Asus Vivo Tab

The Vivo Tab features a next generation Atom processor (model unspecified), 2GB of RAM, 64GB internal storage (eMMC, or embedded multimedia card), and an 11.6-inch Super IPS+ display with a 1366x768 resolution. It also has an 8MP rear-facing camera with autofocus and LED flash, 2MP front-facing camera for video chat, built-in NFC sensor, and 10-point multi-touch support, all packed in a frame that's 8.7mm thin and weighing 675g. 

Hardware is almost identical to Samsung ATIV Smart PC 500T but the price is higher. There is a stylus but, unlike in Samsung tablets, there is no storage slot for the stylus.

Asus Vivo Tab is priced on the level of  Microsoft Surface Pro, which is far more powerful tablet. In other words it is heavily overpriced.  

The tablet has Wacom Active Digitizer and stylus.

-Wacom Active Digitizer! This is one of those things that I really didn't care about or know much about before buying this tablet, but after using the Wacom Active Digitizer and the included Active Digital Pen, I would never want to be without these again on any device. Don't get me wrong, I knew I wanted a touchscreen, but the Wacom Active Digitizer is a step beyond a normal touch screen because it offers pressure sensitivity so when you're handwriting or painting, the amount of pressure directly correlates to the width of the line, so what you see on screen looks just like what you would see when writing or painting on paper. You can even rest your hand on the screen while you're writing because the tablet can discern between the pen and your hand.

Many users who owned previously other tablets consider it to be the best on the market:

Leonard A. Dow - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) Awesome tablet!, December 7, 2012

I have owned several tablets. The iPad 2, Motorola xoom, Acer iconia, Asus transformer prime, Samsung galaxy tab 10.1, Asus transformer tf700, and the new Samsung Ative. This tablet blows all the others away. It is a beautiful piece of hardware. It feels good, sounds good, and looks great. This is the tablet I have been looking for!

If you need to decide between this tablet and ASUS Vivo tab, And Sumsung  ATIV  here are some relevant considerations:

J. Wang Dec 7, 2012 11:16:05 PM PST

Can you comment on how this is better than the Samsung Ativ. I'm currently playing with one from Staples, but TF810c also caught my eye. How do you justify the price difference, though?

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ZK In reply to an earlier post on Dec 8, 2012 8:18:03 AM PST

I can help out with this... I have been trying to decide between both, the price difference is understandable if you look at the features... this one has IPS plus screen Scratch and finger print resistant Corning Fit Glass (much better), GPS, NFS, compass, and a stylus that apparently works with all apps unlike the ativ one that has trouble with some from reviews on youtube and the web (and has an eraser the ativ one doesnt)... battery life is way better if you are getting the dock (19 hours)

speaking of docks the Samsung apparently has problems where it keeps disconnecting from its dock while typing... and last but not least the build quality is superior, the ativ is made of cheap plastic while this one is top quality hard aluminum

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J. Wang In reply to an earlier post on Dec 8, 2012 8:19:11 PM PST

I'm pretty sure that the Ativ has Corning Gorilla Glass. I hadn't heard of Corning Fit Glass, but after reading about it on a few forums, I'm actually kind of worried about its quality since there have been complaints about the Fit Glass on Asus's Nexus 7. Also, sAMOLED vs IPS probably just comes down to personal preference. Both look equally nice to me. Some models of the Ativ also have NFC; GPS is kind of a moot point without a mobile data network. Interestingly enough, the Ativ has a USB port on the tablet itself so you can plug in a 3g/4g dongle.

The Asus also has its own keyboard issues. The trackpad buttons do not register probably, but I admit that this is a smaller nuance than the keyboard disconnects on the Ativ.

Getting the dock means spending $1000 total...vs $750 for the Ativ. More or less, the two products have nearly identical internal hardware. Therefore, the extra $250 you'd be dishing out would be for the battery in the keyboard and for the aluminum casing. While Samsung's case is

John says: Not everything Samsung is superamoled. The Ativ tablet is not, and SAMOLED and it's quite difficult to manufacture in this size.

I'd say the real issue here is the weight and as far as my personal preference goes the vivo tab is already too heavy and samsung is out of the question when it comes to comfortable usage. Then the ATIV you get a partly useless dock and a lot of extra weight for no extra battery.

