What do you think of new Windows 8 tablets?

[davidbec]

You probbaly have a full backup of your tablet already so there is no risk, just install it and see how it goes. If your devices do not work wipe it off.

All of the tablet devices worked except the hard keys on the left. You may have to install the bluetooth drivers manually, but i am pretty sure everything else worked with the built in Windows 8 drivers.

[Ray!]

I'm going to get the $14 upgrade and install it on my Fujitsu P1610 and see how it goes. I have a full system image of my S1080, but I'm never confident that the first iteration of any OS is going to be completely bug free. I've played with the RC version of Windows 8 on my Fujitsu and utterly hated the 'not now called Metro interface', as I'm not into any of this 'social' stuff that Windows 8 seems to be geared towards. So if RetroUI works as described and Windows 8 is as fast as it's been reported, then I might wait for the the first service pack and then give it a try on the S1080. In the meantime, I can learn more about Windows 8 and RetroUI on the Fujitsu.

[davidbec]

Windows 8 on the S1080 is sooooo nice!. I reloaded the RTM yesterday on it.

Intel is going to have a big showing with all of the Windows 8 tablet manufacturers next week I am told.

[Ray!]

I'm yet to be convinced, which is why I'm going to give it a go on my Fujitsu, but the S1080.

[davidbec]

Intel held their press conference/show today. Did not show any tablets as far as I have been able to gather, but they detailed the Clover Trail processor and spoke brieftly about Valley View; which is the next processor to be released next year. They listed the manufacturers for the Clover Trail Windows 8 tablets and Gigabyte is not among them.

Maybe next year for Bay Trail processor (Based on Valley View platform)?

[Ray!]

I just noticed this on the Gigabyte website, the S1080 and S1081 are supposedly not upgradeable (it does state x64, but it's not entirely clear):

http://www.gigabyte.com/WebPage/104/index-en.html

[Thaversonly]

The problem I have with them, the majority of the minimalist approach. Some no USB port on the tablet itself, or "micro-everything", microUSB, micro HDMI, microSD, micro ... Micro Micro ... So you would have to use a lot of micro-devices or travel adapters.

[davidbec]

Seriously! I have no idea which Windows 8 they used. Or whether it is the same one from Microsoft; but mine works. You will lose the buttons on the left hand side and the volume rocker. Perhaps that is what they mean.

I agree with you Thaversonly; the micro thing does not fly for me either. I need full USB, full SD. I dont mind the HDMI being micro, because I can't imagine having to use that in a place where I do not have a table and adequate space to put the tablet on. Most likely this is something that would have been planned ahead of time so I would know that I need the adaptor. But having ethernet, full SD slots and full USB are things that can occur at any time anywhere and you may be caught without the necessary...

[Ray!]

Yeah, it sounded bizzare to me, considering what Microsoft has stated as being the minimum specs to run Windows 8, and the S1080 exceeds them by a country mile.

In my view, this race to make something the thinnest possible and thus lose some fundamental peripheral device support, is nuts. It's like a few years back when mobile phone makers were trying to make phone the smallest possible and they became almost unuseable for many. Now they are becoming huge.

I think Gigabyte has hit 'nail on head' with their design choice and there's no point in trying to copy the others in their race to create paper thin tablets.

[davidbec]

Well Acer and Lenovo have declared their hand. Engadget did a preview of the Acer W510 and a brief look at the Lenovo Thinkpad 2. Acer is starting around $500, while Lenovo is $649.

Neither would get my vote however against an S1081.

Could you imagine hanging one of these off a microusb port? http://www.diamondmm.com/ati-theater-hd-750-usb-tv-tuner-tvw750usb.php

Thinking of getting one for my 1080.

[Ray!]

I tried Windows 8 again on my P1610 to see how I'd go, but again, I simply can't get used to it. I'm a solid desktop user, even with my tablet, so the user interface of Windows 8 is alien that nothing I did could get me to like it. Even the most simple of actions such as loggin on and shutting down have been given a confusing multiple step process. I tried the desktop, but it was all too hard.

I pity users who are upgrading from XP/Vista and buy a new PC with Windows 8, they are going to be in a world of hurt trying to work it out. I think I'm going to stay with Windows 7 until such time as Microsoft brings out a dedicated desktop version of Windows 8, without the not-Metro interface. I am certain that they will do this, as the kickback over the current interface is going to be huge, once people have no other option.

[Ray!]

OK, I did a bit of a backflip here, as I was able to get Windows 8 Pro for $15 online, so I thought it might be worth trying it out on the S1080. After the download and conversion from ISO, I created a second partition on the S1080 SSD and started to do a dual boot install. This became a world of pain as the installation kept stalling all the time at the point where you selected the drive on which the install should go. It was only after finding this guide, did things succeed: http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2344-dual-boot-installation-windows-8-windows-7-vista.html (this forum came up quickly).

The installation didn't take all that long surprisingly, but the required registration process was an absolute pain. The system would not accept my email address, which ended in .com and I had to use another email address which ended in .com.au. After some further stuffig around with usernames and passwords, all was good and I had a functioning dual boot S1080.

Everything looked quite good, but unfortunately, none of the apps would work, as the screen resolution didn't meet Windows 8 requirements. So I went to the Registry in Windows 8 to do the modification that allowed me to change the screen resolution in Windows 7 and tried again. Unfortunately, Windows 8 doesn't seem to accept the registry fix and doesn't allow me to change the default 1204 x 600 setup (it comes up as the maximum). So unless I can find a solution to this, the Windows 'Modern' interface will not work. It's a shame really, as the interface looks as clean as it could get, even at the lower resolution and so it baffles me why this is a retriction.

The desktop works fine, but I don't really intend to use it, as during the Windows check process, many programs that I use don't work in Windows 8. I'll keep plodding along to see if I can get the Modern interface to work, but if it's a bust, I just reformat the partion and return to a full Windows 7 system.

[Ray!]

Problem Solved! It appears that Windows 8 only has one instance of 'Display1_DownScalingSupported' in the Registry, so what I did was create another DWORD in the second list, restarted and I could change the resolution, and everything is fine. The two locations are:
 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E 968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0000
 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E 968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0001

[davidbec]

Wlcome to the "Windows8 on 80" party!!

Check that all of the devices are working. I had to do some extra work to for bluetooth.

The camera app is fairly poor you might find "Youcam" is much better.

[Ray!]

I installed Windows 8 primarily to learn a bit about it, now that it's in it's final version. I can't use it fully, as it simply won't run many of my applications, especially my most important one which is navigation. In time this will improve, but at the moment I'm fairly restricted. We'll see how it goes.