1451,1436"]The device and the OS are very responsive. Moving between screens, swiping and selecting apps and playing games were all smooth and lag free. The hardware seems to have been optimized well for the OS. I have my share of complaints about the OS itself but none of which are specific to the Venue Pro experience. Some of the workflow choices are still baffling and the shift between the Windows desktop like experience and the tablet interface is still confusing and at times disjointed. But thats all Windows 8.1 and not Dell.Two issues stood out that are worth commenting upon. My brand new device had issues launching the camera. I wanted to take some sample pictures but the app kept crashing. See the video below where I captured the problem. The issue persisted upon multiple relaunches of the app.The other issue that bothered me was the heating of the device. After about 20 minutes of basic use (apps, email, browsing, no video or audio), the tablet's backside started getting warm. It was hard to miss. In my experience working with Android, Kindle Fire and iOS tablets, the heating typically happened if ever after prolonged use and usually during or after a long video session. This amount of heating so quickly into my use was new and disturbing. I am not sure if it was the Intel Atom processor or the hardware design that caused it but it sure was not pleasant.Active StylusOne of the reasons I was keen on trying out the Venue Pro was its avowed Active Stylus support. Samsung created a market for stylus driven phones and tablets and Microsoft advanced the cause with packing in a stylus with the 2012 Surface Pro. The Surface Pro digitizer made by Wacom came for good praise and I was curious to see the Dell stylus in action on the Venue Pro.[gallery ids="1444,1445,1446,1447"]In short, my experience with the stylus was middling. Maybe I was not using it as well as I should but it did not offer me a differentiated experience from the typical passive stylus. Yes, the active stylus offered menu selections and gestures that I could control via the hardware control on the stylus itself but it was nothing that advanced my cause. The text detection worked well but I could do it much faster when I used the virtual keyboard instead. Below is a video of me, attempting to write something with the stylus. As you can see, I was not at ease.Here is a different video of me attempting to draw with the stylus using the Fresh Paint app which I like very much. The drawing experience was better but I was not utilizing the true capabilities of the active component of the stylus.AppsThe Windows app ecosystem is still a work in progress. It pales in comparison to its Android and iOS counterparts. I am happy to report though that the app selection is definitely improving. It still has ways to go but I was happy to see Dropbox, Facebook and such apps finally available for Windows 8.1 app users.[gallery ids="1452,1453"] The app selection will only get better as Microsoft gets its hardware into the hands of more people. The Nokia acquisition should hopefully help in that regard.VerdictThe Dell Venue Pro is a powerful and responsive tablet that furthers the cause of the Windows 8 ecosystem. It is affordably priced and built well to appeal to the target consumer. Here is my only issue with it. It does not standout in any one way for me to recommend it over its peers- Nexus 7 (2013), iPad Mini (2013) with retina display or the Kindle Fire HDX. Each of those tablets offer a compelling reason to buy them at the price they sell for. The Dell Venue Pro on the other hand is good but not great in any one aspect to pick over the rest of its competitors. The only segment it uniquely appeals to is consumers who want an affordable Windows 8 tablet experience. In that segment it is priced to sell and sell well at that.One other important thing the Venue Pro achieves is to make it possible and in a good way, to build value propositions in the Windows tablet space that can compete with its Android counterparts. And that in itself is a significant achievement.If you are interested in purchasing a Dell Venue Pro, you can buy it here or here.