Wednesday, November 05, 2014

Dell's new Venue 11 Pro tablet is thin and light enough to take on the Surface Pro 3

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/11/05/dell-venue-11-pro-2014/

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Nope, that's not a Surface Pro up there. But it's close. Dell just refreshed its 10.8-inch Venue 11 Pro tablet, and, much like Microsoft's slate, it's gone on a bit of a diet. Whereas the original Venue 11 Pro ran on a traditional, laptop-grade Core i5 processor, this one uses one of Intel's new Core M chips, which allows it to be much thinner and lighter -- and fanless, too. All told, it now comes in at 1.62 pounds and measures 0.42 inch thick -- not bad for what's essentially an 11-inch laptop replacement. (It's even slightly lighter than the Surface Pro 3, though to be fair, Microsoft's tablet also has a bigger screen.)

As before, it'll be available with your choice of Core i3- and i5-series processors, a 1080p IPS screen and an optional Synaptics-made digitizer for pressure-sensitive pen input. Given that this is a lower-powered Core M processor, we wouldn't be surprised if the performance were slightly below last year's model, but even so, battery life is supposed to be longer: up to 10 hours on the tablet, plus another 10 if you add the optional Mobile Keyboard, which has its own 10-hour battery built in. Speaking of the sort, both of last year's keyboards, including the "Slim" folio, will work with this year's model as well. Good news for IT departments that already sprang for the accessories, and only want to upgrade the actual tablet. The Venue Pro 11 starts at $699 with the Slim keyboard included. Storage starts at 64GB, but there will also be 128GB and 256GB models available. Look for it this month, and in the meantime, enjoy the hands-on photos.

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