Review: Dell Venue 8 7000

Introduction, design and display

Everyone has had the same reaction when I told them I was reviewing the Dell Venue 8 7000: "Wow, a Dell tablet? That must be awful." The tablet's overly calculated name and the brand's post-90s mediocrity don't invoke a whole lot of confidence.

To their surprise and mine, this 8.4-inch Android tablet easily measures up to other premium slates like the iPad mini 3 and Nexus 9. It even claims Apple's former title of "world's thinnest tablet," thanks to an ultra-thin aluminum frame.

Dell comes through with other nifty tricks too, like a sharp OLED display that has a 2,560 x 1,600 resolution and dense 361 pixels per inch to rival the Samsung Galaxy Tab S. There is also a pair of cool depth of field-manipulating cameras to play with on back.

The now-privately held computer maker is looking for its first post-PC turnaround in consumer tech to prove that it's stodgy no more. Look no further than the Dell Venue 8 7000 at a competitive price of $399 (£331, AU$499). It's not the world's fastest tablet and the name doesn't sound high-end, but this is the thinnest and one of the best tablets of 2015.

Design

The Venue 8 7000 has a lot in common with the shape of the Sharp Aquos Crystal and the brushed-metal build quality of the HTC One M8, our top-rated smartphone. From the look of it, you'd think that HTC was the manufacturer of this tablet and Dell made the Nexus 9.

This slate's striking aluminum frame has a thickness of just 6 mm (0.24 inches), a tenth of a millimeter smaller than the iPad Air 2 at 6.1 mm (0.24 inches). Remember how Apple touted its flagship tablet as sub-pencil-thin by cutting a pencil with a laser? This beats that.

Sporting an 8.4-inch display, its size is obviously closer to that of the 7.9-inch iPad mini 3. The dimensions come out to a length of 215.8mm (8.5 inches), a width of 124.4mm (4.89 inches), and that defining thickness of 6mm (0.24 inches). Plus the tablet weighs 306g (0.67 pounds), lighter than any iPad.

What's even more radical about the Dell Venue 8 7000 is its component layout. It looks like a trendy pop star with one side of his or her head shaved, because the speaker grill and front-facing camera are located at the bottom chin while there's a very thin bezel on the top and sides. Though not completely bezel-free, the tablet mimics the look of the Sharp's first US smartphone.

Dell managed to squeeze a volume rocker and power button onto its tablet's thin frame, and while each have solid clickiness, they're on the left side. A lot of people can't stand that. I found it easier to reach these buttons with my left thumb when one-handing the tablet with my left hand (as I'm right-handed). But my fingers always wanted to reach for the right side.

There's a microSD card slot on the otherwise vacant right side of the aluminum frame. It doubles as a SIM card slot for the tablet's LTE variant. You'll be tapping into the microSD slot quickly, considering internal storage is limited to 16GB. Along the bottom edge, where the "space gray" aluminum frame runs out and the plastic black-colored chin begins, there's a headphone jack and standard micro USB port.

Dell's front-facing speakers are loud and and point in the right direction in an age when tablet and phone manufacturers often opt to project sound from the bottom rim or the back of their devices. They're in stereo too, but you wouldn't know it because they're located in one long speaker grill at the bottom. Turning the tablet on its side to watch a movie makes this right and left split pointless.

The 2-megapixel front-facing camera is located in the very bottom left corner of tablet, which is an interesting design choice. Most tablets put this camera up the top, not on the chin where you sometimes hold the device (especially one without much bezel elsewhere). Apologies to everyone who video conferenced with my left hand this week.

The rear 8-megapixel camera and its two 720p depth cameras suffer from the same problem, only at more critical times: when I'm trying to take the perfect picture. All three camera reside near the bottom. Outside of that issue, Dell's uniquely rectangular tablet shape made it easy to grip and really contrasted with all of the rounded-off and sloped designs out there.

Display

The Venue 8 7000 maximizes its 8.4-inch screen with a top-of-the-line 2,560 x 1,600 resolution that matches the lauded Samsung Galaxy Tab S display. This is the best screen we've seen from a tablet so far, with more than four million pixels total.

Believe it or not, Dell's edge-to-edge display technically pulls off two more pixels per inch by packing in 361 ppi vs Samsung's 359 ppi. You're not going to notice differences here, but it does contrast with the iPad mini 3 (326 ppi) or iPad Air 2's (264 ppi).

The screen again takes cues from Samsung's tablets, with an oversaturated OLED panel and Apple's (among other competitors') devices with its use of parallax for home screen backgrounds. Is it completely color accurate? No. But do the colors pop out at you, especially with the moody, almost 3D default wallpapers? Absolutely.

