Dell Venue 8 7840 Pro Reviews

The Dell Venue 8 7000 is an attractive Android tablet with a super slim design, a great screen and offers smooth performance combined with good battery life. However, it's more expensive than closely matched rivals and the RealSense camera technology which is supposedly a selling point isn't worth the time of day.

All things considered, I enjoyed nearly every aspect of the Dell Venue 8 7000. It's $399 price point is $100 cheaper than an iPad Air 2, the same price as the pointless iPad mini 3 and $100 more than the venerable iPad mini 2. Compared to the slew of Android tablets currently on the market, I believe it's a fair price for a slate with this level of build quality. Once Dell releases a Lollipop update, this could be the Android slate to beat in early 2015.

Should you even take a hard look at the Dell Venue 8 7000? With all the camera tricks and tweaks, and that downright sexy 6mm frame, it’s definitely attractive. When it comes to performance, the Dell Venue 8 7000 didn’t let me down, but it did make me question Intel’s placement. On more than one occasion, screens stuttered to do things they shouldn’t, or graphic performance just dips for unknown reasons. A parallax wallpaper, placed by default, doesn't move as smooth as it could. It kind of jumps to position once you've stopped moving the tablet. That's just one example of the processor not reacting as quickly to software as it probably should.

Are you looking for a smallish Android tablet with a great screen? Then yes. The 7840 is the best one you can buy. Samsung's similarly priced Galaxy Tab S is no slouch, but loses points for its lackluster design and Samsung's TouchWiz skin. The Nvidia Shield Tablet is cheaper at $300 compared to $400 you'll pay for the Dell, but it's got a lower resolution screen, way worse battery life, and acres of bezel compared to this lovely looker. That said, there are exceptions. If you're into gaming (or are just on a budget), the Nvidia Shield tab does have a load of exclusive benefits worth considering. And if you aren't completely sold on Android, the iPad Mini 2 is roughly comparable and starts at just $300. But mostly, the 7840 is a fantastic device with a sweet-looking design, slim profile, and no deal-breaking drawbacks. Just some things to get used to. And if an slick, small tablet is what you're looking for, you'd be hard-pressed to do better.