In my opinion samsung has a lot to refine before they catch up with asus, especially since this tablet is asus's 4th generation of keyboard docks and dock-able tablets. Reply to this post Permalink | Report abuse | Ignore this customerStop ignoring customer

2 of 2 people think this post adds to the discussion. Do you?

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ZK:

In reply to an earlier post on Dec 10, 2012 3:01:31 AM PST

I disagree on many of your points, First of all the ATIV doesnt have sAmoled second I havent seen any models with NFC and would appreciate it if you could post me a link of such models, second my android tablet has GPS but no 3G and it has been wonderful and extremely useful as i can download the maps before going out on a trip and it works flawlessly, i am sure it should be the same case here with vivo.

secondly the Vivo tab does come with a usb dongle for the tab if you want to plug in the 3g to it, but honestly i wont be using the dongle as i will be buying the keyboard with it for the 19 hours battery life (for people who travel or are on the road often that is a god sent) i can just plug it to the keyboard like a normal laptop.

As for the keyboard issue with the clicker, i played around with it in the store and it was fine, I also saw some youtube vids showing nothing is wrong with it, maybe its a software issue they fixed with an update, but regardless for me its never an issue as I almost never use the track pad on any laptop I ever had, I always use a mini mouse as it is more comfortable for me. and besides sketchy trackpad beats none working keyboard any time as you said :P

By all means I am not hating on Samsung, most my electronics are Samsung, I just think they messed up a bit as there is a very big amount of people returning their tabs to the stores with complaints.. and the only complaints that the vivo tab got (the RT version) is that people were upset they couldn't figure out how to get the free keyboard :P (and the trackpad of course)

And you have to admit build quality matters the most, the ativ is very bendy plastic that creaks when you hold it, and if you hold it firmly the screen gets distorted, after seeing that on youtube and reading the complaints, i was sure i wont be getting it...I tend to get my tablet knocked around a bit :P

(and the Vivo screen actually does look better when you put it side to side with ativ, i would suggest you go to local store and check it out) Anyways to each their own, i find the price difference understandable (even if both tablets price is high for tablets) if you look at all the features (buying a full option car is not the same as buying one without)

plastic, it seemed plenty sturdy to me. Is the $250 difference worth it? I really am not sure :-/

NEWS CONTENTS

• 200102 : ASUS VivoTab TF810C-C1-GR 11.6-Inch 64GB Tablet (Grey) ( ASUS VivoTab TF810C-C1-GR 11.6-Inch 64GB Tablet (Grey), )

Old News ;-)

ASUS VivoTab TF810C-C1-GR 11.6-Inch 64GB Tablet (Grey)

gadgetjunkie (Orlando, FL) - See all my reviews Best computer I've ever owned, November 30, 2012

I've owned the ASUS VivoTab TF810C and the docking station for about a week now and can say without question that this is the best computer I've ever owned. I'm still warming up to Windows 8. Windows 8 is just ok because working in both the Metro and traditional desktop interfaces is sometimes confusing, so I think Windows 8 will have to grow on me, but the Asus Tablet is simply phenomenal.

PROS
----
- Long battery life! All I can say is WOW. The battery life on the tablet alone is around 9 hours. I'd say realistically, you'll get about 6 to 7 hours with normal use, but that is still incredible. Then, if you add the dock, you get an additional 10 hours (real life another 7 to 8 hours) making this the first true all day computer ever. I've owned several Sony Vaio's with extended batteries and thought I was doing well getting 8 hours with those, but the Vivotab's battery life is on an entirely new level.

- Screen brightness! As far as I know, the VivoTab is the only x86 tablet on the market with 600 nits brightness. The others are all between 350 and 400 nits, so the screen on this is super bright. Almost too bright for most situations, so I find myself keeping the brightness somewhere between 4 and 6 out of the 10 available brightness levels.

- Fast! I was hesitant to buy this tablet and thought about waiting for the upcoming Transformer Book instead because I thought I would need a Core i5 or i7 processor and 4GB of RAM to use the apps that I regularly use (Office, Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks), but I was pleasantly surprised that I could run all of these programs on the 1.8Ghz Atom with 2GB of RAM with no problem at all. I can even have them all open at the same time without missing a beat. Photoshop does lag a bit if you work with large files, so I wouldn't recommend this if your job is to use Photoshop all day, but if you are a casual Photoshop user, this tablet will be just fine.