Of course, the higher resolutions make for smaller icons and font sizes. I can fit an unheard of eight app icons on the bottom dock in addition to the always-present app drawer button. That makes nine icons across when I'm used to a max of seven.

The finely detailed smaller icons and text will make the screen harder to see for some people. For example, my mom and dad shouldn't get the tablet for this very reason. Yes, there's an option to make text larger and even "huge," but this doesn't translate to everything you see within the fragmented Android ecosystem, and the icons remain the same size.

That said, Dell isn't trying to appeal to its everyday audience with this high-resolution display. It's meant for a newer, younger and hipper crowd with better eyesight, according to my parents. Point made - also probably not meant for a crowd that uses the word "hipper."

Dell Venue 8 7000 is an Intel-backed tablet, and though I'll peer inside at the processor soon, the chip maker actually has a presence in the display. Intel's Sensing Assist mode wakes the screen when it detects motion. On by default, this feature can thankfully be turned off.

Intel's Sensing Assist has good intentions, but became a battery life killer rattling around in my bag or sliding around on the driver's seat of my car during my commute. Also, there's a slight delay to it. This meant - and this was so frustrating it's hard to put into words - I'd pick up the tablet and press the power button only to realize the screen turned on by itself a split second prior. So really, I'd just turn the screen off - every time. Brilliant.

Specs and performance

Dell stuck with its PC-chip-making buddy Intel, even though most other manufacturers favor Qualcomm Snapdragon processors. Next to the design, it's this thin tablet's biggest surprise.

It turns out that the Intel Atom Z3580 system-on-a-chip and the Dell Venue 8 7000's ultra-thin form factor have a lot to do with one another. Intel managed to fit its latest 64-bit processor, with a competitive 2.3GHz clock speed, onto a 22-nanometer, quad-core CPU vs normal size of 28nm.

It's almost appropriately codenamed Moorefield - it does more with less space - because it is smaller and easier to cool than Intel's competitors. It does this while besting the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 and 801 processors found in the Samsung Galaxy Tab S and Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact, respectively.

Intel is a few points ahead of these tablets with an averaged Geekbench 3 multi-core speed of 2,913 points. It didn't have trouble with 3D games, yet I saw slowdown during app switching opening and other simple tasks. I didn't experience crashing or freezing that some users have reported, but did notice that the tablet can get hot when running a high-end game.

Of course, there are new and better processors out there that date this Intel chip even before you set out to buy the Dell Venue 8 7000. Apple's custom A8 processor powers the iPad Air 2 through almost anything, with a dominate multi-core score of 4,507 points. Also ahead of Intel is the Nvidia K1 processor, which scores 3,492 on the Nexus 9 and 3,266 on the Nvidia Shield Tablet.

Further out, the Snapdragon 805 upgrade is already being circulated in phones such as the Nexus 6 and it's only a matter of time before that chip or the even more feature-packed Qualcomm 810 processor now in the LG G Flex 2 makes its way into tablets. Nvidia's X1 and Apple's A9 are likely to appear in devices before this year is out, too.

Also at the heart of the Dell Venue 8 7000 is an Imagination PowerVR G6430 graphics chip, which is the same GPU that's used in the first iPad Air, not the iPad Air 2. The 2GB of RAM keeps things smooth enough, but other tablets are already more future-proof with 3GB RAM.

The problem with any Google-involved tablet is that a lot of Android apps don't fully utilize the four cores of a 64-bit, quad-core processor like this, so you may not be missing out of too much, at least right now, by skipping out on the faster Nvidia K1.

More urgent, the Dell Venue 8 7000 includes a mere 16GB of internal storage, but really only 9.24GB of total space is user-accessible. There are no upgraded models with more space available, though Dell made sure to squeeze a microSD card slot into its ultra-thin tablet frame. It supports up to 512GB of extra storage space, which is fantastic, but the awfully limited local space of less than 10GB is something you need to know upfront.

Interface and apps

The Dell Venue 8 7000 runs Android 4.4.4 KitKat as its operating system with the expectation that it'll be upgraded to Android 5.0, like a lot of other tablets that came out at the end of last year.

It doesn't have Google's Lollipop software yet, but thankfully it runs a relatively clean version of Android KitKat. I was happy to find that there wasn't a custom Samsung, LG or HTC-like skin changing everything around to Dell's content (and likely to my discontent). Instead, all that's different about the interface is that Dell pre-loaded a few of its own harmless apps onto the home screen and finetuned menu colors to look better than Google's native menus.

