Winbook Tablets

[dougdirt]

For those of you unfamiliar with the Winbook brand of tablets, they are made specifically for/by Microcenter. They are Windows 8.1 tablets and come in various sizes/RAM/HD space.

I picked up the TW801 for $99.99.

It runs full Windows 8.1. The version I picked up has an 8inch screen, 2GB of RAM and 32 GB of HDD space. It's got some interesting features as well. Here's a breakdown of the ports:
Attachment 8704

I'm a big fan of the USB 3.0 port. I can hook up my external hard drives and they fly on this thing. The Micro HDMI works well, but I've been just projecting it to the TV through my Roku so I can sit further away.

Using it without a mouse, at least on the "desktop" side isn't the easiest, but I don't think many should expect any different... it is an 8 inch screen.

I'm ordering a bluetooth foldable keyboard tomorrow and grabbing another wireless mouse so I can use this when I go to baseball games instead of lugging all of my camera gear and my 17inch laptop, I can save some weight by just taking this and the peripherals (and the camera gear of course).

Perhaps the best thing, though not so much for me, yet, is that it comes with a free year of Office 365 for the tablet and 1 other computer. That's $70 a year. So if you already use that, picking up one of these things is an incredible deal.

The downside: You can only get these in stores for these prices. You can get them on Amazon for $150, but if you have a Microcenter nearby, you can pick them up. I had my friend grab one in the Columbus store since they were out of them here in Cincinnati.

For the price, I can't imagine how it can be beat. I haven't had it long, but I already love this thing. If you are in the market for a tablet, you might want to check this out. Especially now that you will be able to get a free upgrade to Windows 10 later this year when it's released (assuming you dislike Windows 8.1).

[GAC]

I have a question that many/may not be related to this topic.... but I'll throw it out there anyway.

I just bought me an Azpen A909 tablet. It's my first "venture" into the area of owning a tablet. A couple of my friends own them, like them, and I got a great deal on it from Tigerdirect for $70. The main reason I bought it was because I'm getting back into the habit of reading books, and I have several co-workers who have these tablets and are doing so at break and lunch time.

My question concerns ebooks. I've got Blio pre-installed on my tablet, and I've done some research on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc., but wanted to get some input from those who have a greater knowledge on where to go, are there plans one can purchase, whats the best deal?

[KittyDuran]

You can buy books or borrow them from a local library. The libraries I belong to offer many different options and registration is easy. If you have a library card and your local library has a website your login is your number and the password is the last 4 digits of your phone number. There is also another website called Open Library that I use for my Dad's westerns.

[SunDeck]

There are basically two big vendors of Ebooks for libraries; 3M and Overdrive. There are others, but these two are the big market options for most libraries. They are app based, available in the Play store or Apples App store. Pretty sure you can get them in most of the other proprietary app stores (i.e. the highly abbreviated Kindle App Store). The Azpen runs Android, so my guess is you can access the Play store with a google account.

As for the Winbook, it looks to me like a very solid alternative to a notebook; more functionality than a tablet, yet still pretty sleek and easy to carry. This is the thing about tablets though, they are really nice and compact, but some people can't adjust to the touchscreen. I know if I have to type a document, I'll grab a laptop, a chromebook, whatever happens to be in my office, rather than a tablet. Still, even though you really need a keyboard to make a tablet replace a laptop, the Winbook looks like a more serious replacement than, say, an iPad.
I do user support for just about any product people happen to come into our library with, but I have yet to see a Windows 8 product. It's by and large iPads and Kindles that people bring in for help with. Please post some follow up Doug; I am really interested in seeing what you think of the Winbook.

[dougdirt]

As for the Winbook, it looks to me like a very solid alternative to a notebook; more functionality than a tablet, yet still pretty sleek and easy to carry. This is the thing about tablets though, they are really nice and compact, but some people can't adjust to the touchscreen. I know if I have to type a document, I'll grab a laptop, a chromebook, whatever happens to be in my office, rather than a tablet. Still, even though you really need a keyboard to make a tablet replace a laptop, the Winbook looks like a more serious replacement than, say, an iPad.
I do user support for just about any product people happen to come into our library with, but I have yet to see a Windows 8 product. It's by and large iPads and Kindles that people bring in for help with. Please post some follow up Doug; I am really interested in seeing what you think of the Winbook.

I bought a bluetooth keyboard for it and a wireless mouse. The keyboard folds up and is the size of my Galaxy Note 4 and is rather easy to type on. It's got a case (the keyboard) that doubles as a stand for the Winbook, so it's a full machine at that point.

