Thanks to a new wave of 8-inch Windows 8 and Windows 10 tablets, Microsoft's flagship OS is becoming more portable and cheaper than ever. The Cube iWork 8 Ultimate is one of the latest slates to put Windows 10 in your pocket, touting the latest Intel Cherry Trail x5-Z8300 processor and a bright 1280 x 800 IPS display. But how does it compare to those Bay-Trail powered 8-inchers such as the Acer ICONIA W4 and Cube’s very own iWork 8, you will find out in this article.
Cube iWork 8 Ultimate specs:
• OS: Windows 10 Home Edition
• Display: 8-inch IPS, 5-point multi-touch, IGZO
• Screen Resolution: 1280 x 800 (16:10)
• CPU: Intel AtomCherry Trail X5-Z8300 Quad-core Processor
• CPU Frequency: 1.44GHz – 1.84GHZ
• GPU:Intel HD Graphic Gen8
• RAM / Storage: 2GB / 32GB
• Function: WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, OTG
• WiFi: 802.11 b/g/n
• Camera: 2MP back camera, 2MP front camera
• Battery: 3,300mAh
• Extend Port: TF Card Slot, Micro USB Port, 3.5mm Headphone Jack
• Weight & Size: 339g / 213 x 127 x 9.8mm
Design
The first thing we noticed about the Cube iWork 8 Ultimate is how identical it is to the many other competing 8-inch Windows tablets. In fact, almost all cheap 8-inch Windows tablets look the same. You may find the Acer W4 and the Lenovo Miix 2 more stylish and one of a kind, but they do cost considerably more than the slates from less celebrated Chinese brands.
The Cube iWork 8 Ultimate sports a white bezel encased by a white rear panel with silver edges. When held vertically, the device's 2-MP front camera sits at the top, above the 8-inch touch-capacitive screen. There is no branding or button on the front of the tablet.
The slate's right edge hosts a power button and a volume switch, while the top edge plays host to a micro SD card slot, a micro USB input, a micro HDMI port, a headphone jack and a physical Home button. The iWork 8 Ultimate’s white plastic back panel has a faint texture for grip, but it's not as comfy as the Dell Venue 8 Pro's soft-touch rear.
The device's 2-MP rear camera and small speaker gate sit at the top of the back panel, while the model and some branded information are printed at the bottom.
At 339g and 9.6mm thick, this iWork 8 Ultimate is by no means the slimmest or lightest tablet out there. But for a tablet which runs full desktop Windows OS, it is still quite portable, and can be held in one hand for a relatively long period of time without causing any discomfort.
Display
Like most of the 8-inch Windows tablets on sale, the Cube iWork 8 Ultimate sports an 8-inch IPS display at the resolution of 1280 x 800px. When you translate the resolution to pixel density, you get 189PPI. In a year when our eyes have been spoiled by QHD and 4K displays on flagship smartphones, the iWork 8 Ultimate’s display may appear to be a slight disappointment.
However, in the real life use, it’s not really the case. The multicolored Live Tile interface looked crisp on the iWork 8 Ultimate's screen, as did the text of websites like CNN.com and ESPN.com. When watching the 1080p trailer for "Batman VS Superman" on the Cube iWork 8 Ultimate, the clip's intense fight scenes were colorful and clear on the Cube tablet, and remained vivid as we watched from different angles.
When it comes to brightness, the Cube iWork 8 Ultimate slightly under-delivers. Although for indoor use, you only need to tune the brightness to 30% - 40%, and 50% would be too dazzling. If you take it outdoor, you can hardly see what’s on the display even at full brightness.
Audio
The Cube iWork 8 Ultimate’s tiny speaker is clear, but far from room-filling. It was easy to hear the laughter of Wooby Goldberg on “The View”, but the song was low on bass and sounded canned at full volume. When listening to Ed Sheeran's "Don’t", it was somewhat hard to pick out the distorted guitars.
System and apps
The iWork 8 Ultimate is Cube’s first 8-inch tablet that ships with Windows 10 OS. If you are a fan of Microsoft's modern interface, you will be delighted. Some of Windows 10's features were built with diminutive tablets in mind, including smaller Live Tile sizes (to fit more on screen at once), access to the camera from the lock screen and more keyboard shortcuts.
The platform's multi-window snap mode isn't as useful here as it would be on larger-screened hardware, but it's still appealing to have a chat client open while you browse the web, or to check email while you catch up on TV shows. Most mobile platforms can't juggle multiple active apps very well (see Samsung's TouchWiz) or at all, so you'll be happy with Windows if you prefer to run more than one app at a time.
The modern Windows app ecosystem is also reasonably healthy. Although you won't find some of the famous mobile games and apps (such as Wechat and Instagram), the odds are high that there's touch-native software available to do what you want. Line, IMDB and YouTube are included in the Windows app store; you'll also find reading apps like Amazon Kindle and Flipboard, while Nokia's Here Maps provides a solid navigation option when you're on WiFi. You can even fire up VLC to play less common media formats. Just be aware that major developers like Apple, Mozilla and Valve may never support the interface; it’s highly likely that you won't get a finger-friendly version of iTunes or Steam, for instance.
