Asus ZenPad S 8 tablet priced at $299 (4GB RAM, 64GB storage)

1. I just bought the $199 model and called Asus. They tell me the lower end model is NOT compatible with the Z stylus. You’ll have to buy the $299 higher end model to use the Z pen. Other than this, $199 is an excellent price for a tablet with these specs.

2. why wouldn’t someone get the Cube i7 Stylus over this for only $60 more you get both windows and android plus a full wacom digitizer right now I am considering pulling the trigger on one of those..

   1. @buzz86us
      Pull the trigger! From dx.com I got a
      Teclast X89 7.9″ Quad-Core Windows 8.1 + Android4.4 Tablet PC w/ 2GB RAM, 32GB ROM, Wi-Fi – Grey

      Its great, I’d highly recommend it.

   2. So far im reading the Cube i7 glass isnt scratch resistant, kind of a bummer when some one would buy it for the stylus pen. I know 1080p is decent, but… well you know, there are higher rez options.

      1. tempered glass screen protectors tend to change that

3. if only this ran windows 10

   1. Worse of all worlds, dead mobile store & dated desktop apps. Not to mention that using the desktop on a small screen is awful.

      Now that i have moved all my torrenting over to Android tablet + chromecast i no longer need windows & use chromeos exclusively.

      I used to love windows, but there is so much wrong with everything microsoft these days that i could rant endlessly.

      1. @nicher
         Yes and No.
         Microsoft still haven’t gotten it right, but they are closer than they have ever been.
         I’d like to here your rants on what is wrong as they probably will align with mine 🙂

      2. LOL. this gave me a chuckle!
         Chrome…hahaha

   2. @MrWar I agree. This would be a great Windows 10 tablet.

   3. Seriously, more RAM is more useful for Windows where you can run much more useful and robust applications. More RAM on Android isn’t going make those intentionally limited apps any more useful.

   4. Asus have a win 10 tablet coming. Was announced recently

   5. There is a Windows 10 version of it 😉
      Only costs $150 in the Microsoft online store

4. can tell me what kind of stylus’ battery? anyone?

   1. learn English moron

      1. why shall me learned english?? tell I please dipshit!!

   2. They don’t specify yet but these pens usually use a standard AAAA battery…

      1. Thanks!

5. The active digitizer puts this into a different class of devices. It likely won’t sell as much with people just looking to play games or watch videos, but for digital artists and other content creators, it could be a tremendous value, depending on which brand of digitizer tech they end up using.

   1. A very good point, and the 4:3 aspect ratio supports the theory that this is a serious device for business, education, and content creation rather than an infotainment platform.

      1. I’m actually waiting for the premium version to come out. I’ll be getting it with the trip cover and z stylus. Asus has some experience with some Wacom tech from there older products. I think that this will be vastly improved.

         1. Unfortunately, the Asus experience with Wacom hasn’t been good. Asus took a very long time to fix the problems with the Vivotab Note 8, their earlier Wacom tablet, if the problems were in fact fixed (to their credit, Asus has a better track record than Dell’s active digitizer products, which featured Synaptics active digitizers, but that’s not saying much). I’d be more likely to buy a Samsung or Lenovo device with Wacom technology.

            1. Problem with the vivo, imo, was the low resolution, screen (since it smudged easily), and the pen that came with it wasnt that great.

            2. Small pens have always been a issue but it’s hard to make a good size pen that’s comfortable to hold that will still be able to be slotted within the device when not in use…

               Though, at least with a full PC you can always recalibrate and use another compatible pen from WACOM that will also work with the digitizer built into the tablet… You just won’t be able to slot it when not using it…

               As for the Screen, it’s also a issue with Windows itself on small screens… Too high a resolution and everything becomes too small to comfortably use with a inaccurate capacitive touch screen and not everything can be scaled easily or automatically to compensate…

               Along with earlier ATOM solutions still having too weak GPU’s to really support high resolution screens and the worry about battery life as higher resolution usually means a bigger battery drain…

               Newer Cherry Trail’s are starting to change this finally and we’ll see how well Windows 10 works on small screens with high resolutions… but may be another year before we see the higher resolution screens finally pushed…

            3. Well, it’s also a issue with WACOM themselves taking a long time to work out their driver support but many companies like Asus are not sticking to WACOM anymore… The entire Asus Chi series (90/100/300) uses N-Trig instead… So, as long as you don’t mind battery powered pens that you have to buy separately…

               Though, whether that will remain the case going forward, since MS bought out N-Trig for their Surface line, we’ll have to wait and see…

            4. Still waiting for the Surface 3…or for someone else to make something like it with a slimmer/lighter case and no kickstand…

            5. I was under the impression the main problem with the Vivotab Note 8 was a dodgy digitizer connector cable? It’s what kept me from buying one.

   2. Does anyone know if the 10.1″ tab also support active digitizer pen? I am waiting to hear some reviews for the newer S8 version tabs!

6. Does Android support display mirroring or display out via USB Type-C such as to an HDMI adapter? I would absolutely spring for the more expensive version with that feature if that were possible.

   1. It supports it with microUSB 2.0 so if you have the cable, yes, it does support it. Not all phones have to support it though, but almost all do, minus the OnePlus One.

   2. I believe your device has to support MHL or something like that and you have to get a MHL to HDMI adapter. Otherwise no.

7. I don’t get Andriod tablet other than for media consumption. I do uses Android phone a lot though.

   1. Your English really sucks. Thank you for your attention.

   2. I gave Android a good long ride and have decided it just doesn’t cut it anymore for me. Feel the same about all mobile OSes. It makes a good emergency or backup device but falls short in too many areas.

