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
Camera
The Venue 11 Pro has two cameras. The front camera is a 2 MP unit and the rear camera is an 8 MP sensor. Neither are particularly impressive cameras unfortunately. Either would be ok for a video conference or something like that, but the camera quality is pretty low.
Here are some sample pictures.
Venue 11 Pro Front Camera Sample
Venue 11 Pro Rear Camera Sample
It seems to be the thing to do to include cameras in tablets. If you needed to do a video chat, they would suffice, but they are not very good for imaging.
Wi-Fi
The Venue 11 Pro comes with the Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265 wireless adapter, which is a 2x2:2 802.11ac model. We have seen it in quite a few devices since it was released late last year, superseding the 7260 model. It has a maximum connection speed of 866 Mbps.
The Venue 11 Pro did not have the best network performance. Even with the latest driver, the maximum connection speed that it would achieve was 780 Mbps, so right away there is a bit of an issue with the reception since it is not achieving the maximum speed of the adapter even with it being the only wireless device connected to the router. During use, the maximum transfer speed was only 420 Mbps though, which is an average result for this model, however it would not consistently deliver these speeds, with it sometimes dropping to the mid 200 Mbps range.
The tablet dock does allow for a wired connection, however the dock is only a 10/100 Mbps Ethernet port.
Speakers
Dell has two speakers which, like their XPS 13, are mounted on the sides of the device. This gives a good bit of stereo separation as well as helps with directing sound towards your ears, as opposed to devices where the speakers fire towards the rear. Like many devices these days, they are tuned with Waves MaxxAudio.
The speakers were surprisingly loud, with a measured SPL of 76 dB (A Weighted) when playing music. Looking at the frequency response, there is actually reasonable response at the lower end of the graph which is always difficult for smaller speaker drivers to achieve. However there is a big dip around 4500 Hz which spoils the otherwise decent results.
Software
The Venue Pro 11 is of course a Windows based tablet, and as such is restricted somewhat when used as a tablet by the Windows Store, which, several years in, still does not have a fully fleshed out app store, but it has improved quite a bit. On the productivity and business side, Microsoft has made some headway here with partnerships with companies such as Dropbox and Salesforce.
On the tablet side only, there is certainly a gap with the lack of Microsoft Office, although that has been previewed as part of the Windows 10 update coming later this year. Buying the device today though means that you are missing out on the touch version.
OneNote is available as a touch version though, and with the inclusion of an active stylus, the Venue 11 Pro can be a formidable device for taking notes. I attempted to write something for a screenshot, but my handwriting is so poor that I felt it would be best to not embarrass myself. Instead I fired up Fresh Paint and did a bit of coloring with the stylus. It is very accurate and works well for this. People that have tablets that include a stylus seem to swear by them, and it seems to be for good reason.
I only colored some of this fish...
As an enterprise device, the Dell offers many of the features that an Information Technology department would look for, including Intel vPro on the 5Y71 version, and Dell Client Command Suite to streamline system deployment, monitoring, and updating.
The 10.8 inch display also does a good job with desktop use, especially when paired with some of the optional accessories like the stylus or keyboards. The Core M processor also performs better than any other tablet CPU which is fanless, which means that typical office tasks are no problem. Certainly the smaller display size can be an issue on desktop use compared to a much larger display, but those that are used to smaller notebooks will not find the Venue 11 Pro much more cramped. It would realy benefit here from a less wide aspect ratio though, as 16:9 is really not ideal for office use.
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thunng8 - Friday, April 17, 2015 - link
A8X in the iPad Air 2 does ~1820 in single threaded geekbenchTrackSmart - Thursday, April 16, 2015 - link
This seems like an overly strong statement ("horrible!" -- for the price).Core M is a low-power platform. For standard office productivity tasks, it provides similar performance to 15 watt ultrabook processors, but only uses 4.5 watts of power. That's pretty impressive. I don't see where the "horrible" part comes into play. These are meant to be ultramobile parts. The laws of physics dictate that there will be some tradeoff between power consumption and performance when you are constrained by thermal limits and battery capacity.
-If you don't like Core M, choose a product built around a higher TDP platform and move to the other side of the curve (higher power consumption, but also consistently higher performance in continuous workloads).
-If you want a snappy system for standard office productivity tasks in the most mobile form-factor possible, choose a Core M product, and enjoy similar performance to 15 watt parts for "burst" oriented workloads, but in a thinner, lighter, longer-lasting form factor.
-If you want a cheaper price point, choose a slower product built around an Atom processor, which will offer a similar form factor but lower performance.
-And if you can live without Windows, sure, buy an ARM-based tablet.
** It's fantastic that we have these choices today. ** If your problem is the price of Core M, well, unfortunately we are talking about full-on Core architecture processors. Without greater competition, Intel isn't going to give these processors away at Atom prices. And especially not at ARM prices.
As for this particular product, I agree it does't look very "premium" to me, either, that has nothing to do with the Core M processor inside. I'm personally impressed with what Asus did with the UX305 for $699 and a Core M processor. Solid ultra-portable performance in a very thin chassis with long battery life.
Didn't mean to jump on you here. Just sort of surprised that anyone would call Core M itself horrible. Many people have been waiting for this kind of performance in such a low TDP x86 processor.
Qwertilot - Thursday, April 16, 2015 - link
Apple have the resources that they presumably could (more or less) match the CPU single core of this, but I don't think putting so much single core performance into a tablet chip is what you'd chose to do if designing specifically for tablets.Especially with Apple being very keen on having lots and lots of graphics firepower to hand.
