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Series | VivoTab |
Model | ME400C-C1-BK |
Color | Black |
Operating System | Windows 8 |
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CPU Type | Intel Atom |
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CPU Speed | Z2760 (1.80GHz) |
Screen Size | 10.1" |
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Display Type | Wide XGA |
LCD Features | IPS Touch Panel |
Resolution | 1366 x 768 |
Webcam | 2MP & 8MP |
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GPU/VPU | PowerVR SGX545 |
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Video Memory | Shared system memory |
HDD | 64GB Flash |
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Card Reader | Micro SD |
Memory | 2GB DDR3 |
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WLAN | 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN |
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Bluetooth | Bluetooth 4.0 |
HDMI | 1 x micro HDMI |
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Audio | Stereo Speakers 1 x Internal Microphone |
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Battery | Lithium Polymer |
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Battery Life | Up to 8.5 hours |
Other Features | G-Sensor for LCD auto-orientation; Ambient Light Sensor, E-compass sensor, Gyroscope |
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Function | Internet Tablet |
Date First Available | January 21, 2013 |
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Pros: Full Windows 8, not Windows 8 RT.
Cons: Defective unit. Awful customer support.
Overall Review: I'll start by saying I'm a rather forgiving guy. We all make mistakes. I'll continue by saying Asus was my brand of choice. I have two Asus monitors that work great, an Asus mouse, and an Asus motherboard. I've bought various other Asus products over the last decade or two. No more. I bought an Asus router (yeah, I know, this is a tablet review, but bear with me). It would disconnect frequently. Per their request, I RMA'ed it. They sat on the unit for 3 weeks after they received it. Nothing happened until a service rep followed up directly with their repair warehouse. I got it back, it's worked well ever since. Okay, one mistake, no problem. All's forgiven. I moved on. I buy this tablet two months ago. It worked okay for a week. It developed a problem where you hit the power button, the screen would turn off for 2 seconds, come on for a second, and then turn off. When turning the screen on from sleep, the unit would sometimes power up the screen for a second, then immediately go back to sleep. The problem was sporradic but grew increasingly more frequent until the screen would no longer power up. RMA #1 - the screen powered up. The problem with off-on-off behavior still happened. RMA #2 - they replace the LCD screen and "fix it." I get it back, the problem still happens with no change in frequency. It's like they didn't even test it to see if they fixed it. They just tried something, powered the screen on once, and hoped it would work. They want me to send it back in for RMA #3 and won't offer me any assurance of a proper fix nor even swallow the piece of junk and send me a new one. I have to hope their repair warehouse people somehow learned to do their job and repair it or decide they can't fix it and send me a new one. No guarantees and my warranty time is ticking away. Of two whole months since buying this thing, it's been in my possession for about 8-9 days (it seemed to perform well despite screen issues in that time). Plenty of apologies, no results, and no complimentary items/discounts/vounchers to make up for awful service. They "graciously" picked up my shipping costs on the second round and are doing so for the third as well. Whoa, talk about generous! Due to Asus's shenanigans, I'm beyond my window to return this piece of garbage. The moral of the story: Asus will not simply replace your unit if you buy one that is defective. You're at their mercy to get the repair right, which my experience suggests is unlikely. Their customer support is completely impotent and will only tell you to send it in.
Pros: I just started college after separating from military and wanted a device I could use to view electronic text books, decided windows OS would best suit my needs as a possible lap top replacement too. I managed to get a lot of text books for free from online book storea so it has already started paying for itself, they cheaper than paper based and its super light on my back as i have ride to school on my motorcycle a lot. it handles the office programs pretty well, both my laptop and pc have word starter which would not allow me to add end notes i needed for my college paper. looked at the word on this tablet and it would allow me, so i finished my paper on it and sent it from it. It is obviously not super fast but it is no slouch either it does what i expect.
Cons: when using chrome as my browser the keyboard has issues staying on the screen, it pops up then goes back down, i sort it out by swiping from right of screen, selecting settings, keyboard, then touch keyboard and handwriting panel. a little annoying when you have a lot of text fields you want to type in. other than chrome issue its a great tablet. if you do a lot of casual stuff on a lap top, and not expecting core i performance, this will probably be a great buy. wish it had a real key board dock too.
Overall Review: I did not buy this from newegg i usually do buy most stuff but i was willing to spend a few extra bucks to not wait for it.
