Dell Venue 8 - Review'ish

[John Wiskowski]

Thanks for the review. They aren't many out there. Mine is coming before Thanksgiving, so I will add my review here soon.
I wan a stock 8" Android tablet... this is as close as you can get today.

 

[jeffhesser]

no problem. The deals for these at $130 seem to keep coming. Another one at newegg for cyber monday.

 

[Haalcyon]

Are there any accessories that are easy to get. The normal stuff, like cases and screen protectors? I normally won't consider a device with those being readily available.

N7

 

[jeffhesser]

This thing has only been out for a few weeks so 3rd party stuff is just now beginning to pop up. They offer a good case on their site but I'm holding off for a cheaper 3rd party option (every time I check there are more and more showing on amazon). There are already cheap and available screen protectors.

 

[Haalcyon]

This thing has only been out for a few weeks so 3rd party stuff is just now beginning to pop up. They offer a good case on their site but I'm holding off for a cheaper 3rd party option (every time I check there are more and more showing on amazon). There are already cheap and available screen protectors.

That's good news. Now, when there's CM, Slim Bean, and other ROMs it'll get some more love. I hope it does because the price point is good.

N7

 

[jeffhesser]

Agreed. Honestly though, Dell leaves this thing so bare that if they can be quick with updates I probably wouldn't spend much time on custom roms.

 

[deltatux]

Build quality is great on this device. I wish they could get the weight down a bit but this thing is solid for sure, nothing feels hollow or flimsy.

Thanks for your reply Jeff. I ended up getting my mum the Dell Venue 7 because there simply were no sales for the Dell Venue 8 in Canada. Future Shop (Canadian arm of Best Buy) had the Dell Venue 7 on sale for $119 for their pre-Black Friday sales so I snagged that one for her.

I was also able to do some digging around on the device, it's a fantastic device and found out that it comes with an unlocked bootloader. I've been trying to find ways to root it. Here's a thread I made on XDA about it:
[GUIDE] Dell Venue 7/8 Unlocked Bootloader - xda-developers

I might pick up the 8" myself during Boxing Day or sometime next year.

Cheers,
deltatux

 

[jeffhesser]

Oh wow, that is most excellent news! Can't wait to see how development comes along. With the multiple sales on this thing it seems like they are going to be in heavy circulation. Thanks for the info.

 

[Leo378]

Anyone with this Dell Venue 8 or the Android 4.2.2 OS have an issue with wifi continuously reconnecting? It just cycles through Connecting -> Authenticating... -> Saved, Secured with WPA and then starts over again with connecting. All other devices work on the network so it isn't the router. I've tried to toggle wifi on and off, toggle airplane mode on and off, forget and reconnect to the network, and turning it off and on and nothing has corrected it. I haven't found much googling this issue or on Dell's support page.

 

[Barking Pumpkin]

Anyone with this Dell Venue 8 or the Android 4.2.2 OS have an issue with wifi continuously reconnecting? It just cycles through Connecting -> Authenticating... -> Saved, Secured with WPA and then starts over again with connecting. All other devices work on the network so it isn't the router. I've tried to toggle wifi on and off, toggle airplane mode on and off, forget and reconnect to the network, and turning it off and on and nothing has corrected it. I haven't found much googling this issue or on Dell's support page.

Only time I've had this occur is when I failed to enter the correct key/password.

 

[normah]

Does anyone know if you rent a movie from the play movies app if you can watch it on your TV. I have plugged the USB from the venue 8 into the TV and it doesn't direct me to do anything?

 

[jeffhesser]

Nope. That port is only for data and power. No video out. Chromecast might work for that now or soon

 

[macroguy07]

My Dell Venue 8 now has been upgraded and is running KitKat 4.4.2 and I sideloaded the Google Experience Launcher [GEL] on it. Runs great for what I use a tablet for, not experiencing any unusual issues with it.