This year we have seen prices of Windows tablets drop and drop as Microsoft push lower spec devices and lower licence costs so OEMs can make tablets that can compete with cheap Android tablets. One of the low cost tablets recent released comes in at just £79. The Linx 7 is a 7 inch Windows tablet running Windows 8.1 with Bing and has 1GB RAM, powered by an Intel Atom processor comes with a year’s Office 365. It all sounds great for £79 but how well does it actually work?
The first thing you notice about the Linx 7 is how well it fits in the hand, it has a smaller bezel then my other 7 inch tablet (Nexus 7) and is thinner, it’s a little thicker than an iPad Mini but not that much and is very combatable to hold as there are no hard edges. It is also lighter than my other tablets, in fact it feels more like a large phone and I like design. It doesn’t feel like a premium device like an iPad but it doesn’t feel cheap like many of the low cost Android tablets I have played with. On the top of the tablet is a MicroHDMI port, MicroUSB port (with adapter included), MicroSD card slot, headphone port and for some strange reason a Windows key up on the top. I am used to having the Windows key just below the screen and keep going to that location to press the Windows key, reaching up to the top for the key seems totally unnatural and very annoying. Other hardware buttons are a power button (just to the right of the Windows key) and a volume rocker. Apart from the Windows key placement I really like the form factor.
The Linx 7 has an Intel Atom quad core processor running at 1.33GHz and has just 1GB of RAM. I have used Toshiba’s Encore 8 tablet with has 2GB and I was expecting Windows to run very sluggish with 1GB but it’s actually not too bad, Windows responds very well with it. With a device like this you are not going to be installing Photoshop or Visual Studio on it, you are going to be install Windows Store apps so I tried Plex, Netflix, Twitter, Flipboard and Facebook apps and they all worked very well without any lags or slowdowns. I also tried a couple of games including FIFA 15:UT which ran fine and probably better than it runs on my Surface 2.
The screen is an 800×1280 IPS screen and very clear, it’s not as vibrant as my Encore 8 or iPad and it is a bit of a finger print magnet but perfectly useable.
Where you do notice the low cost is with the battery performance, Linx quote 4 to 5 hours battery life and I found using the tablet for the Windows app and a = dose of FIFA I got around 4 hours between charges, I guess if you just used it for light weight apps you would get better battery life and as it supports connected standby it shouldn’t lose much charge while idle but I have found the battery dropping off while not in use. As it has an Intel processor are not restricted to apps from the Windows Store, you can install what you want on it. So you could install Google Chrome or iTunes but they are not going to be that fast and I plan to keep it clean and stick to using the store apps.
The Linx comes with 32GB SSD and uses the new compressed installation of Windows introduced with Windows 8.1 Update so it gives you a little more space to play with. For example my Encore 8’s Windows folder is 9.42GB and 9.35GB on the disk whereas the Linx Windows folder is 9.89GB and 6.96 on the disk. After installing Office and some Windows app (including 3DMark and FIFA) I had 12.7GB left and with the option of adding an SD card.
Other features include 2MP front and rear cameras which would be fine for using with Skype or taking the odd picture. Actually you won’t look to silly taking a picture with the Linx due to its small(ish) size.
The other big feature with the Linx is a year’s Office 365 Personal subscription. This normally costs £60 a year and enables you to install Office on 1 PC or Mac and 1 tablet, so you can use it to install Office on the Linx (which you can easily install from the Office 365 website). Office 365 also gives you unlimited storage with OneDrive professional and 60 minutes per month of Skype to phone calling. Office actually works pretty well on the Linx, a 7 inch screen is not ideal for the creating Word documents or Powerpoint but its fine for viewing a document or amending a document in an emergency so it’s worth installing.
So does £79 really get you a useable Windows tablet? Well as ever it depends on what you want to do with it. If you want to use it to browse the web, catch up on Facebook, read email and use it as a media player it is a good device. The battery life could be an issue, it is certainly not an all-day device but for the occasional use it would be fine. My biggest issue with it is the placement of the Windows button, I can’t get used to it on the top edge. Overall I like the Linx considering its price and a year’s Office 365 subscription, it would be great for occasional use or as a kid’s first tablet. If you want to use it for long periods of time or you need a bigger screen you are going to have to look for something else. The tablet is available for £79 from ebuyer.co.uk.
