Dell's super-thin, depth-sensing tablet is available now for $400
Remember that 8-inch, super-high-res tablet Dell showed off back in September? You know, the one with the depth-sensing camera? It's OK if you don't, but really, you should give this a second look -- yes, even if you have tablet fatigue. Dell's Venue 8 7000 series goes on sale today, with a starting price of $400, and it's notable for not one, but several reasons. For starters, it's the first with Intel's RealSense camera setup, which in this case includes an 8-megapixel rear camera paired with two 720p ancillary ones. The three sensors work together to shoot different variations of a shot, each with a different area of focus. Basically, then, you can go in after the fact and either sharpen or soften the focus on any part of the photo -- yep, just like on a Lytro camera. Also, because these photographs are actually a composite of three different shots, you can easily apply effects to select parts of the picture. Think: sepia for just the bride and groom, with bright colors in the background. (Don't judge me for my tacky taste, OK?) Lastly, an over-the-air update in the coming months will allow you to actually measure items in the photo with an on-screen ruler.
Other than those fancy camera tricks, you should be impressed by the hardware: It's damn gorgeous. With the new Venue 8, Dell combines a pixel-dense 8.4-inch, 2,560 x 1,600 display with a well-made aluminum frame that measures just 6mm thick. To put that in perspective, that's thinner than all of its main competitors -- namely, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S, iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3. And, because that screen is an OLED panel, the quality is stunning as well: punchy colors and wide viewing angles, with a strong backlight throughout. What's nice, too, is that Dell was smart enough to price it at $400 -- just low enough to give the Galaxy Tab S and iPad mini 3 a run for their money. Hopefully we'll get to review one of these soon, but if you seriously can't wait for us to weigh in, it's available now, with 16GB of storage (expandable via microSDXC) and either LTE or just WiFi.
