Cube iWork 8 Dual Boot Edition review

[jupiter2012]

Since the release of Windows 8.1 and Intel's Bay Trail Atom generation, tablets based on the Windows operating system are growing in popularity. We have tested quite a number of Windows tablets since the beginning of last year, and they have impressed us here and there with a vision of where we are headed: Windows tablets can now be light, compact, relatively high-performance and offer a long battery life too. Combined with the almost unlimited possibilities the Windows operating system offers, this new generation could be exactly the right answer to the Android and iOS competitions. However, while Windows works perfectly with a keyboard and a mouse, it isn’t all that ideal to be paired with a touchscreen, as the number of applications in the Windows 8 store is still too small compared to that in the Android Google Play or Apple App Store, and traditional desktop applications are not quite responsive to touchscreen operations, user experience is compromised.

Forward-thinking manufactures such as RAMOS started experimenting on Android & Windows 8 dual-boot solutions since the very beginning of last year, and even showed their first dual-boot tablet – the RAMOS i10pro in Hong Kong in April, 2014. However, as promising as this idea seemed, the awkwardness of switching between the two operating systems was off-putting: users need to shut the tablet down and then, in the very few seconds after booting the device with the power button, hold the volume rocker to force the slate to enter the OS they choose.

Not until the end of 2014 did the OS switching become less inconvenient, and lots of dual-boot tablets has rushed into the market since then, the iWork 8 Dual Boot Edition we are testing today is just one of the many.

To be fair, Windows 8 isn’t a whole new world to Cube, as it has already released quite a number of Windows tablets since the beginning of 2014, including the much celebrated Cube iWork 10, the medium-sized iWork 8 and the smallest Windows tablet ever - the iWork 7. It even released its first ultra-book tablet hybrid product, the Core-M powered Cube i7 in January. With that said, the dual-boot solution is still quite new to Cube, and we really need to take a look at how this slate actually performs.


Cube iWork 8 Dual Boot Edition specs:

• OS: Android 4.4.4 & Windows 8.1 dual boot
• Display: 8-inch IPS, 5-point multi-touch, IGZO
• Screen Resolution: 1280 x 800 (16:10)
• CPU: Intel Atom Baytrail-T Z3735F Quad-core Processor
• CPU Frequency: 1.33GHz – 1.8GHZ
• GPU:Intel HD Graphic Gen7
• RAM / Storage: 2GB / 32GB
• Function: WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, OTG
• WiFi: 802.11 b/g/n
• Camera: 2MP back camera , 2MP front camera
• Battery: 3500mAh
• Extend Port: TF Card Slot, SIM Card Slot, Micro USB Port, 3.5mm Earphones Port
• Weight & Size: 340g / 214 x 133 x 8.8mm


Design



Measuring at 214*133*8.8mm and weighs 340g, the iWork 8 Dual Boot Edition isn’t fighting to be the thinnest or lightest tablet in the world. But by the standards of Windows tablets, it is quite compact. It is noticeably thinner than the original iWork 8, which measures at 10mm thick. And it is also much smaller than the Acer Iconia W4 and the Toshiba WT8.



The plastic rear that makes the device easier to grip, and the silver rim around the edges gives the tablet a premium look.





There are three physical buttons: the Power/standby key on the left side, the Windows/Android Home key and the volume rocker on the top. All of the buttons feel pretty solid and have comfortable pressing depth.



Nevertheless, consider the tablet's price, overall its manufacturing quality is good and slightly superior to that of the Ployer MOMO8W Dual Boot Edition and Chuwi Vi8 Super Edition. Tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S or the Acer Iconia W4 still belong to a completely different class and give the impression of being substantially more valuable.


Connectivity



The iWork 8 Dual Boot Edition offers more connectivity options than most of its competitions on the Windows 8 side. With the Mini HDMI output on it, the user can connect an external monitor or television. This broadens the tablet's range of uses immensely and is a huge benefit. As there is an independent DC charging port, the Micro USB 2.0 port only serves as the connection for data transfer, which means you can charge the device and transfer files at the same time. We measured a maximum data transfer rate of 39.1 MB/s over the USB 2.0 port. However, the Micro USB port can only be used as a host, even after booting into Android, it is not possible to connect the tablet directly to a PC as a flash drive (slave).

