isolating vivotab coupon offer at costco. with full windows 8 and 64GB
sales attendants dont know much about the specs, dont let them discourage you into thinking "its just RT"
specs:
http://reviews.cnet.com/tablets/asus-vivo-tab-smart/4507-312…
ASUS VivoTab Smart with Full Win 8 - $480 (Costco Membership Needed)
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Brought this three days ago at Canberra Costco after I saw it for $596 at JB Canberra Centre
Model number is ME400C if anyone want to research.
It's not the RT model, they do sell the 32GB RT model as well for ~$600 which cost more than this model.
First impression is no USB port, I've read somewhere that you can use USB OTG host mode via the micro USB charger port. But haven't tested out cuz I don't have the right cable.
Same as this one here at DSE (with specs) http://dicksmith.com.au/product/XC8617/asus-vivo-windows-8-t…
checked using a usb otg cable and was able to attach a usb portable hdd
Ewwww it uses a mobile GPU….
I know its a good deal and its windows 8 pro but i cant see the value in these atom SOC for a laptop replacement Tablet.
I believe the i5 is the way to go with an intel hd4000. I know they are pricier but to me reliability and resourcefulness of a laptop GPU over a mobile gpu makes it far more valuable IMO.
Regardless if you want a basic experience i suppose people may not need more than this.You forget that not everybody has the time or interest to play games. I've got the Thinkpad Tablet 2 which is the same specs (atom, sgx545) and it runs really well for general tasks. Metro is very fast and smooth, internet explorer and ms office works fine, all my light programs run swiftly and smoothly. It only lags when I start multitasking a lot.
I specifically avoided an i5 tablet as they are a lot heavier (TPT2 is 554g contrary to what the spec sheet says) and have a shorter battery life. For my kind of use, a smaller, lighter tablet is much easier to carry around and jot notes in with a stylus while holding the tablet in my hand.
Atom tablets are perfect complements to a regular laptop. They could be the main computer for a light user, but a heavier user would probably appreciate an i5 or faster.
I'm looking for something which can handle:
- general web browsing, email etc.
- watching TV/movies
- light work in MS Office (anything heavy duty will be done on my main laptop)
- reading PDFs, and making notes with a stylus.
- maybe some lightweight indie games (like Braid, VVVVVV) or old games (like Rollercoaster Tycoon), but this isn't a dealbreaker
I'm also looking for something that is lightweight and has long battery life, which is why I'm looking at Atom. Will a decent Atom tablet be able to be able to handle all of the above without any performance problems?
yep, thats pretty much what i do. and atom can handle it. previously was using an acer netbook with an atom processor. did everything including several background services like torrent downloads , remote logins (host as well as client).
this tab has more grunt and double the battery life.
This is based on my Thinkpad Tablet 2, which has the same specs as the Asus.
General web browsing and email is no problem. You might get some lag if you have many (e.g. 10) browser windows open though, depending on what they are.
Watching TV/movies .. I've only tried H.264 files. No problem at 720p and 1080p at 15Mbps. It even plays back 38Mbps H.264 1080p files from a Canon 5D Mk2 smoothly.
MS Office 2010 works great. Everything starts up quickly and stays responsive. I haven't tried 2013 yet.
Reading PDFs works great. My "killer test" is a 422MB textbook PDF. The built-in reader app loads it quickly, and annotation with the Wacom digitizer on the TPT2 works great. At some zoom levels there's a minor 'blinking' that happens when it anti-aliases your strokes, i.e. if you write "c", it blinks rapidly once as your c is anti-aliased (made smoother).
Do note that this Asus model does not have a active digitizer, you'll have to use a capacitive stylus with it.
I haven't tried any games unfortunately.
I'm a bit confused, some sites listed the GPU to be PowerVR but some mentioned Intel GMA, which one is the correct one? The reason I'm asking is because this has been compared with Acer W510 which was said to have the same spec and W510 actually has Intel GMA.
Asus website didn't mention anything though.
EDIT: Nevermind, I just found out that Intel GMA 3600 is the same PowerVR
Does this include the keyboard?
Doesnt look like it.. BTW.. the real capacity is around 60GB - of which around 30 is usable after Windows 8 is loaded up. Enough for you to add a few apps and not much else.
Windows 8 uses 30GB?
Surely not.. It's meant to use less than W7
Yep. Once you include the Virtual memory file, the install files and the recovery partition it definitely takes up 30GB. I have the RT version and still takes up the same.
