Dell Venue 8 Pro Touch Sensitivity

@ drahnier, @LAAF2005: — I also noticed that side-by-side difference between two 32GB Venue 8 Pro displays; the one with overall yellow cast also has slightly lower contrast & brightness. No amount of tweaking the Display settings could get it looking as bright & crisp as the "good" display's default settings. (Prior to comparing, both tablets had all applicable upgrades & updates installed & auto-bright off.) 

Unless you observe the difference side-by-side, you might not be aware if you have "good" vs. "poor" display, but the difference in contrast & legibility is very noticeable! I suspect that this issue could be under-reported at this time, because relatively few V8 Pro owners will have been able to do a side-by-side comparison with a model built with a "good" screen. I'm grateful that I spotted the difference in time to arrange a swap-out!.

LAAF2005:

Thanks for posting this.  I was sure, I didn't see things here. - And, l'm experiencing even more differences between the two models: I got hold of one of these infamous active pens (I bought it from ebay - what a waste of money!). On both models, the pen, even with the latest firmware (Jan, 02.) applied, is performing extremely bad. But, while on the 64bit model, it at least works somehow, on the 32bit model, most of the time, it is not even recognised. If it is, it "performs" for a few seconds, causing all kinds of strange ghost clicks before stopping to work completely. 

Lou Stule:

I appreciate your want to help by suggesting to contact Dell support, but - that's easier said than done if you live in Thailand (where the Dell Venue 8's are not marketed). I contacted Dell Thailand once when I had an issue with my Latitude 10 and they were not particularly helpful ... 

I just got my replacement today, and it wasted no time in showing me that it too had the same touch screen issues. I now have three Venue 8 Pros in my possession and all three of them have the issue. And now all three of them are going back. This was the first Dell product I've bought in a very long time, and it is definitely going to be the last. 

Teejay00: Well, in that case, do yourself a favour and do not consider Lenovo as an alternative (I've wasted countless hours with their ThinkPad Tablet 2 support) ...

Yup, disappointing. I never planned to use an 8" device for much typing, but even the little I do is frustrating. To me, the main problem is that I touch the wrong charracters too often. This is due to the screen being extremely sensitive and my fingertips activate the wrong places on the way to what I to touch.

As for screen color and brightness, mine is plenty bright and usually I keep it way down. However, it does have a bit of a yellow tint. Obvious when playing scenes with clouds and white water next to my iPad. What is worse, is the gamma adjustment was off and somehow it resulted in images that were both flat and clipping colors (not enough gradation). Dialing down he gamma to 0.8 improves the image considerably, to a point it is almost as good as the iPad mini, except a bit warmer. Good enough I s

ay.

aNo such issues with iPad mini and my Nokia Windows phone.

Same here... 3 different devices, each have the same issues with touch response. So tired of this POS device and Dell's lack of interest. This is definitely my last Dell purchase, as well. :emotion-6:

In reply to Drahnier's previous comment about Lenovo and the poor experience trying to get support for the Thinkpad Tablet 2... That's disappointing to hear, as I've always held Lenovo in high regard. I've owned 6 different Lenovo laptops over the years (both work and personal laptops). I've always had good luck with Lenovo's products and never needed to contact them for support. In most cases, I try to avoid OEM support whenever possible (too much hassle/frustration). Unfortunately, with the Dell V8P's touch related problems, I wasn't able to find an acceptable solution on my own. Maybe I'm naïve, but I can't imagine that any respectable OEM wouldn't have performed enough testing to reveal such an obvious issue that affects the primary source of user input (touch). Either Dell dropped the ball in their testing, or they knowingly chose to ship a flawed product. Either way, I'm done with Dell and hope to have a more positive experience with a competing device.

I was able to reduce the tendency to double-strike characters, by maxing-out delay & slowing repeat rate in Keyboard Control Panel...

Thanks! Just tried it, and I think this works reasonably well for typing. I don't think it does anything for the browsing issue (not supposed to, I think).

Unfortunately, slows down cursor movement with the arrows and deleting things with the backspace key too much so I am not sure I like it enough to keep it on this setting. I'm still making quite a few typos as I type - maybe just fat fingers. But, the keyboard is somehow more prone to errors and more crammed than on the iPad Mini and I make way more typos on the Dell...

I'm slowly getting used to the tiny onscreen keyboard and the touchy browsing experience, so it bothers me less and less every day.