The Micro SD card reader can only recognize memory cards with a capacity smaller than 32GB. While the Lenovo Miix 2 8, Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro and some other high end tablets have a cover for their card slots, the Cube iWork 8's slot remains open to the elements.



Bluetooth 4.0 and WLAN 802.11n serve to connect the tablet to the outside world wirelessly. In practice, the iWork 8's signal quality was slightly better than my Acer Iconia W700 and Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4, at least subjectively. At a distance of about 10 meters from the router, with two inside walls between the router and the tablet, the Galaxy Tab Pro’s connection with the 802.11n wireless router was severed various times. The iWork 8 still showed 1-2 bars signal strength here and maintained stable contact with the router. And placed on the same table, the W700 can pick up far more hotspots than the Acer Iconia W700.


Display and sound



The glossy 8-inch IPS panel offers a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, which equates to an aspect ratio of 16:10.



The pixel density amounts to 188 dpi, although far from behind those market-leading power Android tabs, it is still nearly impossible to distinguish individual pixels. The manufacturer intends the device to be used predominantly in horizontal format, as you can see from the position of the Windows/Home buttons, webcam and manufacturer logo. In practice, we did used the tablet in landscape format more running Windows 8.1, but we need it to stay in portrait more running Android applications.



The maximum brightness amounts to 344 cd/m², and the panel's brightness distribution is quite even. Differences in brightness are hardly distinguishable with the naked eye.



There are noticeable light bleeding when the background is in total black or when the tablet is viewed from some extreme angles, but not enough to become bothersome during everyday use. The brightness level can be adjusted using the graphic slide control, but there’s no light sensor to help auto-adjust the brightness of the display according to ambient lighting.

To our surprise, the iWork 8 Dual Boot Edition's speakers are clear-sounding, and produce relatively loud, full output that's just good enough to make me forego my headphones while watching YouTube videos. With that said, I still very much needed my Monster headphone when I was listening to music.

[jupiter2012]

System and apps



The major selling point of this tablet is that it runs both Windows 8.1 and Android OS. The nice thing is, Cube didn’t mess with the stock user interface, so we get a clean Windows 8.1 as well as a clean Android 4.4.4. The not so good thing is, the 32GB eMMc internal storage is divided into 2 parts. 24GB is allocated to Windows and 8GB is allocated to Android. The reason why those two systems don’t have shared storage is that it prevents the users to accidentally delete important files of an OS while running the other.



Fortunately, the Windows 8.1 is licensed and the there is even an activation code which offers the users free Office 365 suite subscription for one year, which means you can really get some serious business work done after you connect the tablet to a monitor or TV. Even better, the Microsoft Office 365 works pretty well with a touchscreen, so you can modify your presentations or excel sheets during your business trip.


Booting



You have 10 seconds to choose which system you to enter after booting the device. Simply by touching one of the two icons which respectively represent Windows and Android and you are good to go. If you fail to choose a system in the limited 10 seconds, the tablet will boot into the OS you ran last time.

OS switching



Switching between the two operating systems is easy. If you need to switch from Android to Windows, simply press and hold the power button, and then choose to reboot into Windows 8, and the tablet will do that.



If you are running Windows 8.1, you simply need to open the “Win to Android” app on the desktop, and choose to reboot into Android.


Performance and battery



The iWork 8 Dual Boot Edition is running the same quad-core, Atom Bay-trail Z3735F as the latest budget Windows and dual-boot slabs. The processor has a base clock of 1.33GHz and a turbo clock of 1.8GHZ. There is 2GB of LPDDR3 RAM on board, enough to handle all Android apps and lightweight Windows desktop apps you're likely to be running.



We ran a few benchmarks respectively on Windows 8.1 and Android 4.4.4, and we wouldn’t say that we were surprised with what we got.



The scores were pretty typical for Intel Bay-trail powered tablets, both on the Android side and on the Windows side. And those scores translated well into real world performance, as the iWork 8 Dual Boot Edition was extremely zippy running any Android application, including some of the most graphic-intense 3D games. It felt even more responsive than my Snapdragon 800 powered Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4, probably because of the lower display resolution. Navigating through the Windows 8 OS and playing media were also quite smooth, and the slate had no problem opening dozens of image-heavy webpages at the same time. Only when faced with heavy-weight Windows desktop applications did the iWork 8 Dual Boot Edition begin to struggle.