I think it uses 25 gb but its still a fair amount.
Only in Ozbargain can you get downvoted by fanbois for talking the truth.. Considering the guy below says after a few apps and Office reduces it down to 18GB free..
no keyboard.
installed chrome and vlc. storage status at the moment is 20gig free
i had a otg cable, will do a test
18gig free after installing the above plus office 2013 and some torrent goodies
Personally would never buy an Atom CPU again, but seems like a great price for what it is
im the same however i have used the Lenovo tablets with atom. For a basic tablet with full windows functions, they handle very very well, great to give you full Market place access.
The new Clover Trail Atoms are nothing like the Atoms you know and hate. I was amazed at the difference myself. I sold my pretty decent SSD'ed 1.8GHz Atom-based Vaio P to buy the TPT2 with its clovertrail Atom and the two are absolutely nothing alike. Everything is smooth and responsive. Bootup is nice and quick too.
The best part is that you can switch it on and off like a regular android tablet - no waiting for it to go to sleep or waiting for it to wake up as it's instant.
How well does it run MS Office? Any noticeable sluggishness?
base on Anandtech's review, Atom is a bit slow for even MS office program, basically this machine is for internet surfing like old netbook.
The AnandTech review for the W510 (W8 tablet that runs the same processor as the VivoTab Smart) says:
" All of the Office 2010 applications ran wonderfully on the W510. They all launched reasonably quickly and were responsive. Outlook, a major component missing from the Windows RT experience, had no problems running on the W510. The experience does suffer the moment you try to run something truly CPU intensive (by modern notebook standards), but for light office work the W510 excels.
The high CPU utilization under Word 2013 does still exist even on Clover Trail:"
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6522/the-clover-trail-atom-z27…
tried office 2013, didnt experience any pain
My thinkpad tablet has exactly the same processor and specs. MS Office runs really well. I haven't noticed much sluggishness at all, although I'm not a very heavy Office user apart from Outlook and
OneNote.
Got charged $480 at Lidcombe. Around 20 in stock.
indeed it was 479.99, just had a look at the receipt. Fixed the title. 'Pologies to all
they need a Costco in Brisbane :(
We're supposed to be getting one at North Lakes eventually, although Westfield is trying to stop it.
Were there many left at the Docklands store? (Assuming OP bought it from there as location is listed as Vic)
yeah i assume still plenty stock left, it wasnt selling like hot cakes and staff was misrepresenting it,,..one would have thought they are trying NOT to sell it :)
staff took away the demo tab as it wasnt working (password wasnt working to unlock,.."microsoft lady was not available" etc).. so i couldnt actually check myself (at that point i was in the dark as to whether this was RT or not). Was told by no less than 3 staff members this was "RT" as "Pro" was not out yet
even when i questioned "then why the image shows "desktop"?" the answer was that "its just the image".anyway, i refused to believe them and did more research (google) whilst at the store and got confirmed that this has full win 8. Then grabbed one. basically you have to fill a slip with the item number, pay at the counter and then pick up the item at another desk. so you dont actually see the tabs in stock.
Thanks! Shall drop in Wednesday and hope to grab one.
great price considering it sells for $499USD at BestBuy in the US. Keyboard is about $130 to buy separately.
I got one from Office works yesterday for $555. They PM Scorptec (http://www.scorptec.com.au/computer/48880-me400c-1a032w) at $585 and took another 5% off.
It's Win8 x86. Not RT but also not Win8 Pro.
Not as cheap as Costco, but at least you don't need to become a member.
A True ozbargainer would join as member, buy it, then return the membership saying you aren't satisfied with it…. hahahaha
:D indeed
mind you the $60 discount can offset the costco membership spend, and one will be able to by a ton of toilet tissues for nothing :))
I used Costco a heap when I lived overseas and the membership paid for itself at the first purchase. I even had my tyres replaced at costco.
Would this be better in terms of processing power than a tablet with i3 2367M (1.4 GHz)?
i3 should trump Atom in the pure processing power division
the below is a technical comparison, which will be mostly greek to most, but you can see i3 is more accomplished than Atom, while Atom is optimised for power efficiency and low consumption
http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/840/Intel_Atom_Z2760_vs_Int…
Can somebody post a costco receipt with the price on it? Thanks.
Just got 1 from costco. Speed is quite fast :)
anyone know where can I buy the external usb and keyboard dock for this tablet?
Did you get it from the Lidcombe branch? Do you know how many are left?
