Quick review: Linx 8 low-end Windows tablet

Post #401,493 by pwhysall 5/5/15 7:44:31 AM 5/5/15 7:57:33 AM Reply	Quick review: Linx 8 low-end Windows tablet Cost £90 inc VAT & shipping Spec: Intel quad-core Atom processor, 1GB RAM, 32GB storage, 1280x800 screen OS: Windows 8.1 Summary: for £90 it's a steal. The screen is good enough (yeah, every iPad ever is better, but - £90). It's quick enough. (Android tablets are better, but not the £90 ones). Windows 8.1 is actually pretty fabulous for touch, and all the apps I need (Kindle/email/web (note: Modern IE is easily the best touch browser)/shopping/weather/maps/etc) are there. Yeah, the iPad has more apps, but £90. Yeah, Android is more customisable, but £90. Battery life is a little short (4000mAh battery is a bit small, tbh) but not catastrophically so - 6-7 hours of actual use is entirely feasible. Both the front and rear cameras are hilariously bad, as they should be; camera use on tablets should be discouraged. Mind you, the camera on my iPad 3 which cost more than five times as much as this was a load of old balls, too, so whatever. Oh, and there's the desktop, because this is a Windows 8.1 computer, not an Windows RT computer. And there's a year of Office 365 included. The competition: £90 Android tablets are terrible. They're either cheaping out on the hardware, have weird/incredibly old software (Kindle Fire, I'm looking at you) or are made out of clingfilm, cardboard and cheese. Sure, the iPad is better in every way except the OS (iOS is a bit shit, really, but there are a lot of really good apps for it, even if the browser has memory management that looks like I made it), but £90. Edited by pwhysall May 5, 2015, 07:57:33 AM EDT Expand All History
Post #401,524 by static 5/6/15 2:56:11 AM Reply	Must be built down to a price. 1Gb Ram? Avoid Chrome and FireFox, for starters. And I wouldn't run an email program against a large mailbox, though Windows Mail program is hilariously bad at that anyway. And I'd try not to drop it, either. Wade. Just Add Story http://justaddstory.wordpress.com/
Post #401,526 by pwhysall 5/6/15 7:15:26 AM 5/6/15 7:16:04 AM Reply	It's actually pretty well-built. Of course at £90 it's built down to a price. But Windows 8.1 mail manages just fine with my mail, which goes back just about forevar. I avoid Chrome and Firefox. I avoid the former because all the raw JavaScript speed in the world doesn't help if I can start IE, read the page I wanted, and close it again in the time it takes Chrome to start up. Also, yeah. Chrome lurrrrve de RAM. I lost track of Firefox a while back. Is it even still a thing? It's actually remarkable how good it is with 1GB of RAM. An Android 4/5 device with that much memory would be a complete shitshow. This thing is actually useable. ETA: I cannot overstate how bad the cameras are. 2MP front and rear. Edited by pwhysall May 6, 2015, 07:16:04 AM EDT Expand All History
Post #401,541 by lincoln 5/6/15 1:32:11 PM Reply	Re: It's actually pretty well-built. I lost track of Firefox a while back. Is it even still a thing? Yes it is, but they're determined to keep making it worse over time: http://forum.iwethey.org/forum/post/399408/ Satan (impatiently) to Newcomer: The trouble with you Chicago people is, that you think you are the best people down here; whereas you are merely the most numerous. - - - Mark Twain, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar" 1897
Post #401,550 by static 5/7/15 1:06:35 AM Reply	Interesting. I spent AU$600 on a Windows 8 small laptop exactly 12 months ago. I think it's 2Gb of RAM. It feels cheap, the trackpad has issues and it is just slow enough to make you say "I wish it were faster". Oddly, I happened to discover that it's one of Asus' most reliable laptops. The mail thing is interesting. I tried pointing Windows Mail to my IMAP server which sits on an EC2 instance. It's got 25,000+ messages in Inbox and it just doesn't cope with that. I point Opera Mail at it and it slurps it all up easily. Maybe it just doesn't like IMAP all that well. Wade. Just Add Story http://justaddstory.wordpress.com/
Post #401,534 by boxley 5/6/15 10:55:45 AM Reply	rather spend 20 quid more and get a 17inch lapper Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free American and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 59 years. meep
Post #401,542 by pwhysall 5/6/15 1:34:21 PM Reply	I love how you can miss just about any point presented to you, Box :) "I have a can of beer! It cost me a pound!" "Well, you could have had a huge hunk of lard for just £1.20" Clue: if you're buying an 8" tablet, you didn't want a 17" laptop.
Post #401,544 by boxley 5/6/15 2:44:44 PM Reply	dont like tablets at all, big dam phone that cant make calls Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free American and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 59 years. meep
Post #401,545 by drook 5/6/15 2:52:19 PM Reply	Great for surfing the web Blogs and videos are great on a tablet. As long as you aren't planning on doing any typing, they're way better than a laptop. -- Drew
Post #418,069 by CRConrad 5/10/17 5:21:07 AM 5/10/17 5:21:07 AM Reply	That only works if you can shut the fuck up about everything that's wrong on the Internet(). Tha DrooK: Blogs and videos are great on a tablet. As long as you aren't planning on doing any typing, they're way better than a laptop. Whaddayamean, Blogs ... you aren't planning on doing any typing"?* HTF could you read blogs without doing any typing?!? --- () ObXkcd: 386. Nope, no googling, from memory. (But OK, it's a memorable number.) -- Christian R. Conrad* Same old username (as above), but now on iki.fi (Yeah, yeah, it redirects to the same old GMail... But just in case I ever want to change.)
Post #418,075 by drook 5/10/17 8:43:23 AM 5/10/17 8:43:23 AM Reply	Re: if you can shut the fuck up Some of us are grownups. -- Drew
Post #418,089 by Ashton 5/10/17 4:38:06 PM 5/10/17 4:38:06 PM Reply	Weel.. now.. then, there.. perpetually grumpy-Gus: First: now That's (your almost-link) to the irate IT-guy what hacked his daughter's Book-of-Fave home-away-from-Home) th-tth..that's another fine display of 'adult' behavior [w/GUNZ] as the man gets all that satis-fiction from cleanin' his bratty teen's Clock. By destroying same. I suspect that mad-Pop's promised perpetual grounding will have some effect . Maybe not what mad-Pop wants, though? Anyway, thanks for this bit of visual anti-communication lore (I don't 'do' Tweets but am a silent observer 'member') though generally wouldn't look in on The Orange Guy's blabber/life too short. 5 minutes a week? PS: looks to me that, as drook mentioned: maybe one o' them iPad thingies just might excel for just plain reading stuff don'cha think? Ergo w.t.f. IS your beef? Ya don't Gots To write all the time, write? Ta
Post #418,076 by pwhysall 5/10/17 8:52:37 AM 5/10/17 8:52:37 AM Reply	Update Still got it, it still works, and it's actually a little better now with Windows 10.
Post #418,077 by pwhysall 5/10/17 8:52:37 AM 5/10/17 8:52:48 AM Reply	- - Edited by pwhysall May 10, 2017, 08:52:48 AM EDT Expand All History

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