Dell Gallery is the most involved of these apps, with the computer maker pushing its photo aggregating and editing tool to support the Intel RealSense Snapshot Depth Camera. Taking advantage of the three cameras around back, this photo editing software let me manipulate the focus, measure objects and apply filters to subjects on specific planes, all with varying degrees of success. As I'll explain, Dell Venue 8 7000's camera tricks are fun for a few kicks more than they're accurate.

The My Dell app offers easy-to-read storage, CPU, RAM and battery life stats and checks the tablet for system errors. Its pass-fail process covers a wide number of components including the battery, SD card, sensors, audio, multi-touch camera and so forth.

Dell MyCast is an handy productivity app that projects the tablet screen onto a TV or monitor. It requires the optional Dell Cast dongle that costs $80 (£70, AU$149) and plugs into any HDMI port. The real-time wireless relay makes good use of a larger screen and adds mouse and keyboard support to Android's usual mix. More enterprise-friendly software comes from Dropbox, which lends out a free 20GB of cloud storage to new Dell buyers for one year.

Dell Venue 8 7000 has full access to the Google Play Store and its 1.3 million apps, unlike the forked versions of the Android that force users to sideload apps including the Amazon Fire HDX. I didn't have any problem running apps like Facebook, Netflix and Waze other than the fact that not all phone-focused apps are properly formatted for a high-resolution tablet screen.

Movies and music

I like watching movies on the Dell Venue 8 7000 better than I did on my Nexus 9 and even the iPad Air 2, because it sports a widescreen-friendly display. Plus, the color saturation makes just about any modern day flick look good.

Dell didn't include multimedia software, which I don't mind because there are plenty including Google Play Movies & TV and Google Play Music. These default apps, especially Movies & TV, are more advanced than what phone and tablet manufacturers are capable of, so it was wise not to try to catch up and fail with additional bloatware.

Dell is advertising its front-firing stereo speakers with MaxxAudio Waves tuning for loud and properly adjustable movie and music listening. However, loading up a movie and turning the tablet on its side, I discovered that the bottom-located right and left speakers aren't as effective in landscape. They remain in a portrait-friendly orientation, giving you a weird top and bottom audio split from the chin's right-aligned speakers.

Games

The 22nm Intel chip held up surprisingly well in all 3D gaming sessions I threw at the tablet. I didn't spot a single instance of slowdown in Asphalt Airborne 8, a game where driving at top speeds is critical. Games were only slow to close. Dell Venue 8 7000 can handle the big stuff, yet sometimes sputters at smaller tasks.

One caveat is that the bezel-free design on one side of the tablet in landscape mode makes it difficult to game with because the touchscreen is prone to accidental touches. I encountered a few deaths in Jetpack Joyride and wanted to shout I didn't even go up. Then I realized the lower portion of my thumb had choked up the thin bezel a little too much. It's either the bezel's fault or my fingers are getting too fat.

Camera

TechRadar's for-your-own-good recommendation is that you shouldn't obnoxiously use your big ol' tablet to take photos. The results aren't nearly as good as the pictures taken by your smartphone and, simply put, you just end up looking ridiculous. While Dell goes out of its way to make the cameras here special, we stand by our principle.

What's so different? Dell Venue 8 7000 has not two, not three, but four cameras inside of its 6mm thin frame. It's the first tablet to take advantage of Intel's RealSense Snapshot Depth Camera technology, which captures depth information using a combination of the rear-facing 8-megapixel camera and two adjacent 720p shooters.

The pair of stereoscopic 720p cameras, separated by 3.14 inches (80mm), are supposed to mimic how our eyes perspective a scene with left and right depth images. The formula creates a Z pixel for every X and Y pixel in a photograph, according to the engineers at Dell.

That translates into photographs that are no longer flat, at least in data form. They're not for 3D viewing on the tablet, but post-production editing techniques, like switching up the focus and changing the background color within the Dell Gallery app.

I was able snap a depth picture of a runner along the beach and isolate him while applying a selective black and white filter to the restaurant in the background. Other depth filters included brightness, contrast, saturation and punch. Likewise, I could add more emphasis to a specific subject by altering the focus at a specific depth.

Measuring objects within depth pictures was another strange but ultimately neat gimmick that came from Intel RealSense Snapshot Depth Camera technology. I was able to photograph a McDonald's sign along California's Pacific Coast Highway and get its rough dimensions of 8 feet tall by 6 feet wide, a task that would normally be out of reach of my tape measure.

Taking a photo of a Pringles can revealed its petite size, and then my room's 120-inch world map on the wall proved to provide an accurate measurement too. It's not always reliable enough to use professionally, which a neat party trick nonetheless.

Not all photos lend themselves to to the perks of depth editing. Subjects at the center of a picture often shared the same plane as those in periphery, or unintentional photobombers. They ended up being colorized or in focus too. Worse, the Dell Gallery app saved photo edits that I felt didn't work out directly on top of the original picture. It didn't help that the save button is in the top left corner, where I instinctively expected a back button.