These absences won't matter as much when you have full access to the traditional Windows desktop, although having this fallback isn't as ideal as it sounds. Simply put, the older interface doesn't elegantly shrink down to an 8-inch display. You'll often find yourself pressing the wrong button or obscuring a text input box with the virtual keyboard. If you expect to spend a lot of time in the classic interface on the iWork 8 Ultimate, we'd strongly suggest using a mouse and keyboard -- you'll get around considerably faster, and if you can connect the tablet to a monitor with an HDMI cable, that’s when you will get some serious productivity job done.
No matter which front end you prefer, there will be an abundance of apps from Microsoft and a wide range of third-party developers. And with the many new features (such as Cortana and Microsoft Edge) and functions (such as Windows store applications running in Windows under desktop mode) added to Windows 10, a Windows tablet is more useful and functional than ever.
Performance
The Cube iWork 8 Ultimate is powered by an Intel Atom Cherry Trail X5-Z8300 processor along with 2GB of RAM. This Cherry Trail generation CPU is based on 14nm process, and outfitted with four cores with a clock frequency from 1.44 GHz – 1.8GHz.
With 32GB of eMMC storage, the slate booted Windows 10 in just 13 seconds. This is much faster than average laptop and desktop PCs with mechanical hard disks, but slightly slower than high-end ultrabooks and tablets with Solid-state drives.
To test the iWork 8 Ultimate’s performance, we ran some famous benchmarks on the device and compared the scores to the showings of other Windows tablets. The iWork 8 Ultimate netted a 1,041 on the PCMark 8 Creative performance test, scoring higher than the original Cube iWork 8 (907), and the Acer ICONIA W4 (965). This showing is slightly below the 10.6-inch iWork 11 Stylus' score of 1,119. In the more graphics-focused 3DMark test, the iWork 8 Ultimate scored 10,263 on the 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme benchmark, surpassing the Acer ICONIA W4 (8,643) and Cube iWork 8 (8,310).
While the iWork 8 Ultimate topped most Bay-trail powered Windows tablets in terms of performance, it is by no means a powerhouse tablet PC. When we compared its benchmark scores to the snatchings of those Core-M or Core-i powered slates, we did see huge gaps.
In the real world experience, the iWork 8 Ultimate performed basic tablet functions without a hitch. Everything installed from the Windows store worked like a charm. Even when you run several of those Windows store applications in desktop mode, the iWork 8 Ultimate remained super-responsive.
The real challenge comes with running heavyweight desktop applications, including some traditional PC game titles which Atom-based device always tend to struggle with. The iWork 8 Ultimate did generally better than those Z3735F or Z3736F powered tablets, but if you are expecting the kind of visual effects and speed you get from ultrabooks and average desktop PCs, you will be disappointed.
Connectivity
The iWork 8 Ultimate offers its users a healthy slew of connectivity options. The Wi-Fi 802.11n/b/g takes good care of internet surfing, while the Bluetooth 4.0 makes it possible for the iWork 8 Ultimate to connect with external input devices and audio systems without occupying the ports.
The Micro USB port on board can also host all kinds of devices: from your mobile hard drive to your smartphone.
The Micro SD card slot can support cards up to 128GB, in case the 32GB internal storage is not enough, and the Micro HDMI port makes sharing the content on your monitor, HDTV or projector much easier.
Battery Life
The iWork 8 Ultimate has 3,300mAh Li-Po battery, which is quite small, even for an 8-incher. Unfortunately, the battery life of the slate is as disappointing as the capacity suggests.
In our standard cngadget battery rundown test, where we play a 1080P video on loop, with 50% display brightness and 50% volume from the built-in speakers, the iWork 8 Ultimate lasted only 4 hours and 29 minutes before automatic shutdown due to battery drain.
In the day to day use, the iWork 8 Ultimate also disappoints. It can barely last through a day of moderate use. For intense users, multiple charge a day is inevitable.
Cameras
Like other Windows tablets we’ve laid our hands on, the iWork 8 Ultimate have lousy cameras. The nice thing is, the front-facing camera, actually the only useful camera, is decent enough for video-chatting when there is nice lighting. The rear camera is merely just there for the sake of being there, I don’t think you would want to use it for Instagram and Facebook updates, while even the cheapest smartphone could do the job a hundred times better.
Verdict
The Cube iWork 8 Ultimate is a very capable Windows 10 tablet that packs a beautiful display into a sturdy frame. We also like that it offers a micro HDMI port, which lets you easily share content on a big screen. However, the iWork 8 Ultimate has unforgivably poor battery life, and the 2MP rear-facing camera doesn't impress, either.
Priced at only RMB499 ($78), the Cube iWork 8 Ultimate represents a lot of tablets for the money. If you're intrigued by running full desktop Windows OS on a miniature tablet, it's worth checking out. But if you don’t really need to run desktop Windows applications at all, Android tablets at this size still tend to have both higher-resolution screens and wider native app selections.