CoreM's design makes much more sense if you're going for fanless notebooks, at times with the cooling systems around to run it at somewhat higher power than you'd want for a tablet etc.
Marc GP - Thursday, April 16, 2015 - link
Sorry, but no. Core M doesn't gives you the performance of a 15w ultrabook using only 4.5watts.Because it can only give you that for short bursts before seriously throttling and having to lower its clock from 2,8Ghz (turbo) to its nominal 1Ghz frequency, the only one they can keep for large periods.
Don't try anything that needs steady performance on a Core M, like gaming, for example.
TrackSmart - Thursday, April 16, 2015 - link
I don't mean to be rude, but I don't think you read my post or the article itself very carefully. My post says that for typical office productivity tasks, which are burst-oriented, you get similar performance. I also say that if you want sustained higher performance, you need to move to a higher TDP. The article says similar things and shows benchmarks to demonstrate this. So what exactly are you arguing that I didn't say myself?My Post:
"For standard office productivity tasks, it provides similar performance to 15 watt ultrabook processors, but only uses 4.5 watts of power. ...choose a Core M product, and enjoy similar performance to 15 watt parts for "burst" oriented workloads, but in a thinner, lighter, longer-lasting form factor."
Article: In the PCMark 8 section, which simulates office productivity tasks -- "In these types of workloads, Core M can outperform [15 watt TDP] Haswell-U series parts from the Ultrabooks of last year, which is fairly impressive in a passively cooled device."
To "jjj", you still haven't provided a sensible argument. I'd love it if Intel sold these chips for $50, but it isn't going to happen. You'd have to be living on another planet to think otherwise. Until someone else offers similar x86 CPU performance in a comparable power envelope, these products are going to command prices that are similar to Intel's other Core series processors.
jjj - Thursday, April 16, 2015 - link
It's the worst chip in history!! lolLet me explain why and remember i said horrible for the price.
Die is about 80mm2 so similar to the Exynos 7420 and 50% smaller than a Snapdragon801. Sure it comes on a module so that adds to costs a bit but Intel launched it at some 280$. Even if an OEM would pay 3 times less ,the chip would still cost way way too much. Mobile chips that size sell for 15-30$ depending on how new they are (start at 30 and keep dropping during their lifetime), IHS just a couple of days ago estimated that the Exynos 7420 costs 29.5$ ( to buy not to make).
So Intel here is just abusing it's x86 monopoly and charging absurd prices for the chip. That's why we don't see tabs like this one at 300$ and why the chip is horrible. If it was below 50$ it would be fine but it's a hell of a lot more.
PS: you can check die size and price in one of the early articles on Core M here on AT.
jjj - Thursday, April 16, 2015 - link
Correction- Meant to say that SD801 is 50% bigger or Core M is 33% smaller than SD801 and ended up with something else.smilingcrow - Thursday, April 16, 2015 - link
Translation. It's a great chip but I can't afford it and I'm so very very angry.jjj - Thursday, April 16, 2015 - link
Not even a trace of anger ,i know Intel's ways too well for it's behavior to impress me and i can afford it but i'm not that stupid to buy it (not that i need it to begin with).Anyway , thanks for your valuable contribution to the conversation , it was a true delight.
akdj - Saturday, April 18, 2015 - link
Excellent words 'crow. I'm thinking jjj doesn't understand X86, ARM, and bigLittle architecture NOR how a mobile processor is 'of benefit' to MOST people in today's world. They're as fast as the core i5 power in SB, close to IB and even with thermal limitations, it smokes the Intel iGPU 4000. I'm ambidextrous, using OS X and Windows Android and iOS. To exclaim 'the worst chip in history' considering where Intel was just 18 months ago VERY WELL be the MOST ignorant statement I've seen on Anand's site in some time. Regardless of price (remember, R&D must be recouped to bring the archtiecture's price down), and the magic Apple's done with 64 bit processing over the past two years, it's Qualcomm that's been blindsided. Samsung has switched to their chips, has the A9 contract and have settled disputes everywhere but America. The power of samsung and Apple's engineering prowess and chip trickery (A8x and A8, second and 2.5 gen 64bit chips are nearing a year old, as they start production early summer on the fall iOS releases), it's Intel and Apple/Samsung and TSMC. What the A8/A8x did for the iPad Air 2 is. Itching short of incredible and as an owner for almost nine months, I'm confident there are very few folks in this world that need 'more power' than iPad Air2, Nexus 9, or this Dell reviewed. Most of us that 'work' with a company supplied computer don't really feel like desktops when we get home. Don't have time with the kids and it's easy to throw in the truck and forget about the charger! Laptops are a PITA in comparison and not 'really' that much more capable ESPECIALLY if you use the tools built for and sold I the App Store. Every app of the million plus are optimized at this time for the A5/6 families of SoCs. That's the missing point here. With this Dell, the entire world of software 'Windows built' is now available to you with significantly faster storage and a mature 64bit process from a company that's led the way in silicon for thirty years. And they, like Apple, have the paper to test, retest and 'make it work'. Tegra. Tegra 3, 4 and now these ULV procs taking it to an entirely different level of performanceWith the iGPU it's a matter of efficient cooling in fabless designs to slow down the throttling. That's going to come as they continue the more efficient designs with Skylake and the future.
Just plain ignorance. So sad with all these power packed choices we've got now, their time is limited. Not enough room for a half dozen silicon manufacturers. 2, maybe three will win out and my bets on ARM, Intel and possibly Sammys Exnyos