The Dell Venue 11 Pro 7000 Review
by Brett Howse on April 16, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Tablets
- Dell
- Windows 8.1
- Core M
Final Words
In my time with the Venue 11 Pro, what has defined the tablet is not the hardware itself, but the accessories. Dell offers such a range of options that the tablet can be anything from a desktop PC, to a clamshell laptop, to a very portable mobile device. They really have hit all of the options which gives the customers a lot of choice in what they want to do with this device.
Starting with the dock, Dell has crafted a sturdy, solid, easy to use dock which offers plenty of ports. USB, Ethernet, headphones, HDMI, and DisplayPort are all on tap, so the Venue 11 Pro can easily be plugged in and used as a desktop replacement. The finish and materials of the dock are top notch, and amazingly it only sells for $79.99, which is much less than the Surface Dock that Microsoft sells. It is not perfect due to the 10/100 Mbps Ethernet, but for many offices, the addition of any wired networking is a big improvement over wireless anyway, and is sometimes necessary.
The Stylus is also excellent. It is powered by a single AAA battery, which if it does ever die, is easy to obtain and replace. The point is very smooth, and glides effortlessly over the tablet’s glass. Accuracy was also excellent on this new version of the Synaptics stylus, and the only time I had issues was at the very edges of the display. It is great for writing, and it makes a big difference when navigating the desktop as well.
The Mobile keyboard dock is not everything I hoped it would be, and is the one accessory that really let me down. The included battery can make a big difference in overall run time, which is excellent, but it adds a lot of thickness and a lot of mass to the device. Not only that, but the keyboard and trackpad are sub-par, and were frustrating to use. They are both passable, but I have used other Dell devices which offer a much better experience, so Dell needs to step up here especially with the price. The tablet does latch into the keyboard very well though, which makes it a much better laptop experience than a device which may have a non-connected or Bluetooth keyboard attachment.
Dell did not ship me the slim keyboard, so I will not make any comments on the use of that particular accessory. It will obviously provide a keyboard when needed, without all of the added bulk of the mobile version, but without the laptop hinge and battery which is part of the mobile version.
The Dell Venue 11 Pro tablet, when considered as a pure tablet, has some shortcomings due to the very nature of what makes it an excellent hybrid device. At 10.8 inches in screen size, it never felt too big to use as a tablet, but the extra thickness and mass of it make it hard to compete against some of the pure tablets out there. It does use the extra size to great effect though, with the Venue 11 Pro packing a full personal computer into its chassis. These are not tablet parts inside, with a Core processor, 8 GB of memory, and a Solid State Drive at the heart of this device. The performance is quite a bit better than pretty much all other fanless tablets around.
We have evaluated Core M in detail, and the Venue 11 Pro really pushes Core M to the limit of what it is capable of, but that does not take away from the performance that is there. Compared to a Bay Trail Atom powered tablet, there really is no competition. The performance delta between Bay Trail and Broadwell, even in similar power envelopes, is massive. For what it was meant to do, Core M delivers outstanding performance in a fanless tablet. Once you start comparing it to higher TDP Core parts, it can fall down a bit, but none of them can be used in a fanless device like this one. It will be curious to see how it compares to the Cherry Trail based Atom cores that have just started to appear in devices such as the Microsoft Surface 3.
Using the Venue 11 Pro on a day to day basis never really felt like it was a tablet. The combination of plenty of memory, a SSD, and Core M, really made it feel like a proper ultrabook. Battery life was also quite good considering the compact size and relatively small battery inside. Adding the mobile keyboard dock increases battery life to great levels.
Really, there is not a lot of competition for the Venue 11 Pro right now. If you are looking for a business class tablet with a Core processor and proper accessories like a dock, there is the Dell Venue 11 Pro and the Microsoft Surface Pro 3. Both feature Ultrabook class components inside, but have different trade-offs, with the Surface Pro 3 having better performance and active cooling. That puts the Venue 11 Pro into a class of its own, with the fanless design of a Core M tablet. The starting price of just $699 undercuts the Surface Pro 3 Core i3 version by $150, which is not insignificant.