Pros: Good performance Plenty of storage Full Windows 8 (not RT)
Cons: Only 1 micro USB port WiFi performance possibly spotty No docking station
Overall Review: This is my 4th (family) Asus tablet. Have a EEE Slider, 2 Vivotab RTs and now this Vivotab Smart. Asus quality is outstanding. The Atom processor seems to provide good overall performance but there is a noticeable difference between Win8/Atom and Win8RT/Tegra. But I got this one so I could install native/legacy Windows applications and I haven't been disappointed. Needed a DVD/CD drive and nobody (local electronics retail outlets that Newegg won't allow me to name) didn't really know how to do it. There's only one micro USB port and not sure whether it can supply power to peripherals (guessing no). I landed on a working solution: powered USB hub ($15), Samsung DVD/RW w/single standard 2.0 USB A connector ($30) and a USB female-female adapter ($2) to couple the tablet charging cable (USB-A micro to standard) to the hub (USB-A standard to mini). Worked like a charm. Not sure of the transfer rate but it didn't seem any slower than a laptop DVD. Haven't tried playing movies yet ... Guessing this would be a workable solution for attaching any external USB device. A littly klunky but not something I'm worried about carrying around all the time. Only "problem" I've had was during initial setup. Was flying through the Windows configuration until I hit the "Installing apps ... This may take a few minutes" screen at which point it seemed to freeze. After 90 minutes I was concerned enought to drop a tech support email to Asus but - no need - while I was writing the email it finished. Think maybe it was WiFi performance - have had occasional problems in the AppStore saying my network connection is too slow. Process was definitely slower than on the RT tablets I have. Device has 64G onboard. Win8 takes about half of that. Haven't tried to optimize it yet. Added a 32G SDHC (because I'm too cheap to spring for the 64G at this time). Turned on drive compression on the SDHC and it works as expected. Was able to connect to my network shared printer and have had no problem with drivers (HP 6200 series). Haven't found an ME400C specific case locally yet. Found a couple that might work but nothing with the right cutouts. Don't personally care for the TransSleeve. Got a cheap touch screen stylus - sometimes a necessity for Desktop apps. Still debating a bluetooth keyboard. So far I've very please with this purchase. Newegg shipped same day I submitted the order and, were it not for UPS, I would have taken delivery the next day. If I have any reservations, it is with Win8. But that's probably just lack of familiarity.
Pros: Absolutely a life changing device for me. I have to give up my office with the arrival of a baby boy. I fretted about this as I love my study but I really like my desktop computer in the study. My wise wife suggested I use one of our existing notebooks instead --- a no go for me. If I am sitting at a desk then I don't want to be on a laptop conversely for mobile use I am not a fan of notebooks due to the weight and battery life. I went to the Microsoft Store after watch all the microsoft commercials. I was hesitant as I had previously updated my desktop home computer to Windows 8 and what a hassle as I had to learn something new and different. I really liked the Windows Surface at the MS Store though --- Windows 8 was truly made for a tablet but the Surface ran Windows RT and if I lose my desktop then I would not be able to use my Windows programs (Quicken, etc)with the Surface. The Microsoft Rep told me that the Surface Pro was on the way but would weigh 2lbs and have a short battery life. No thanks. I came home and did some research and found the Asus Vivotab Smart which magically ran full Windows 8 on an Intel Atom processor. I was again hesitant as I had a netbook with an Atom processor years ago and it was slow. But the reviews were great on the Asus Vivotab Smart. So I bought it along with the cover and keyboard. Game charger. Its super fast and seamless. Plays movies without a hitch. The system is as fast as my eyes can watch the screen and fingers can swipe. Windows 8 is weird on a desktop but is by far the best tablet OS going. I liked my Ipad and wifes Andriod phone but they were toys to a certain extent. This has all the same features except that Windows 8 is more intuitive as a tablet than the Ipad and Android. Plus I can run my beloved Quicken and Microsoft Office, etc. I won't miss my desktop computer and office (save that is where I watched football). Pluses: - 9 hrs of battery life (I can confirm this) - Windows 8 is the ultimate tablet OS (use your thumbs) - weighs ~1.25lbs --- light - get the cover and keyboard --- the are a must, the keyboard is normal sized and the cover is a kickstand also - Screen is super clear and fresh --- viewing angles are great - Windows Metro/modern is great and it took getting this tablet for make me figure that out - Full Windows although I only find myself use quicken, office for the traditional windows programs - Take the dive and sign up for the integrated Microsoft experience: outlook.com email and use skydrive cloud for you storage which is free. I resisted this at first but once I switched over to outlook.com IMAP email and the cloud for "my documents" --- I realized I was stupid for waiting so long. - Thus Windows 8, outlook.com and skydrive synchs all my computers and tablets seamlessly with zero work. So with this tablet synched my email, music, documents, pictures, etc when I turned on the tablet for the first time and logged in with my email. - Kills complexity