This model doesn't support a keyboard dock. USB from ebay :D
Isn't that the "Transleeve + keyboard" though? Not really a dock
I haven't seen it on sale anywhere other than some shifty online stores.yeah.. that's why I said case rather than dock. It's the next closest thing to a dock. :)
yeah, the transleeve
nope. i got from Dockland (VIC), plenty of them left :)
Any idea where I can buy that Transleeve + keyboard ???
just picked up a 32GB microsd (class 10) from this ozb deal
http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/92342adds a further 30 gigs to the tab :)
ah class 10 cards sold out, but class 4 ones are still available
Got one yesterday.
Now, I am looking for the following things:
1. Transsleeve + Keyboard
2. Micro USB to USB connector
3. Micro HDMI to HDMI converter
4. Screen / Scratch guardCan someone pls point me as to where to look for this? If its ebay, can you pls tell me what to search for?
Will other Asus tablet's screen guard fit this one too?congrats ;)
- still looking (at least the transleeve)
- http://www.usbonthego.com.au/ got for around 6 bucks , happy with quality
Thanks!! Ordered the USB OTG and HDMI cables.
Pls let me know if you find the sleeve. :)I am also after the transleeve + keyboard. Please let me know if you found one.
It is not released yet, won't be for about another 1 month.
ASUS in Australia is just unbelievable… They have the products listed on their page but no actual release date. I was going to buy Padfone 2 but because of no actual date of release in Australia, I went for this one instead.
Whats the deal with the officeworks price match? Reckon theyd match this (+5%) or do they have some clause for costco and such like because of their membership clause?
I had a decent play with one of these in dick smith the other day. Quite smooth, with no noticeable lag. Impressively light and thin for what it is. Question is now whether i take the plunge with this or wait for the Surface Pro… Thoughts?
huge price different with surface pro, RRP in the US from $899
personally i won't spend that much on a tablet.
Can somebody post a unmododified reciept going to try to get officeworks to price match?
dont bother… I tried 2 different Officeworks.
One said right on the spot they cant price match because Costco only provide sales to members.
Another one initially said yes over the phone. However, when I go to the store, the rep tried to call Costco and they wont provide the price over the phone. The manager then told him not to price match Costco since they are "completely different organisation". I can't complain much. The rep was a junior. He'd probably get in trouble if I push him.
I eventually bought it from Costco. The membership can be refunded anytime anyway. We might as well keep it for a while. If it's of no use to us, then the next time we shop at Costco, we will ask for a refund.
I will just try to get it from Costco.
So much trouble to go through.
I spoke to one of the managers at one of the office works, he said he could price match it if:
1. provide membership card as proof.
2. provide original receipt (they don't accept photos/photocopies of receipts anymore as proof of price, their reason was…. "it could have been photoshopped")
Costco Melbourne most likely out of stock now, since they only had 3 more left when i got it today. They had 7 yesterday.
quite a few people were interested when i went in at 9:30am.
Looks like they sold quite well. When I went in there on Wednesday to grab mine there were quite a fair bit left according to the guy working at the collection point.
Anybody know what type of glass this is? Is it Corning/Gorilla or Normal stuff?
Quite sure it's normal glass, remember reading it was soda lime glass or something.
Vivotab (with digitiser) is mentioned on Asus website to have Corning Gorilla Glass. However, Vivotab Smart is mentioned to only have 'scratch-resistant glass' but no mention of Corning. Could be just a marketing ploy though.
Just got one from the Canberra Costco store.. they still had about 10 units left at closing time today. I am still getting used to a windows 8 setup. Hope it was the right choice moving away from android. Covers/covers are nowhere to be found though online. Any advise is much appreciated guys.
anybody know how to factory reset ME400?
press the windows key to get to the start screen. Type "reset" and click on Settings. Choose "Remove everything and reinstall windows".
Looks like ME400 Transleeve Keyboard has been released in US.
Looking at around $120 per keyboard/transleeve.Anybody in Melbourne want to combine shipping (using EMS)? e.g.
Shipping is pretty expensive for 1 of them ($30-50).I have a website I can order from which has them in stock.
Which would allow us to combine shipping, which comes up to ~$127 each, but it will require an order of 5.
We can decrease that closer to $120 if we get a order of 10….
Who's up for a group buy?
I can meet up in eastern suburbs, e.g. burwood/glen waverley/ringwood/mitcham/box hill, to take deposits…
email me at: [email protected]
The ME400C is now $492 at Harvey if you trade in any old dead computer.
A link to the specs will be great.