Of the laptop-like dockable Clovertrail tablets there are two that stand out. The ASUS VivoTab TF800 has a great keyboard, a stylish build and that all-important battery in the keyboard unit. The HP Envy is also up there and last week at CeBIT I had some quiet time alone with it thanks to the Intel booth. I really like it. I like it even more today as I’ve just found a price of $599 for the 64GB unit with keyboard.
Staples, in the USA, have the HP ENVY x2 11-g010nr available for $599. [here]
The tip comes fro Techpinions who recently published a long-term review of the HP Envy X2.
It’s about time the prices came down on these Atom-based evolutions. Apart from some additional hinge and dock design and the touchscreen there’s little reason for prices higher than touch Ultrabooks. The casings are nothing special and the mainboard should be cheap to produce too. There are indications that prices in the USA are starting to shift now though. Take these Amazon.com examples:
Acer W510 [My review] with 64GB and keyboard $649. [Link]
Samsung ATIV SmartPC 500T $649 [link] I have this one too. Stylish device. Stronger Wifi than W510. Better keyboard and mouse than W510 but slightly bigger and doesn’t have a battery in the keyboard dock.
For an overview of all Clovertrail tablets and hybrids, see my recent article here.
$599 for the HP Envy X2 is a great deal. If you’re looking for a mobile Windows 8 device with the potential for some productivity, desktop app support, Connected Standby and long battery life, look no further. If you’ve got time though, give it a month or two. I expect prices to come down further.
I just picked up this machine for even cheaper. For awhile, Staples even had an additional $75 off coupon code. So, I paid $525 plus tax!!!
Anyway, I love this machine. It would be perfect except for one small fault. The keyboard looks/feels great, but there seems to be a bug where an extra space gets inserted between words sometimes. If you search around it seems nearly everyone has this issue. That said, I’m told the newest ones are fixed so I’ll probably contact Staples to see if I can get mine replaced.
Other than that one issue, this thing is great. And no, the Atom chip doesn’t feel slow in the slightest. My only advice is to stick with IE. Chrome felt slower and REALLY doesn’t feel optimized for touch. IE10 is fast and works great IMO.
Here in the uk.
Pcworld prices (I was given store credit to replace my dying transformer prime.)
Envy X2 still £800
Samsung 500 still £700
Acer 510 still over £500.
Asus 810 completely disappeared.
For me the Asus is the only one, with pen, bigger screen, proper keyboard dock. Samsung sounds like the dock doesn’t work properly and no battery in it (wtf).
Probably end up waiting for the surface pro if it ever arrives.
This lack of dates and availability is pretty annoying. Almost enough to send you back to apple. (Where is that touch screen MacBook Air).
I totally agree. The Windows 8 tablet will gain market share quickly, esp. on the high-end tablets. iPad or Android tablets simply cannot match Windows 8’s feature.
I couldn’t pass up the $599 envy x2, picked up one from amazon just in time, they went out of stock then back up over $700 within a day.
I gotta say, bang for the bug this is one hell of a machine. Its no speed demon, say on par with a core duo from around 2008 but the battery draw is really low. With dock attached its completely reasonable to get 15hrs out of this in airplane mode and about 13hrs surfing the web at 40% brightness which is more than adequate. The 64gb internal is a bit limiting with the OS installed and all you only have about 30gb free, less than that after windows updates. But there is a microSD slot in the tablet and a full sized SD slot in the dock so I popped 32gb cards in each and now have plenty of room.
On paper the Asus is the best, with its digitizer, ultra bright screen and home run battery life but to get the most out of it your talking about spending $1000, its a nifty machine but thats alot of cash for its performance level. The envy beats it on cost and construction, and readily available driver updates which have plagued the asus. Still, I couldn’t rule out the asus until I saw it, I played with one at microcenter finally… its a really nice machine, pen works great, looks sleek and has a great bright screen, but just couldn’t justify nearly twice the cost.