LeMarchand Posted February 4, 2013 Posted February 4, 2013 Has anyone actually used one of these? Any good? It would seem to be the nearest (affordable) option to what I need/want, but I'm a bit concerned that it will be a bit under-powered. It would be mainly used for web-browsing/light Office work and RDP. Currently using a rebadged MSI Wind with a 1.6Ghz (single core?) Atom processor (it's all that the school had free) with 2GB RAM and it does struggle (I tend to have a lot of browser tabs open).
sted Posted February 4, 2013 Posted February 4, 2013 ive got an atom powered asus vivotab smart if thats any help? £400 in argos 1
SYNACK Posted February 4, 2013 Posted February 4, 2013 (edited) I've used the 501p and that's alright with 8 on it, not instant but ran all the stuff I threw at it. Was rubbish under 7 though, the 510 is newer and has a larger ssd. Touch screen was not super fantastic apparently, I found it fine though, keyboard was flimbsy though. Edited February 4, 2013 by SYNACK 1
LeMarchand Posted February 4, 2013 Author Posted February 4, 2013 (edited) ive got an atom powered asus vivotab smart if thats any help? £400 in argos Somehow missed that range! Any good? The keyboard/case thing looks a bit likely to disintegrate. I've used the 501p and that's alright with 8 on it, not instant but ran all the stuff I threw at it. Was rubbish under 7 though, the 510 is newer and has a larger ssd. Touch screen was not super fantastic apparently, I found it fine though, keyboard was flimbsy though. Cheers! Was worried that it might not be much of an upgrade. Edited February 4, 2013 by LeMarchand Typo
bossman Posted February 4, 2013 Posted February 4, 2013 @LeMarchand: We trialled a couple of units and found them to be lacking in power and usablity, looking towards surface with Windows 8 pro, Dell and Lenovo have some cool units at the moment but can only get better as the hardware becomes more available, Lenovo: Convertible Ultrabook Laptop & Tablet PC | ThinkPad Helix | 11.6" with Windows 8 (US) Dell: Dell XPS 10 hybrid tablet review - reviews for UK IT professionals - V3.co.uk Happy hunting! 1
LeMarchand Posted February 4, 2013 Author Posted February 4, 2013 (edited) @bossman The Lenovo looks great but is WAY outside my budget, as are the Dells that run W8 (not RT) . Edited February 4, 2013 by LeMarchand Typo
bossman Posted February 4, 2013 Posted February 4, 2013 @LeMarchand: Budget is one thing and a working solution is usually another, sorry that like me you are restricted to a budget which has the impact of not providing the best solution for the job. Good Luck in your quest
TheScarfedOne Posted February 4, 2013 Posted February 4, 2013 Had one of the iconia tabs for testing Win8 betas on....and the SSD and RAM let it down. The Samsung ones are really nice, and I got to play with the Surface as well. Lenovo, super nice....super expensive. 1
sted Posted February 4, 2013 Posted February 4, 2013 its not the fastest thing ever (windows ratings cpu 3.5 ram 4.7 graphics 3.7 gaming graphics 3.2 primary hdd 5.6) but it runs windows fine office fine only slowdown ive noticed was on card games. its full x86 win 8 not waste of space rt. cant comment on case cant find one but back does seem susceptible to scratches. screens nice. battery 'ife is less than my android tab but still a day or more. 1
LeMarchand Posted February 4, 2013 Author Posted February 4, 2013 its not the fastest thing ever (windows ratings cpu 3.5 ram 4.7 graphics 3.7 gaming graphics 3.2 primary hdd 5.6) but it runs windows fine office fine only slowdown ive noticed was on card games. its full x86 win 8 not waste of space rt. cant comment on case cant find one but back does seem susceptible to scratches. screens nice. battery 'ife is less than my android tab but still a day or more. Cheers for that - not looking for a "high power" machine, but need a bit more "oomph" than the current one.
cactus Posted February 12, 2013 Posted February 12, 2013 Saw the Iconia W510 at BETT and it seemed like a good option. We are eventually looking at a 1:1 ratio and aim to start with a pilot year group once our new Wifi is installed. If anyone else has feedback on performance, case durability, cost etc that would be appreciated. Also, can anyone recommend an educational reseller? I have googled and searched Acer.co.uk but nothing comes up (apart from RM). Thanks
LeMarchand Posted February 12, 2013 Author Posted February 12, 2013 (edited) Micom accept EDU orders and have the 510 for a tad under £400 (ex VAT, W8 version). After MUCH deliberation, I've asked for that one so if the order goes through today, it might be here before 1/2 term so I can have a play. I didn't want the school to pay the extra £60 for the PRO version when they already have licenses, so lets hope I can just replace the OS as with a normal PC. (Or I'll have a very expensive paperweight!) If the purchase is approved I'll post back and let you know - may be a couple of weeks, though. P.S. Have only used Micom for odd purchases, so don't know what they're like for larger orders. Edited February 12, 2013 by LeMarchand Afterthought
cactus Posted February 12, 2013 Posted February 12, 2013 Thanks for the feedback. I am also looking to buy one shortly for testing purposes so I'll keep you posted on my progress.
