Dell Venue 8 7000 review: a $400 Intel-based Android tablet with solid build, thin bezels, nearly 10 hours of battery life
Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica :
Context & Ripple Effects
Dell put the Venue 8 7000 on sale in the US and Canada in January at $400, betting on Intel silicon and its RealSense depth camera to stand out in a crowded Android field. Andrew Cunningham's review is the first full verdict on whether that hardware package justifies the price.
The stakes sit in a market Dell itself is doubling down on: the company followed up within months with the larger, keyboard-dock-equipped Venue 10 7000 starting at $499, while rivals from Samsung to Sony to Google pushed their own premium slates into the same bracket — even as Ars' own coverage of the Galaxy Tab S2 conceded that $400+ Android tablets are a hard sell against a sea of budget devices.
First-order effects
- Buyers weighing a $400 Android tablet now have a concrete assessment of Dell's pitch: solid build, thin bezels, and nearly 10 hours of battery life, with Intel's chip inside rather than ARM.
- Dell's RealSense camera — the differentiator from its January launch push — gets its first real-world test in this review, shaping how the device sells against Samsung, Sony, and Google alternatives.
Second-order effects
- Dell extended the design language upmarket within months, introducing the Venue 10 7000 with a $629 keyboard-dock configuration — evidence the company read premium Android demand as a hybrid-laptop play rather than a pure slate one.
- Competitors' premium tablets faced the same squeeze: Sony's Xperia Z4 was dinged for an expensive useless keyboard dock, and Google's Pixel C arrived pricey despite strong performance, leaving the $400-plus tier fighting over a narrow buyer base.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds across these reviews — capable hardware, weak differentiation, budget tablets eroding the middle — premium Android tablets either migrate toward detachable-keyboard hybrids or cede mainstream volume to sub-$200 devices.
- For Intel, each x86 win in consumer Android hardware matters at the margin: the Venue line was a visible proof point for Atom-class chips in tablets, a segment where ARM incumbency remained entrenched.
The trend: Premium Android tablets in 2015 are splitting between keyboard-dock hybrids and abandoned price tiers, as budget slates compress the market Dell's Venue line is trying to defend.