The Asus VivoTab is an 11.6 inch Windows 8 tablet with an Intel Atom Z2760 Clover Trail processor, a 1366 x 768 pixel display, and a dual digitizer which lets you use your fingers or a digital pen to interact with the tablet.

Asus will soon begin selling the VivoTab for $799 and up. There’s also an optional keyboard dock which adds extra ports, extends the tablet’s battery life, and basically turns the VivoTab into a notebook.

Asus VivoTab

I got a chance to spend a few minutes with the VivoTab this week, and it’s a nice tablet… that feels a bit expensive when compared with the $499 VivoTab Smart.

The two tablets have the same processor, operating system, and screen resolution. This model is just a little bigger, has a Wacom digitizer, and comes with the option to pay even more money for a keyboard dock.

I also find that 11.6 inch tablets like the VivoTab feel a little more awkward to hold than 10.1 inch and smaller tablets. You wouldn’t think there’d be much difference — and in landscape mode, there isn’t. But when you try to hold the VivoTab in portrait mode, it feels enormous and off-balance.

Maybe it just takes a little getting used to… or maybe you just shouldn’t bother trying to use larger tablets in portrait orientation.

The tablet features 2GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, an 8MP rear camera, 2MP front camera, 802.11n WiFi, and Bluetooth 4.0.

Asus says you should be able to get about 10.5 hours of battery life when using the tablet alone. That jumps to 19 hours when you add the keyboard dock.

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15 replies on “Hands-on with the Asus VivoTab”

  1. Hey!

    I’m wondering if this tablet could be used insteed of a notebook´in High school. It has deffently a battery life, that is usefull, and several other things that would.

    But i’m wondering would it be able to run Ti Nspire, photoshop and other programs than Microsoft Office, that you are using in school, when it has i Atom processor?
    I have also thought about that Asus Transformer book, but i will be losing some batterylife, but i will instead get a lot more power with and i7 or i5 processor (i3 can also be chosen) wich sertanly can run heavy programs… 😉

  2. I bought a Vivotab over the Ativ after reading that the Ativ was off balance because there was no battery in the dock and that the dock had a tendency to disconnect from the tablet while typing. The Acer Iconia W510 also looks good, but I liked the Vivotab better because I wanted the 11.6 inch screen over a 10 inch screen. I plan on using the Vivotab more as a laptop than a tablet, but I want the ability to lift up the screen as a tablet when I need to. It is a netbook with a detachable touch screen, but it is a thin and lite touchscreen that runs much faster and smoother than my actual netbook. In fact, a netbook with a detachable touchscreen that runs full Windows 8 is a remarkable accomplishment because it is a fully functioning computer. I still like my Android tablet, but that will always be just for fun, while the Vivotab does everything, work and play. When the day comes that there is a better selection of apps in the Windows market, Windows 8 devices will be better than iOS or Android because they are full computers. I liked the Vivotab better than the Lenovo Yoga because the Yoga is too heavy to practically use as a tablet, although it does have a lot more computing power. An ultrabook offers more computing power for the same price, but they are not tablets even if they have a touchscreen. All things considered, I did not find the price of the Vivotab to be unreasonable.

    1. How’s the pen? Does it work in Windows in general, or just in certain apps?
      How far back does the screen tilt back? How much range does the hinge allow?

  3. why woudln;t I just wait for the Asus Transformer Book with 17 processor I can get a 10.5 or 11.6 inch screen with that as well and it has 4gigs of ram

  4. Thanks for the video and write up. Had my eye on this from its initial announcement but that total price is just too much for the performance it will offer. Would have been ideal if they had added a keyboard dock to the Vivo Smart as another option. As it is I don’t see the market for this device when the Sony Vaio Duo 11 starts at $1099 with a core i3 processor and 1080p screen.

    1. I saw a side – by – side comparison video of the Duo 11 vs ATIV while running an art app and the Duo 11 did poorly. I wrote it off after that.

  5. Looks good and 11″6 is much more efficient when you wanna be productive. But less practical in tablet mode I guess.

    The reason why I won’t buy this Asus is because of the price.

    $300 for an extra 1.6″ seriously???

    And a ridiculous total of $950 with the keyboard.

    For what?

    A TF300 ($349) with more RAM, a better yet useless rear cam, an Atom and W8?

    Or a netbook ($300) with detachable touchscreen?

    Either way, this isn’t overpriced, this is a ‘rape-off’.

    1. They tried to make it a little more premium in this class but didn’t really pull it off. Samsung probably has the right idea with the ativ smart pc at $750 all included. I’m not really convinced about spending more than that for an atom tablet. Maybe this will launch a little cheaper to compete with the samsung.

      1. I agree that the Vivotab isn’t worth the $250 premium over the Samsung ATIV with similar specs, but it has some advantages over the ATIV.

        The ATIV keyboard dock doesn’t have a battery, so no way to extend battery life beyond 13 hrs, whereas the Vivotab has up to 19 hrs battery life with the dock. The ATIV’s screen has 400 nits brightness compared to the Vivotab’s 600 nits. These are minor things, but these are the reasons I chose to preorder the Vivotab over the ATIV.

        The ATIV does have some advantages too, though. Micro SIM slot for data and a USB port built into the tablet instead of the dock, so the ATIV can be connected to a USB peripheral without the dock.

        1. For that $1000 the Sony Vaio 11 is just a little bit more expensive and has better screen and more power. Downsides are weight and battery life but the Asus price is crazy.

          1. Agreed. I was originally planning to buy the Vaio Duo 11, but battery life is the most important feature to me overall. If I were shopping price/performance, the Duo 11 would be the one to buy ..(USB 3.0, 1080P etc are all great features, but 4.5 hrs battery life or 9 hrs with extended battery on the Duo 11 won’t work for me)

          2. Probably have to wait till the 10W Haswell becomes available, along with lower power screens to help boost the run times to more usable range and still have good performance.

          3. I was hoping Asus would offer two different tablets (w/ keyboard&digitizer): One with 1080p display, i5/i7 processor for >1000$ to compete with the Samsung Smart PC Pro and one lower end model with standard resolution and an atom processor for around 700$ (incl. pen&keyboard dock).
            Instead they are selling only one device, an overpriced medium tablet. 🙁

          4. Well, there’s the Tegra 3 based Vivo Tab RT, Clover Trail based 10.1″ Vivo Tab Smart and 11.6″ Vivo Tab with Pen, and then there’s the Transformer Book Hybrid for something higher end.

        2. Thanks for that pro/con comparison to the ATIV 500. I’d probably be good with either. Do you think that the extra brightness of the ASUS would make it visible in full sunlight?

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