Also out of place are all four cameras within the Dell Venue 8 7000. I often found my fingers overtop of the bottom and center located 8-megapixel camera and have to adjust - only to be covering at least one of the 720p cameras after choking up. The oddly-placed front-facing 2MP camera suffered the same fate in the bottom left corner of the tablets chin.

Aside from so-so depth sensing technology and poor camera placement, it didn't help that the image results didn't compare to those of other tablets. Apple's camera-leading iPad Air 2 with its one rear-facing snapper trumped all three of Dell's stereoscopic cameras. The Nexus 9 with a flash and even older Nexus 7 2013 also less blurry main and selfie camera photos.

Camera samples

Battery life

The Dell Venue 8 7000 has fairly good battery life for such a compact tablet, thanks to its 5,900 mAh power pack that is squeezed into the 6mm-thin aluminum frame.

It's supposed to last 10 hours, according to the official specs from Dell, and that squares with the amount of time it took our review unit to drain: roughly 9 hours. This in-real-life testing would have likely yielded better results had not been for Intel's Sensing Assist feature, which turned the tablet screen on when it detected motion. It was enabled by default.

Running TechRadar's 90-minute battery test, which every phone and tablet goes through at full brightness, the Dell Venue 8 7000 battery drained to 84% from a full charge. That beat the Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact (70%), but couldn't match the Samsung Galaxy Tab S (87%).

The reason that Samsung's 8.4 inch tablet only dropped 13% by the end of the looped video is because it has a larger 7,900 mAh battery. The trade-off is that, instead of an sleek-looking all-metal design, Samsung owners get a slightly bulkier tablet in an unsightly plastic shell.

Newer tablets, like the Motorola-made Nexus 9, come with faster charging capabilities care of the Snapdragon energy-efficient processor and an extra-chunky charger. Intel is backing a similar technology for certain phones and tablets, but this Intel-based devices isn't on the list. So far, we've seen the Asus Zenfone 2 take advantage of this time saver.

The good news is that Dell's 8.4-inch tablet only takes 3 hours and 10 minutes to go from 0% battery life to a full charge. It's not Qualcomm's QuickCharge, but it's quick enough.

Verdict

We liked

Apple fans, take notice. Dell's ultra-thin machined aluminum frame and its even thinner bezels on a fresh, nonsymmetrical design make this the best looking slate next to any iPad.

It ends up being a fraction of a millimeter thinner than the iPad Air 2, and packs a lot of pixels into a color-saturated, vibrant 8.4-inch display.

The form factor makes the Dell Venue 8 7000 light for portability, yet sharp enough to watch multimedia on the go. The front-firing speakers and 16:10 aspect ratio help in this regard too.

Those three depth-manipulating cameras on back are fun to play with, even if their accuracy doesn't make them anything stronger than a novelty.

We disliked

That high-resolution display at 2,560 x 1,600 does make for tiny print and undersized app icons, and ratcheting up the text size in the settings menu doesn't apply to everything within Android. Screen quality also does nothing to help pictures taken with the tablet look better, even with all of the sophisticated stereoscopic camera technology onboard.

Android 5.0 Lollipop doesn't come pre-loaded with this tablet, which is a shame because Dell uses a nearly pure version of Google's mobile operating system that could really benefit from the update. It competes with Google's Nexus 9 tablet on price and battery life, but then you have to accessorize it right away with a microSD card. There's no 32GB Dell Venue 8 7000.

Nexus 9 has a faster Nvidia's K1 system-on-a-chip too, and nothing holds a candle to Apple's own A8 CPU. Intel's chip also comes with an annoying, battery-draining sensor that wakes the tablet when it detects motion, even if it's in a car or a backpack.

Final verdict

Instead of the Dell Venue 8 7000, this should have been called "Dell - the world's thinnest tablet" to tell us more about all of its iPad-beating features.

No, it doesn't match Apple's A8 chip with its unconventional use of a smaller Intel processor. That does make it slower than today's best tablets. But it ultimately helps more than it hurts, thanks to its thinner profile. This model is thin and has style, more so than other Android tablet.

It's funny to think about. The Dell Venue 8 7000 is targeting a younger audience, with an attractive design and without worrying about the tiny print on its high-resolution screen. Yet this demographic would probably think they were getting a music album if they were told "Dude, you're getting Adele." And then have to look up "dude" in Urban Dictionary.

This device marks a new post-PC approach for the old computer maker, and a good sign of things to come. I just hope the next, even more souped-up version isn't called Dell Venue 8 8000.

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