- Cool to the touch and Quiet! Again, I was worried about the VivoTab TF810C not having a fan, but this thing is ALWAYS cool to the touch. There's an area of slight warmth in the upper left hand corner on the back of the tablet near the camera, but it's not hot and I wouldn't even call it warm - maybe lukewarm. I'm guessing that the processor is right there in that spot, but you really wouldn't know it. The rest of the device is cool, if not cold to the touch all the time. ...and since there's no fan, there's no noise. None...

- Wacom Active Digitizer! This is one of those things that I really didn't care about or know much about before buying this tablet, but after using the Wacom Active Digitizer and the included Active Digital Pen, I would never want to be without these again on any device. Don't get me wrong, I knew I wanted a touchscreen, but the Wacom Active Digitizer is a step beyond a normal touch screen because it offers pressure sensitivity so when you're handwriting or painting, the amount of pressure directly correlates to the width of the line, so what you see on screen looks just like what you would see when writing or painting on paper. You can even rest your hand on the screen while you're writing because the tablet can discern between the pen and your hand.

- WIFI! The wifi connection on this is stronger than any other computer I've had. In fact, I'm seeing several networks in my neighborhood that I can't see on any other computer that I own.

- Light weight! Almost forgot to mention that the VivoTab is so light that it can comfortably be held in one hand for long periods of time. For comparison, an iPad 2 weighs 1.35 lbs and the VivoTab weighs 1.5 lbs.

CONS
----

- Disk Space :( 64GB is all you get, so you have to be diligent about watching what you install. I currently have Office 2010, Adobe Creative Suite Web Premium and probably 6GB of additional data and I now have 13GB of space available left on my drive. The nice thing about the VivoTab is that there is a MicroSD slot right on the tablet, so I just put a 64GB Micro SD card in there and can move my data over to that drive. The keyboard dock also has two USB 2.0 ports, so you can use 2 additional USB sticks to increase storage space there as well.

- No USB 3.0 port. It would be nice to have this for speed with external storage devices. None of the Atom tablets have a USB 3.0 port, though, so I can't fault Asus for this.

- No Bitlocker support to encrypt data. The VivoTab doesn't come with Windows 8 Pro, so you have to pay Microsoft an additional $69.99 for the online upgrade (there's a link to do this in the control panel system menu) to get Bitlocker support plus the other features of Windows 8 Pro.

- Trackpad buttons on keyboard dock are awful. Clicking a button doesn't always translate to an on-screen action. Sometimes right clicking triggers a left click or does nothing at all. Sometimes a left click does nothing at all. If you click, you usually are hunting for the "sweet spot" on the buttons to get them to do something. Asus has to fix this. It's not a huge problem because you can always use the touchscreen instead of the trackpad buttons, but Asus really needs to fix this. I purchased two keyboard docks and one is terrible and the 2nd one is just slightly less terrible, so manufacturing processes must have something to do with this, but the trackpad buttons on both are unacceptable to me, especially when I never had this problem with my Asus Eee Pad Transformer dock.

***UPDATE 12/2/12***

my first keyboard dock was clearly defective and I have returned it for an exchange because the buttons wouldn't even pop back up after pressing them. My 2nd keyboard dock, although not perfect, doesn't have this problem and is much more reliable now that I know the "sweet spot" to press on the buttons. If I press the buttons on the edges, most likely, they won't work (sometimes they will work), but if I press them dead center, they seem to always function as they should. I still believe that the buttons should work no matter where you press them, but they are at least useful now...

- Speaker volume. The speakers on the VivoTab are on back and because they face away from you, the volume leaves a lot to be desired. You can hear them just fine, but if you like to listen to loud music directly on your computer speakers or turn up the volume on your movies, you'll be wishing for extra volume. For my purposes, the speakers are acceptable, but I think many people using this tablet for entertainment would want more volume. You can always use headphones or external speakers, of course, but it would be nice if Asus could have made the speakers a bit louder.

Even despite the few cons I mentioned above, this is really the best x86 tablet you can currently buy and I'd recommend it to anyone.

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