[mgmueller]

It's scheduled for tomorrow.
I'm curious.
I would have hoped for a more premium Windows 8 8" tablet.
Ideally a Surface Pro mini.
But nothing of that quality on the horizon yet.
So I've decided for the Dell Venue 8 Pro, since I've had good experiences with Dell Latitude 10.
Theoretically, there was a pen (not WACOM) for the Dell Venue 8 Pro.
But they don't sell it "for now" anymore, due to mixed responses.
No problem for me. I'm not sure about the usability on 8" anyway.
Mainly I was looking for a highly mobile solution, when wanting to travel light.
MacBook Air and/or Surface Pro are portable enough. But sometimes even this is too much.
8" seems about right.
I've tried iPad mini, but it's simply of no use for me re. business demands.
I can't even change fonts in emails and such.
A pity! iPad mini Retina 128GB + Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard cover would be the prefect combination. Highly mobile, with the appeal of a sub-notebook.
I'm curious, whether Dell Venue 8 Pro can bridge that gap.
Performance shouldn't be a problem. Dell Latitude 10 for example performs well enough, with an already dated ATOM processor.
8" still should be workable on Windows 8.
The display certainly could have a higher resolution, but reviews are quite favorable.

I guess, for the next few days/weeks, my travel companions will be:
* Dell Venue 8 Pro.
* iPad mini Retina + Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard cover.
The cover is standard bluetooth, so it should work well enough on the Dell Venue 8 Pro as well.
* Livescribe 3. A really cool pen. Not writing on any tablet, but in special paper notebooks. Via bluetooth the data is synced to iOS (Android announced, but not available yet). Text recognition is good enough.
I've had the Livescribe Echo pen before. Its desktop software was way more advanced than the iOS tool for Livescribe 3.
But I didn't like the syncing via USB.
There's a WiFi version, but to my knowledge it only syncs to Evernote.
With Livescribe 3, I've got all my notes on the iPad on the fly. I can convert them to text, send them as a graphic or PDF right ahead. Did seem interesting enough to give it a try. And so far, in the testing I did, it was working surprisingly well. Text recognition isn't 100%, but close enough and obviously easily can be trained.
And of course my local Apple store had placed it (the LIvescribe 3 pen) strategically on the shelf...
Meaning:
I take 2 ultra-compact tablets with me, a bluetooth keyboard and a bluetooth-enabled pen with its paper notebook.
Mobile enough and so I can give both concepts (iPad mini + keyboard + pen vs. full Windows 8 experience on an 8" Dell tablet) a try...