Dell Venue 8 7840 Tablet Review

1. Introduction2. Design3. Display4. Software5. Performance6. Camera7. Battery8. Closing Thoughts9. View All Pages

Dell included Android KitKat 4.4.2 with the Venue 8 7840, though Dell have confirmed to us that Lollipop's arrival to the Venue 8 is imminent. As it is, we used the tablet with KitKat installed.

Like the Vodafone Smart Tab 4G, Dell have left KitKat mostly alone.

The included launcher is what we like to call ‘Google Now' lite – meaning it is for all intents and purposes the same as Google's own launcher, but lacks the actual ‘Google Now' feature. Dell left the home screens fairly empty, which is a plus – there are no nasty ‘smart weather' widgets taking up almost your entire screen.

As you would expect from Dell, there is a blue colour theme running throughout the OS, meaning the settings menu features white text on a blue background. This is very clean and simple, and does not differ much from the stock OS.

The notification panel has also been left alone – with the familiar 'tiled' quick settings dropping down on the right hand side, while any notifications drop down on the left.

So, we have more-or-less stock Android included with the Dell Venue 8. This is certainly a good thing, but we do feel Lollipop may better suit the Venue 8 – KitKat is getting slightly tired now, while Lollipop is fresh and vibrant. It is not fair to criticise Dell for using KitKat, we just feel that Lollipop may be more exciting to use.

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