Using it as a "laptop"
I haven't sat down and tried to write 1000+ words on it yet, but so far I'm loving this thing and can't believe it was available so cheap. I've got $140 invested in it and it's a true fully capable machine for anyone who doesn't need to do stuff like HD video editing or to run photoshop or things like that. If you browse the internet, write emails, watch youtube.... it's fantastic. It handles Office applications just fine (I haven't tried Powerpoint, but I'd imagine it does fine given how it handles everything else). I notice that it's not as snappy as my laptop is every now and again, but I've got an i7 quad core processor, 16 GB of RAM and 4 GB of video RAM on top of that in my laptop and well, most people don't have that so they may not notice. For a "general user", I think this thing would be usable for anything that they would use a laptop as long as they can handle the screen size.

Using it as a tablet
Here is where my review is tougher, mostly because I don't use it as a tablet. The touch is solid, but it's not great either. When trying to use the touch in "desktop" mode on Windows 8, its tough because the icons are small, so you need to be quite precise. To use it on the "metro" side (the "tablet" side for those who don't use windows 8), things work better because you do get bigger icons to work with so there is more leeway with where to touch at. The keyboard on the screen isn't bad and I am able to type with both hands rather successfully, something I wasn't sure that I would be able to do. I obviously can't type 70+ words a minute on it, but I can probably do 30-40 and that's pretty solid. I'm on the look out for a "swype" style of keyboard for it though, just to see if it works any better than just using it as a keyboard.

Overall
As I said, I love this thing. I bought it so I didn't have to lug my laptop, which is fantastic, but it's also a 17 inch beast of a machine that isn't exactly light, to baseball games where I'm coming back home that same night. Or maybe something to take when I go out of town on non-baseball trips so I can still get work done without having to take my laptop with me. I can hook up external hard drives to it to expand storage, and it comes with a micro SD slot to expand some space there as well (I added 32 GB to the 32 that it comes with, but I believe you can add up to 128 on a micro SD). Once the season start rolling and I get this thing out to games and have to use it for everything, I will get a better feel for it. Right now though, I could not be happier with my purchase.

[SunDeck]

Thanks Doug. I think I'll get one for our office tech sandbox.

[GAC]

There are basically two big vendors of Ebooks for libraries; 3M and Overdrive. There are others, but these two are the big market options for most libraries. They are app based, available in the Play store or Apples App store. Pretty sure you can get them in most of the other proprietary app stores (i.e. the highly abbreviated Kindle App Store). The Azpen runs Android, so my guess is you can access the Play store with a google account.

Thanks for the info SD. I got on my local library's website and was able to download the Overdrive app, which connects me to the Ohio Digital Library. I have a library card, but it also asks for a PIN #, which I'm assuming I have to get from the library.

[KittyDuran]

Thanks for the info SD. I got on my local library's website and was able to download the Overdrive app, which connects me to the Ohio Digital Library. I have a library card, but it also asks for a PIN #, which I'm assuming I have to get from the library.

Your pin # should be the last 4 digits of your home phone number or whatever number used to sign up for your card.

[SunDeck]

Thanks for the info SD. I got on my local library's website and was able to download the Overdrive app, which connects me to the Ohio Digital Library. I have a library card, but it also asks for a PIN #, which I'm assuming I have to get from the library.

Just call your local library. I'm not sure how Ohio does it; in Indiana the local library maintains the borrower account credentials and passes it to Overdrive via sip2. If that's the case, your password/pin will be whatever your home library set up for you in the first place.

[GAC]

Thanks folks. If my pin # is the last 4 digits of my phone number, then I'm going to have to contact the library because I've had this card almost 20 years and I have no idea (can't remember) my phone number from back then (LOL).

[GAC]

Stopped by the library yesterday after work. I guess the library card I have was no longer any good. They gave me a new card, plus a pin #. I also stopped by the reference desk where the ladies there helped me immensely with several types of resources on digitally down-loading books and where to go. So I'm set.

[dougdirt]

Tomorrow is a true test day of sorts for me. I'm traveling and will still need to work, so I'm going to give it a go with the Winbook tablet and keyboard/mouse combo.

[dougdirt]

Late response, but I've been insanely busy and have been hitting and running as far as REdszone goes for a week now.

I had a chance to use the tablet as a computer for the entire day with a keyboard and mouse and it worked out great. I was able to do everything I wanted to do, which was pretty much surfing the internet, watching some videos on youtube/hulu/netflix, stream some music and sending emails and writing for the website was easy as long as you've got somewhere to sit close enough to use an 8" screen.