LeMarchand Posted February 15, 2013 Author Posted February 15, 2013 If the purchase is approved I'll post back and let you know - may be a couple of weeks, though. Make that 3 weeks to a month . AO off for 2 weeks after today and I can't see her placing any orders this afternoon. Still, price may have dropped by then!
LeMarchand Posted March 13, 2013 Author Posted March 13, 2013 This finally turned up today! Alas, no time to play with it . First thoughts: the packaging is fiendishly tight, it took an age to open the box! Inside, it's like a bento box crossed with a puzzle box - loads of little compartments hiding the various components.
chazzy2501 Posted March 13, 2013 Posted March 13, 2013 This finally turned up today! Alas, no time to play with it . First thoughts: the packaging is fiendishly tight, it took an age to open the box! Inside, it's like a bento box crossed with a puzzle box - loads of little compartments hiding the various components. LEt me know if you have any trouble putting W8 enterprise on this!
chazzy2501 Posted March 13, 2013 Posted March 13, 2013 ive got an atom powered asus vivotab smart if thats any help? £400 in argos I was looking at one of these, can you confirm that the display works in direct sunlight?
sted Posted March 13, 2013 Posted March 13, 2013 I was looking at one of these, can you confirm that the display works in direct sunlight? its viewable but i have seen better but then i do have a poorly applied screen protector on it as well lol
LeMarchand Posted March 13, 2013 Author Posted March 13, 2013 LEt me know if you have any trouble putting W8 enterprise on this! Will do, but that's probably a weekend job.
SYNACK Posted March 14, 2013 Posted March 14, 2013 Will do, but that's probably a weekend job. When I did with a 501 I just hooked up an external DVD burner to USB and installed off that, of course I had used the tablets previous Windows 7 OS to download the ISO and burn it to the DVD in question, try doing that with an iPad
Arthur Posted March 14, 2013 Posted March 14, 2013 I had used the tablets previous Windows 7 OS to download the ISO and burn it to the DVD in question, try doing that with an iPad You can burn DVDs on an iPad actually. How to read from and write to CDs and DVDs from iOS and Android using the Samsung SE-208BW
SYNACK Posted March 14, 2013 Posted March 14, 2013 You can burn DVDs on an iPad actually. How to read from and write to CDs and DVDs from iOS and Android using the Samsung SE-208BW Interesting but hardly the same, a slow buggy discontinued weird device full of all sorts of other hardware that you can't boot from as opposed to a standard, cheap, quick and usually surplus bit of equipment that can do it all with built in software and burn in whatever standard you need it to.
LeMarchand Posted March 15, 2013 Author Posted March 15, 2013 When I did with a 501 I just hooked up an external DVD burner to USB and installed off that Leaving it until the weekend was primarily because I had/have a lot of things that need doing before then, but I have tried to make a "just in case" backup. Unfortunately I can't get it to boot to any of my normal disks/USB devices. I can foresee pushing out an image to a set of these being a PITA. Apart from that, from my very limited time with the device, it seems a bit more solid than I was expecting. As widely reported, a 64GB micro-SD seems to work (Sandisk Ultra Class 10) - though I haven't tried filling it up yet. Wish the people on the support forums had better English, as I had a heck of a job booting to BIOS until I found the official manual because the guys on the forums have appalling grammar.
BHMS Posted March 15, 2013 Posted March 15, 2013 Imaging is certainly a PITA. It took me about a week just to get it working and officially they are unsupported by Microsoft due to 32bit UEFI with no legacy BIOS support. M$ only support 64bit UEFI deployments. Using WDS it requires a USB hub with USB NIC, imaging media with copied UEFI files from the W8 DVD, mouse and keyboard for windows PE since the keyboard dock and touchscreen do not work in that. Not to mention you need new Win PE 4.0 capture and discover images and new answer file to bypass the new menu screens.
LeMarchand Posted March 15, 2013 Author Posted March 15, 2013 Imaging is certainly a PITA. I may have to change my signature...
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