The rest of the annoying behaviors are mostly Windows-related and also related to the orientation of the power plug and location of the power button. Worst of all is the tiny text size and no reflow option for Internet. That has been a real weakness of Windows and Windows Phone for years. The power cord is in the wrong place when the device is used raised partially on its case (should have been on the side, not what is the bottom on this case). It tilts the device and might break over time being flexed unnecessarily. The power button is too close to the volume buttons and I keep pressing it by mistake when adjusting the volume and when handling the device. Not having a desktop button on the face has  been surprisingly something I don't like - trying to find the side button is not intuitive as I never know on which side it is as I tend to rotate the device depending on what I am doing with it in its case.

I can't see anything worth haggling-over in your reply; I tried to be clear that I was only proposing a sanity-saving workaround, while we await official fixes from Dell. At the same time, Windows lack of touchscreen finesse makes any WIN8.1 tablet feel a bit like I'm using an Etch-a-Sketch; that puts a lot more pressure on Dell, to get their part of it just right!

(Although the entire Venue Tablet family show clear evidence of competent engineering under-the-hood, this isn't the 1st — and won't be the last  — time that good engineering @ Dell gets short-circuited by unreralistic marketing priorities & the way that Dell's twelve-level-deep approval process [mostly by terminally-constipated clerks and accountants] tends to neutralize innovation.)

For what it's worth, I believe most issues with the V8P onscreen keyboard are unique to the V8P. One can argue that the Win8/8.1  onscreen keyboard is small on these 8" devices, especially in portrait mode. However, I've used several different 8" Windows tablets and the only device that has these issues is the Dell. In fact, I did a side by side comparison of the Acer Iconia W3 and the Dell V8P just the other day. The touch response of the Acer is almost flawless. I was able to type quickly in both landscape and portrait without any mistakes. When I attempted the same test on the V8P, the results were disastrous. I've used 3 different V8P devices and each of them had the same problem.

Based on everything I've seen and experienced, I have to believe there's a significant design flaw with the touchscreen\digitizer used in the V8P. As far as I'm concerned, adjusting the keyboard settings (repeat rate\delay) shouldn't make any difference. I assert that the real problem here the digitizer's inability to properly interpret anything other than the "perfect" touch (extreme precise, just the right amount of pressure, highly conductive skin, etc). My fingers are a bit dry and calloused. Therefore, I'm unable to achieve this level of perfection. Again, no other touch device I've ever used has had a problem responding to my touch... just the 3 V8Ps that I've gotten from Dell.

@KOCHO_CHESTIMENSKI: (Here I was, thinking that I'm the one with fat fingers... I own small-screen iOS and Android devices, so I was initially startled — and continue to be disappointed — by Microsoft's primitive, klunky implementation of their touchscreen interface.)

With repeat keys slowed-down, you might get quicker response by using multiple clicks on backspace rather than one solid keypress. After lotsa practice, I'm also getting better @ swiping to zoom in/out, to more-easily select the correct item in a microscopic list view (mostly, it's a matter of remembering to do it).

There are two onscreen keyboards available; the one from the 'notification' area of the taskbar has larger keys and I find it fairly easy to use in landscape mode — apart from sometimes being unable to see the text as I'm entering it.

I returned my Dell-branded folio case because I found it interfered with accessing the 4 edge-mounted buttons — esp. the Windows~Start key, and it felt awkward to hold when I had it folded-back for handheld use (imo, there are better 'skin' choices from other online retailers). Otherwise, I easily adapted to the physical WIN key, since I'm a leftie & use landscape mode whenever I'm given a choice. That location makes it less-likely for me to accidentally wake-up the tablet or invoke the Start screen when I'm handling the tablet. For those reasons, I'm also comfortable with the micro-USB port location...  Rergardless of orientation, it's more-vulnerable to damage in use because Dell neglected to employ any strain-relief around the micro-connector or use a slightly recessed port. Dell detests custom-molded parts because they further-erode thin margins (Dell is the hi-tech equivalent of farming in Mongolia). Nevertheless, a two-penny retro-fit clip-on for Dell's generic Micro-B cable could prevent accidental backwards insertion AND provide additional protection against damage from tugging and bending — Duh!

For all the reasons I compute, I don' ever expect a tablet to replace a computer atached to a big screen and physical keyboard /trackpad combo; to be relevant to my lifestyle, a tablet does need to be dang-handy to grab & go, and easy to perform simple tasks (mail/surf/locate/skype) — without encountering many warts.

Back to the original prrroblem, can anyone confirm they have no issues with multiple keyboard presses or erratic zooming when scrolling in internet explorer??  Even after the latest update I am still having both of these issuess.  Some have posted here stating that they are on their 3rd and 4th replacements and are still seeing this issue.  I was considering contacting Dell for a replacement, but still holding out on the hopes of a firmware update that might finally fix the problem.  I have not seen anyone from Dell post here in a while with any sort of update or at least a verification as to whether this iss a firmware or harddware issue.