Originally Posted by zz9:
“Just commented about my Linx 10 in another thread. A £150 ten inch tablet that runs full Windows 8.1. I love it and use it at work and at home. It runs any Windows programs, so I've installed Chrome as browser, Word, Excel, a specialist writing program and so on. Of course it isn't a power PC so you're not going to be doing 4k video editing but for everyday use it's great. If you choose to use a microsoft account you can synch your settings and documents with your home PC. I was surprised when I changed the wallpaper on my PC and the next time I used the Linx it had the new wallpaper.
I did the free upgrade to Windows 10 but then went back to 8.1. I love 10 on my PC but on a tablet I think 8.1 works far better, with all the swipe gestures. It's great for playing video or watching iPlayer. It has micro SD card slot for more memory and a micro USB, which is a slight drawback as a full size USB would be more convenient, but they supply an adaptor. The speakers aren't the most powerful and they're close together on the back so they're not fantastic but they do the job.
Quality wise it actually feels very solid and well made, it has a slight rubbery matt finish compared to the Surface which is shiny metal. You can get keyboard/case accessory on ebay for £10 but I haven't tried one so can't really comment. Linx do their own keyboard for about £20.
One feature I love is that you have the full Windows Control Panel, Windows Explorer, file system etc in the desktop. With my Android phone, which I love, I always found it a pain to manage files, move things, find things and so on. With this it's Windows, so it's exactly the same as your home PC.”
Going off topic slightly - the big advantage of 10 over 8.1 on Linx tablets (and all 8.1+Bing equivalents) is that 10 uses about 5GB less memory than 8.1.
A secondary advantage is that it uses the standard Windows 10 iso, so it is easy to reinstall (with the 8.1+Bing, yo need to ensure you have a recovery drive, as the OS is not standard and is not available to public - although you can get images from Linx forum)
Also, the next official release of windows 10 is (according to the famous Windows 10 leaker WOZR who is rarely wrong) will allow installation of apps to an sd card which is a MAJOR improvement, as biggest limits on these small 32GB tablets is the amount of programs you can install.
The Linx oficiallyonly supports a 32GB SD card, but many have put in 64/128 and even 356 GB cards with no issue. Obviously backing up card is recommended as SD cards are not the most reliable beasties in the world.
Finally, the experience of all these tablets (imo) is much enhanced by installation of a great (free) program called touchmousepointer where you can use the full screen as a giant mouse touchpad (like normally found on a laptop). This enables precision control over fiddly menus - so much that I rarely use tablet mode, and stick to the more flexible desktop mode.
Another cool thing you can do is installed Teamviewer (or use RDP or similar) and take full remote control of the tablet from a PC even from other side of the world. Great when configuring it.
Imagine your other half having problems when you are away, and you just take over control and sort it. I do it all the time as my wife's technical abilities are limited (her opinion is that is what I am for).
Actually, you can take remote control of android phones/tablets if rooted, and some non-rooted tables (Samsung especially), but the time lag is very noticeable eg. 2-3 seconds, whereas on windows tablets response is almost instantaneous.
Another feature I love about the Linx (and any windows tablet in fact) is that I can set it up as as a wifi hoptspot, so when in a hotel, you can connect a chromecast device to it and stream video over hotel internet to hotel TV. Try doing that with any other tablet!
The only thing you need to be careful is to check if the new Linx 8 (Linx810 with 10 preinstalled) will work in desktop mode and run desktop apps. Old ones upgraded can, but MS said new tablets with less than 9" screens would not have desktop mode. I do not know if this is the actual case now as I upgraded. You can still buy the original Linx 8 and upgrade at least at the moment?