The eMMc storage inside the Cube iWork 8 Dual Boot Edition is one of the fastest we've seen in a budget tablet. You won't wait long for most apps to start, and the boot time was shorter than 15 seconds. The Cube iWork 8 Dual Boot Edition may not have an edge in processing power over its competition, but the reduced loading times will make it feel a little more powerful.



According to our previous tests, the 22nm Intel Atom Bay-trail Z3735F is as power-efficient as those ARM based processors. While the higher-powered processor doesn't hurt battery life, the battery capacity of the iWork 8 Dual Boot Edition does. The original Cube iWork 8 exceeded our expectations on the battery front with its 5,000mAh Li-Po battery, but the Dual Boot Edition’s battery capacity has been cut down to 3,500mAh, and the drop in longevity is hardly unnoticeable.

Cube estimates 6 hours of non-stop video on the iWork 8 Dual Boot Edition, but we only managed 5 hours and 10 minutes in our own looping video test before the tablet conked out -- two hours less than we got from the original iWork 8. That's with the screen locked at 30 percent brightness, and in aircraft mode. In real-world terms, we could go for about a whole day of moderate browsing, email, music streaming and socializing. But for heavier users who enjoy nonstop 3D gaming and online video streaming, charging the tablet more than once a day will become a must. Fortunately, standby mode doesn’t drain much of the battery, thanks to the 22nm process of the CPU.


Cameras



The iWork 8 Dual Boot Edition has a 2-megapixel camera respectively on its front and rear. The picture quality isn't anything to write home about, as with many tablet cameras -- it's noisy and doesn't produce vibrant colors even in daylight and has no major options outside of a panorama mode.


Other notes



The retail package includes a charging cable, a USB cable, a user manual, a warranty card as well as a Cube VIP card. The DC charger is sold separately.

Heat and Noise: This is a fanless tablet with SSD so there’s no noise at all. No heat was detected during the two-week test period.


Target customer



The Cube iWork 8 Dual Boot Edition is not purely a consumer tablet due to the presence of a Windows desktop mode which brings capability that far exceeds tablets with mobile-first operating systems. Security, networking features, user accounts, media subsystem, storage flexibility, a huge range of applications and language support allow scenarios that are not possible on other devices. Although the desktop is hard to navigate with a finger, the Windows 8 interface elements can be adjusted for size. And do not forget you can boot into Android whenever you want and get access to the tons of touchscreen-enabled applications in Google Play.

Priced at RMB499 ($80), the iWork 8 Dual Boot Edition is still just an entry-level tablet. The screen resolution is too low for power Android users, who may have already been accustomed to the 1080P or even 2K screens seen on high-end Android tablets. The Z3735F processor, although very powerful by tablet standards, still struggles with heavy-weight Windows desktop applications. The ideal customers are those who require mobile flexibility in a home and office scenario where Windows is established, and occasionally switch to Android for gaming and media consumption. The only problem for Cube is that the competitions such as the Chuwi Vi8 Super Edition and many other recently released dual-boot tablets offer exactly the same features.


Summary



Overall the Cube iWork 8 Dual Boot Edition, and this could apply to all Chinese 8-inch dual boot tablets, doesn’t quite feel like a polished consumer tablet. There are avenues of usage that can lead to problems unless the user has experience with both Windows 8 and Android. The Windows desktop isn’t something that should be exposed to the average tablet consumer. For adventurers and advanced users though this is truly inspiring tablet that offers an incredibly complete and fast browsing experience, flexible connectivity and external expansion options. Cube’s hugest mistake here is to cut corners on battery capacity, the 3,500mAh battery is barely enough to power the tablet through a day even for light to moderate users.


The good:

The Cube iWork 8 Dual Boot Edition’s manufacturing quality is superior to most of the competitions.
With both Windows 8.1 and Android 4.4.4 on top, the slate offers much more in both productivity and entertainment than single OS tablets.
The tablet offers flexible connectivity options.
Licensed Windows 8.1 and one year of free subscription of Office 365.


The bad:

The iWork 8 Dual Boot Edition delivers poorer battery performance compared to the original iWork 8.
The charger is not included in the retail package and needs to be purchased separately.

[romanatwud]

Great Review! I'm looking at one of these, they're only $79.99 at geekbuying right now. I might actually get one.