      Hate all the flipping from one app to another, the weak browsing, lack of firewall, issues with writing to SD, connecting larger externals USB drives…

      For anything larger than 7″, looking toward Windows 10 now. Android’s promise was cut short by short-term business thinking. ChromeOS is all over the place trying to run Linux, Android, partial local file support while remaining limited… A shame Google couldn’t see the forest from the trees in time. Their advertising dollars at work.

      1. @james
         I’m in the same boat

      2. You’re trying to use Android like a heavy desktop OS. Firewall?! Large USB drives?! Of course just use Windows. If Android were adapted to do all that it would ruin Andoid. A hammer makes a lousy screwdriver.

         1. Wrong. Android does do all that, its called Linux!
            A firewall is a very lightweight program, and can easily be integrated within the OS or made as a separate application all together (giving the app access to the kernel). Being able to attach devices to a tablet is a must in todays world. Only the average consumer never uses USB on a tablet, but many of us have need for external storage (faster than wifi transfer) or connecting a DSLR, external monitor etc to a tablet. For some it’s a replacement for their laptop which was more powerful then they ever needed, for others we just like the flexibility, especially as I enjoy photography, using it with a tablet is a must.
            So in short your hammer and screwdriver analogy is completely inappropriate in this instance.

   3. Media consumption is lot more time than computing for most people. Yes you will always need a serious OS for getting stuff done and I can’t imagine not having numerous Windows machines. But everything else: Android. Books, youtube, magazines, web, other internet video, games, plus Android tablets have a TON more good touch apps than Windows, and is far less of a headache to update, uses a lot less memory, simpler. If you use Android on a phone you can cloud share a heck of a lot of data and photos and communication apps and games and have all of it synced on numerous devices. Topo maps. Touch games. Spotify is a great example: couple more features on Windows but much slicker and easier on a tablet or phone. Recently even used it to update a spreadsheet created on Google Docs. I use an Android tablet for about 2-3 hrs a day. Sometimes more when heavy reading with Kindle. Windows machine – maybe half that. On vacation, hardly open the laptop.

      In short, an 8-9″ Android tablet is something I will not be without. Using a Note 8.0 now but would love a higher res screen, bit more speed, front facing speakers. The Asus looks very promising, and even with an optional stylus. Yes.

      1. Well, that is what I said, Android tablet are for media consumption. To play only.

8. All I needed performance-wise is something that is on par w/ my Nexus 5. And the quad-core Atom in last year’s ME172C was a 30% bump over the Snapdragon 800, so I think even the lower tier ZenPad will be sufficient for my needs, especially now that it’s got 2GB RAM to match the Nexus 5. I do wish other manufacturers could get the gorgeous AMOLED panels like in the Galaxy Tab S 8.4 and for the love of God, Montresor, Google needs to let us chose a system-wide Holo-style dark theme. I use my Nexus 7 in bed after all the lights are off and cannot stand the eye-searing white expanses in Material Design and Hangouts.

   1. Keep in mind that running in 64bit mode effectively halves both main memory and CPU cache because pointers and long integers take twice the space. No, it isn’t quite that bad because there is still plenty of byte data floating around but it does make a difference and 4GB will probably result in a far better expereince.

      1. *Halves* main memory? I’m fairly certain you’re not sure what you’re talking about. 64 bit windows 7 used around 100 MB more RAM than the 32 bit version, and not all data stored in memory is a long int.

9. If these android manufacturers would release a minimum guaranteed update policy i would be much more likely to buy android products

   But android tablets are the worse because of how poorly they sell per-manufacture so they are reluctant to update because they want to sell new hardware instead. Windows PC’s always had the same problem but with driver updates instead.

   Say what you want about apple, but generally the support for their products is outstanding. Theres no money in updating but it builds customer trust & makes them more likely to buy their product again in the future.

10. The the middle & highend models are priced very well. If I played alot of Android games I would be tempted to spend the extra $100 for the CPU/RAM/storage boost, but thats what I have a iPad Mini retina for. Definitely considering the middle model though for all of Android’s great utility scenario’s that iOS just isn’t capable of.

    1. Once you really dig into this chronic problem of no support and upgrades, you see two big issues: First are the Chinese made CPU/SoC parts. These are a driver Nightmare for end user device manufacturers. That has a lot to do with patents, lawyers, and hiding things to avoid law suits. If a chip you are using in your design is giving you buggy results, you can’t debug past the binary blob drivers that the chip manufacturer keeps locked up tight. The second factor is planned obsolescence by the end user device manufacturers. If the lack of upgrades doesn’t force you to buy a new device, then sooner or later failure of the non-replaceable battery will. The whole business is Evil.

    2. I would think the main reason people find this device interesting is for the active digitizer and pen input…

11. That looks pretty nice really. Though I think I’m going to wait for something which ships with Android M. Also want to see what else is coming in the way of ChromeOS convertibles or 2-in-1 machines.

12. I’d buy it if it were a 16:9 ratio.

    I need a new tablet, but I use tablets mostly for remote desktop, and watching videos, so 4:3 is out of the question.

    4:3 is attractive for photo editing and Web browsing.

13. I’ll wait for reviews, but this looks like the best android tablet since the nexus 7 2013.

14. The $199 Best Buy model has the following specs on their website (haven’t verified if they’re accurate): Model Z580C-B1-BK, Intel Atom Z3560 (1.83GHz), 2GB RAM, 32GB storage, 2048 x 1536 screen

    1. That’s probably accurate. It mostly mimics the Zenfone 2 tiers for chipset and RAM amount.

    2. wrong. it’s a QC 1.3GHZ processor.

15. android…

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