VIZIO VTAB1008 Pro Reviews

Thanks to its aggressive pricing, Vizio contributes to bringing tablet computing to a much broader audience. Given its strict budget requirements, the tablet has a surprisingly good build quality and can play high-definition movies without a sweat. It is also one of the rare tablets equipped with an IR-blaster which turns it into a universal remote. Obviously, the design has some tradeoffs and it won’t be able to rival more expensive competitors in terms of absolute performance, or absolute design coolness, but such competitors can be $170 more expensive ($145, if you take into account a 16GB microSD), which is a *very* substantial difference. Would buyers still prefer to spend more? I truly don’t know, but the market will decide quickly. Vizio will also have to fend off competition from older products like the original Galaxy Tab or the Dell Streak 7, which aren’t as good in my opinion. The ViewSonic gTablet is the most dangerous competitor, as it is priced even lower ($260 on Amazon) and uses a faster SoC. Unfortunately, we have not reviewed the gTablet yet, so this is based only on the specifications. Today, the weakness of the Vizio tablet is its user interface (UI) performance. It is easy to work around it by installing Launcher Pro, an alternative UI skin. However, it’s tough to ask that from mainstream users. Vizio needs to fix this as soon as possible to make the “out of the box experience” better and hopefully, things will be better for the next update. For its price, the Vizio VTAB1008 8″ Tablet is a very interesting product, one that may just be great for home users, the education market, and those that are both cost conscious and tablet enthusiasts. Do such users exist? You tell us! Drop a comment.

Among Android tablets, Vizio's 8-Inch Tablet is worth a look if you want a slate that can control your home theater. However, the design and performance of this device leave something to be desired.

The Vizio Tablet makes a great competitor to 2010's Samsung Galaxy Tab, but lacks the grace, speed, and features of today's best tablets.

The Vizio Tablet did have poor benchmark scores and the interface is noticeably less snappy than what we’re used to on a Tegra 2 dual-core tablet. Touch controls, at times, also felt slow to respond. An update, expected within the next 45 days, should boost performance.