Want a cheap Office-er-riffic tablet? Microsoft Windows takes on Android

Linx 8 tablet NOT BAD - unless you use Google Mail

Windows versus Android

A tablet like this is intriguing because it gives you the choice of Windows or Android at a similar low price. Apple’s iPad is more than twice as much even for a first-generation Mini (£199), a different market.

The Windows option is not horrid. Remarkably, setting up the Linx 8 was less painful than with most Windows machines, where you have to deal with endless trial offers and unwanted software. There are a couple of branded apps from the supermarket and that is it. There is not even an anti-virus offer on this one – note that Windows 8 has Defender built in, which offers basic protection.

This device is both a workable tablet and a capable low-end PC. You have access to desktop applications, including the possibility of custom apps created using Visual Studio or other well-established tools, and deployed without the hassle of app stores or developer settings.

The case against is that the Windows legacy combined with the shortage of Store apps makes for a less cohesive experience than with Android. Using the desktop with touch alone on a tiny screen is awkward and error-prone. The Windows operating system is more powerful but less secure, and a few false taps on an email attachment or malicious web site can compromise the device. Hmm, perhaps Microsoft should lock down the desktop side to prevent this? Ah yes, that was Windows RT.

Further, Microsoft still has work to do in making the new user experience pleasant and hassle-free, especially if you have not bought into the full platform, which in this context would include Outlook.com, Exchange or Office 365 for email rather than Google.

There is progress though. The Linx 8 is both faster and more pleasant to use than Acer’s Iconia W3, for example, an 8” Windows tablet from mid-2013 – “mediocre build quality and a frustrating OS hamper its use“ said Neil McAllister in his Reg review - and sells for a third of the price.

Seeding the app market

Microsoft created Windows 8 as an effort to carve space in the tablet market for an operating system made for keyboard and mouse. The idea was that tablet users would live mostly in the new “modern” environment, but could use the desktop when necessary. You can take that approach with the Linx 8 and it works rather well. The value for money is impressive, thanks not only to the OEM but also to Microsoft, which is giving away Windows and a year of Office on top of its usual free consumer services like OneDrive. The presumed intention is to promote the Microsoft platform and win subscribers to its cloud services.

One of the factors in the failure of Windows 8 was the high price of the tablet devices on offer when it launched in late 2012. Hardware advances together with Microsoft’s new giveaway Windows licensing for low-end devices means that the company is now competing in a new market, if competing is the right word when it makes no immediate profit from the sale. Windows 10 is now on the horizon, and seeding the app market with devices like these does make strategic sense, given that Store apps (or Universal apps) are critical to its success.

The result is a great deal for those who can make good use of Windows and Office on a tablet. Of course it is still Windows 8 with its quirks and inconsistencies, so if Android apps do all you need, a small Windows tablet will not appeal.

The Linx 8 is distributed and guaranteed in the UK by Exertis, formerly known as Micro-P.