Dell makes Venue 8 Pro and Venue 10 tablets faster, adds USB Type-C

A new Intel Atom x5-Z8500 is running the show, and Windows 10 will be on board

Dell has refreshed its Venue 8 Pro and Venue 10 Pro tablets, bringing them up to speed with new processors and adding Microsoft's recently released operating system.

Yes, both these slates – which have optional detachable keyboards to make them 2-in-1s – now come with Windows 10, although there is an option to select Windows 8.1 should you wish to stick with that operating system for whatever reason.

Windows 10's Continuum feature will of course mean that the OS will be able to automatically switch the interface for a seamless transition between tablet and laptop modes.

However, the biggest change, which Microsoft-News.com spotted, is the introduction of a new Intel Atom processor of the Cherry Trail variety, the x5-Z8500 which is a quad-core chip running at 1.44GHz with Turbo up to 2.24GHz. That CPU offers integrated graphics, namely Intel HD Graphics 5300, and it's backed up with 4GB of RAM.

The new tablets also offer a USB Type-C port, along with a microHDMI port, and a microSD slot for expanding the storage by up to 128GB (the base storage is 64GB).

The Venue 10 Pro sports a 10.1-inch screen with a resolution of 1920 x 1200 and 10-point capacitive touch, while the Venue 8 Pro has an 8-inch display running a resolution of 1280 x 800 (with a 1080p option available too).

You also get an 8 megapixel rear camera and a 2 megapixel front facer, with 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1 in terms of connectivity. NFC is optional.

These new models are due to be released in November, with the US pricing set at $299 (around £195) and $429 (around £280) for the Venue 8 Pro and the Venue 10 Pro respectively.

Image:Microsoft-News.com

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Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for T3 across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel was published by Hachette UK in 2013).