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duriel - Thursday, April 16, 2015 - link
The GPU comparison looks a bit strange, since Core M does quite a bit better at 3DMark than at GfxBench. Both Manhattan and IceStorm run for a couple of minutes, so I don't buy the argument that GfxBench is slower because it runs longer (although that might be true for actual games like Dota). Perhaps it is a driver / application optimization issue. I wonder if GfxBench uses OpenGL or DirectX on Windows. Intel is generally known to have better DX drivers than OGL. Too bad we don't have more cross platform graphics benchmarks.lilmoe - Thursday, April 16, 2015 - link
I've seen other reviews around too, and I don't base my judgements on benchmarks alone. It really seams that the GPU is not up to task. How much could they mess up the driver? This isn't Intel's first attempt at iGPUs...thunng8 - Friday, April 17, 2015 - link
Ice Storm is a fair bit shorter than gfxBench benchmarks and IMO gfxBench graphically looks much better especially ManhattanShadowmaster625 - Thursday, April 16, 2015 - link
I hope they keep pushing these thigns out. When we go into the next recession these things will be all over slickdeals for $400 maybe even $300. At around $400 this is a very compelling product.chizow - Thursday, April 16, 2015 - link
I was part of the validation process for these Venue Pros and other tablet/2-in-1s for work and we decided not to use these in favor of the Surface Pro 3 mixed in with some Yoga Pros and Transformer T300s (for users who wanted more of a 2-in-1 experience).There were a number of major problems with the Venue Pro that we ran into compared to the competitors and really only one positive.
Pros: Take care of this easy one first, it has a built-in SC Reader. It works poorly, but it is there. This is an important feature for any Enterprise that does business with the Government or has the highest security standards.
Cons:
-1080p 16:9 aspect ratio is terrible for tablet portrait usage. Works OK on a smartphone because that's all we've ever known, but for web content and even most documents, 16:9 just doesn't work and often forces you to scroll LR on a page, especially if there is a menu/banner on either side.
-Heavy and thick. Just feels really heavy. Maybe its due to the stocky dimensions, but it just feels heavy in the hand and it is considerably thicker than the SP3. It feels even worst as a tablet than the original Surface Pro and Pro 2.
-Dock. Price and overall build quality on the dock is good, but attaching it is not as easy as the SP3 dock and you also can't attach the keyboard while docked like you can with the SP3's dock. Also not as many connectivity options but overall the dock is good especially for the price.
-Folio Keyboard. This thing is awful, can't even be compared to the SP3's dock and it is also unnecessarily thick due to the multiple manifolds required for its stand-up folio action. The keyboard itself feels awful, almost no key travel it is more like the touchpads that also double as buttons for your entire keyboard. Also, in "laptop" mode it just doesn't work well because the tablet is SO much heavier than the keyboard and the only support you have is the flexible folio back kickstand. If you want a 2-in-1 spring for the new rigid typepad/battery accessory or look at the Asus Transformer T300 or Yoga Pro 3.
-Probably no longer an issue with this Core M variant, but the i5 unit I had the fan would ramp up and it would get LOUD.
So yeah, would definitely check this one out in person before you buy, from my testing and time spent validating multiple of these options, I would spend a bit more and go with a Surface Pro 3 i5 variant with 4GB/128GB or 8GB/256GB or one of the higher-end Surface 3 (non-Pro). Surface Pro line is probably due for an update soon anyways, I would expect to see a Core M variant replacing the low-end i3.
Brett Howse - Thursday, April 16, 2015 - link
So just to clarify, your experience is with the older model then? Obviously this one is quiet since it is passively cooled. It's great to hear from people who have a lot of experience with these devices.chizow - Friday, April 17, 2015 - link
Yeah it was the older i5 model but I figured Core M would quiet it down which is great to hear. I did also go back and read the parts of the review on the dimensions and it does look like they addressed the thickness and weight concerns somewhat, but I am not sure they've done enough to address the 2-in-1 and screen size/aspect ratio concerns.In any case I do laud Dell for taking a chance on this segment but like the Surface Pro line, I think more iterations and improvements are needed for this product to do well.
DigitalFreak - Thursday, April 16, 2015 - link
We bought a bunch of these @ work. Absolute junk. Do yourself a favor and look at the Lenovo Helix.lilmoe - Thursday, April 16, 2015 - link
Mind sharing your experience? Was it performance or overall quality?Azurael - Thursday, April 16, 2015 - link
Was that the previous 7130 model? They launched with a shedload of issues after receiving numerous positive reviews. The screen would freeze frequently unless panel self refresh was disabled, the touch screens would register double taps constantly, the stylus was basically useless and the SSDs got laggy over time. After several BIOS updates and firmware updates for almost every component I could imagine having updateable firmware (and not just the touch controller, but the LCD panel itself) it works great. I think Dell really dropped the ball, I assume businesses had already given up on them by that point which is good for me, because refurbs are numerous and cheap :)