14 DAY TRIAL // This weekend it was revealed that Dell was planning to refresh its line of popular smallish Windows 8 Pro tablets, the Venue 8 Pro bunch, by adding a model with better graphics performance and one with a cheaper price.
As we told you before, the revamp isn't a spectacular one, but now we find out Dell has plans of putting out new models of the Dell Venue 11 Pro too, which is the largest tablet in the lineup.
This time, the upgrade is going to be more consistent. Back in 2013 when Dell unveiled the original Venue 11 Pro lineup, it with a 10.8-inch display with FHD resolution and a choice between Intel Atom and Intel Core processors.
The slate was offered with a bunch of accessories that included a tablet dock, a keyboard companion and a smart pen which has a story of its own.
Dell Venue 11 Pro making a switch to Broadwell
But the folks over at Tablet PC Italy have managed to uncover a new model which runs on the new Intel Core M Broadwell processor in combination with 8GB of RAM and (up to) 256GB of internal storage.
The new tablet maintains the 10.8-inch IPS display with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution of the original as well has the HDMI port, USB 3.0, Intel WiDi wireless display support and Windows 8.1 64-bit software.
Dell also throws in optional features such as 4G LTE, NFC or TPM security modules. But each tablet shipping out will take advantage of 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and two cameras.
The new Intel Core M tablets (Wi-Fi only) should make it into retail as soon as next month, while the 4G edition is expected to make it out in time for the holiday season, meaning December.
New Dell Venue 11 Pro comes with the same accessories as the old version
Unlike the new Venue 8 Pro which seems to come devoid of a pen, the Venue 11 Pro will continue to make use of the digital pen.
Hopefully, the new pens shipping out will come problem free. In 2013, many owners of the tablet complained their pens had stopped working or were behaving randomly. After months of troubles, Dell finally pulled the styluses back from sale, only to replace them with new models a few months later.
However, these new models didn't prove to be come trouble-free either. But it’s been a while since these occurrences, so Dell might have had the time to fine tune its smart styluses.
For the time being, we don’t know what prices the new Venue 11 Pro will sell at, but the original version sold for a pretty steep $499 / €394.
