Asus VivoTab Note 8 launches in the US and Europe (in limited quantities)

1. For Microsoft store purchases, does the recovery SD card come with the same image that came with your tablet? If/when the MS store sells the 64 GB version that has the recovery partition instead, is it easy to create a USB compatible ISO (like some Linux distro ISOs) image so you can delete the recovery partition and reinstall the OS and drivers?

2. Thanks for the links Brad!

   1. Thanks for the hands-on!

      I saw your post the other day and was waiting for a US retail launch… Kind of annoyed Engadget spotted the listing before I did, but that’s how it goes 🙂

3. On the right track. Add HDMI, 64 Bit (to get 4GB) and shave off a few ounces and it will be perfect. Even better if it could concurrently run Android like we will see soon.

   1. Yay verily

   2. I’m personally not too crazy about the Android aspect, but can I replace that bit with a 10.1″ screen?

      Samsung’s Galaxy Tab Note series were quite attractive, it just didn’t run Windows and that bummed me out. Samsung’s got the Ativ series, but so far none with Bay Trail.

      1. If you are going to have a tablet, might as well be able to take advantage of Android’s larger ecosystem at the same time. As long as it keeps it’s full windows capabilities at the same time.

   3. Can’t get 4GB because they don’t yet have them for mobile devices yet, at least not mass produced to make it cheap enough…

      Mind that these systems are working with the same mobile parts as ARM based devices use and thus have similar limitations… The highest RAM offered for mobile devices is still only 3GB for example…

      While, we’re also still waiting for MS to release the 64bit drivers for W8 that will support connected standby for Bay Trail systems… otherwise, they could install a 64bit OS already!

      Though, you can still use 4GB of RAM with 32bit OS… 64bit just makes more efficient use of it and allows you to go higher than 4GB…
      You can expect to start seeing 4GB before the end of the year, though, as mobile devices are about set to start pushing for higher capacities and that’ll start making those capacities common and cheap enough to start seeing regularly…

      The upcoming Nvidia K1 for example supports up to 8GB in its specifications and the Cherry Trail T update that will start replacing Bay Trail by the end of this year will also raise the max support to 8GB for Intel’s tablet SoCs… The Laptop/Desktop Bay Trail’s already support up to 8GB but these mobile tablets don’t use that type of RAM… So the present Bay Trail T only supports up to 4GB and like I said that’s hard to provide right now…

      They could have provided a micro HDMI port and the USB port could have been 3.0, though… A USB 3.0 would have been especially useful for docking station uses…

      Dual booting Android may be something they’ll offer later though, as Android running Bay Trail devices should start coming out soon…

4. Why do none of these devices have 3G or LTE yet?!!! Almost all of them say it’s an option “coming soon” but ins some cases it’s been 4 months with nothing to show! I have been waiting to throw my money at whichever one comes out with it first. At this point, however, I’ll probably just wait until the Lenovo Thinkpad 8 is available with it. I bet it will come most quickly there because it’s an enterprise-class device. Either way, it’s vastly superior to the other 8″ tablets (though, with a higher price to match).

   1. My guess is economics and the fact that windows will have access to drivers for just about any 3rd party adapter under the sun, though it’s a cumbersome in many cases.

      1. I’ve currently begun to wonder if MS or intel is involved somehow, considering that they are subsidizing the cost of these tablets. Perhaps they are only subsidizing the non-broadband ones and the manufacturers are trying to sell as many as they can while the prices (for consumers) are so low.

         1. Probably more a issue with the carriers, offering cellular features means making a deal with the carriers and often distribution through the carriers that also sets limits on what the OEMs can offer…

            One of the reasons for the high cost of Smart devices through carriers is because they often custom order the products with specific modifications, like locking the device to the carrier and/or installing custom software specific to the carrier…

            While WiFi only devices are usually free of such limitations and can be sold without making deals with the carriers…

            Also, cellular modems aren’t universal yet… meaning specific models are good only for specific regions and that also limits how they can sell the product and how much time and resources have to go, along with logistics…

            1. I’d rather just tether personally the tablet plans are still too expensive.

            2. Not always true. T-mobile has a completely free tablet plan. Mind you, it’s pretty limited, but I can use up what I get for free and then tether. Their paid plans aren’t that bad and if you use a “share” plan, then you just pay a nominal fee to acces data allotments you already pay for.

               I agreed you you on my first tablet purchase, but frankly I’m not happy with tethering. I have to go through several motions on my phone and then several more on my tablet before the connection is up and running. For many tasks it takes more effort to tether than to just do the task on my phone. So, I find that I don’t do it very often and thus don’t really use the tablet as often as it could be used otherwise.

   2. Every year it seems to always be the case for tablets and notebooks where the WWAN options are released later even if the announcements talked about WWAN capabilities. I’m not sure why though. If I had to guess, it could be related to ramping up production and WiFi only devices sell more than the more expensive WWAN capable version that would also require data plans to make use of.

5. Finally, an 8″ Windows 8 tablet worth getting.

Comments are closed.