Cons: - The App store is still developing which is a bit of a hassle. Netflix and audible.com, fitbit are there but my wife wants the facebook app, pinterest (wife's request), skyward and a few others. - Apparently computer writers/reporters are fanboys of Apple and Google which will be a disservice as their readers will stay with those platforms instead of switching to Windows 8 tablets thus the App store may be slow to reach a critical mass of users. - Microsoft made a mistake with the Surface. Its beautiful but RT is limited compared to Windows they should have taken the Asus approach with full Windows 8 on a Intel Atom. This tablet is lighter, has the same battery life and all the windows goodies. - at $499 its more expensive than Androids although beats the pants off Apples considering you full Windows 8 - Does not come with Office installed
Pros: 1) Light weight 2) Super slim 3) Full windows 8 4) Micro USB charging port.
Cons: 1) A bit on the slow side but it was expected from an atom processor. 2) No full size USB port.
Overall Review: I don't give it five stars due to the fact that it often turns the screen off (screen sleeps) and will not let me turn the screen back on. So, in order to continue using this tablet, I have to press and hold the power button for 15 seconds to turn it completely off and then turn it back on. Very annoying cause it has done that while doing presentations.
Pros: Screen size is good enough to see what you are doing. Loaded my MS office from a CD. Get a OTG USB adapter and the USB port works normal. Take all the junk off it that Windows 8 and Asus puts on and it runs decent. Streams Netflix great. I use this machine for my business and all the business apps work just like a regular Windows machine. You do have to keep it lean and mean to have it run well. For you gadget freaks don't bother you need to pay a grand to do all the gadgets and games. But for a nice business minded tablet it's great. BTW, I do have an iPad and it's an iPad not Windows. So don't mix the two. You can't do half the stuff on an iPad that you can do with this tablet. like file management from one PC to another, add a Memory card for more access, use the usb port for most everything it's designed for, ETC..... I do have a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse that works perfectly to. It's great for when I'm sitting at my desk.
Cons: USB and charging port are the same port. Not many accessories for it yet. Windows 8 limitations.
Overall Review: A great tablet for the money. Most Tablets in this price range are Windows RT and I don't want to go through a Microsoft store to load my programs. Leave that up to Apple, that's the kind of thing they are good at, limiting it's usefulness.
Pros: Light, looks good, runs full Windows 8. Also the screen is pretty good.
Cons: Seems like I've got a defective unit. It heats a lot around Windows sticker area. It keeps being hot even after 4-5 hours of being "turned off". Also, my device eats up the battery within 5-6 hours - while working or not (turned off by button). Lastly, it takes very long time to charge it -- 8-9 hours using supplied wall charger.
Overall Review: As title says, very mixed filing... I will be returning mine if the problem will not be solved...
Pros: I have covered all the pros from a previous review
Cons: Please see other thoughts.
Overall Review: I'm adding a follow up to my previous review. I mentioned I had to RMA the tablet back to Newegg, due to a faulty digitizer (the center of the screen was completely dead to the touch). Now, after very minimal use, the Windows capacitive button has stopped working. I believe a few previous reviewers mentioned this issue. I will be contacting ASUS to RMA this tablet, again. I am a little put off, by the fact I already paid return shipping once for an RMA to Newegg, and will have to pay return shipping AGAIN to ASUS. When the tablet doesn't have hardware issues, it is a great "standard" Windows 8 tablet. I have lowered my rating from 5 eggs to 3, due to faulty hardware. I am truly disappointed by this tablet's lack of quality and faulty mechanics. This was the first ASUS device I have purchased, and unfortunately, it appears it will be the last. Well, at least they make good motherboards.