Here is my video review and check out my new video showing the Linx 7 running Minecraft, games and more.
10 thoughts on “Linx 7 inch Windows tablet review, how good is a £79 Windows tablet?”
Great review Ian. My only problem with this tablet is the battery life; an hour of downloading and trying out games last night took the battery down to almost 40%. Oh, and I *have* installed Visual Studio (2013) on it and it doesn’t actually run too bad!
What’s with moronic statements about NOT installing things like Photoshop or Visual Studio- I see this exact same dribble with most reviews for the new Win8 Baytrail tablets.
Get a clue, Dixon. This tablet has specs as good as a GOOD desktop or laptop PC from only a handful of years back. As a result, using an older version of Photoshop or an older version of Visual Studio would run like smoke on this device. Please spare me the dribble about ‘old’ versions being ‘out-of-date’ and ‘useless’. Proper Windows programs reached excellent maturity long before the PC hardware had reached the standard of Baytrail (CPU, GPU and RAM), and each of these programs is VASTLY more powerful and useful than the best-of-class of similar apps on Android or iOS.
Run Mafia2, for instance, on this tablet, and its makes a joke of ANY game available for iOS or Android. Yet Mafia 2 will be available for pennies, given its age.
As Baytrail and better tablets appear in the Wintel space (incluidng, hopefully, devices built with AMD APUs), there will be a renaissance of the use of older PC titles that were designed for PCs with only 2 or 1 CPU cores, <1GB or RAM, and far less GPU functionality.
Better, coders will again begin to create EFFICIENT Windows code, not bloated .Net rubbish that wastes 90%+ of the resources of a modern PC, in order to assist Microsoft and Intel sell 'upgrades' to people every two years or so.
PS is there a reason you failed to point out that this 'tablet' can be connected to a real monitor, real keyboard and real mouse, and therefore transform itself into a perfectly good desktop system? No Android or IOS tablet in existence can do this.
PS a few years back I completely assumed Google, Android and ARM would finally bring down the House of Wintel – I'm a fan of the best solution, not any particular 'brand'. But Google, once again, has proven its vicious incompetence in any field beyond search, ads and assisting the NSA to develop full surveillance hardware and software. These Baytrail tablets revolutionise the entire set of tablet possibilities, simply by removing the synthetic control Google and Apple hold over app-space.
So just to clear, this thing is running full fat Windows 8.1. So theoretically I could install Steam on it, plug in my Xbox controller adaptor then stream games to it via my desktop? Can anyone think of a reason this couldn’t happen?
It can happen, there is also a list of games supported by the Dell Venues, which are almost identical hardware wise. Google around and you will see there are a ton of games that work perfectly fine.
You would install the games like on a desktop though, I don’t know what you mean by stream them
I also purchased one of these and am equally impressed. I echo the sentiments about battery life being a bit disappointing, but as it can be charged over USB that’s not too much of an issue. Good to have the HDMI out and the micro SD slot too.
Wireless is n only & drops 2 meters away from an AP. OTG USB is charge OR data at any time (less then helpful – use keyboard or have it on main, but NOT both!!!). Windows 8.1 is unusable as tablet OS (it behaves best with mouse/keyboard), on-screen keyboard is far cry from iPad one.
I’m using Win 8.1 in an 8 inch Lynx tablet and the OS is fine – please enlighten us about any problems you’ve experienced? The on-screen keyboard is as good as any smart phone keyboard I’ve used (is the iPad keyboard worth another £400?) and the general performance is distinctly ‘peppy’. In short, while agreeing with the other comments re. battery life, I’m very happy with this purchase (£79 in August 2015).
8 inch tables is NOT the same as 7 inch tablet. I did comment on the one that review is for. You have different hardware, hence the opinion will be different!
Thanks for the review, but there is something that everyone in the other reviews are missing as well: connecting this tablet to an external monitor via HDMI
That’s what I’m trying to find and I can’t find anywhere!
I have s linx 7 tablet and even though I had a 32gb micro sdhc card inserted but found I soon ran out of memory space. I am planning to purchase a 64gb or even slightly bigger memory card, so please advise whether these are compatible with my tablet.
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Great review Ian. My only problem with this tablet is the battery life; an hour of downloading and trying out games last night took the battery down to almost 40%. Oh, and I *have* installed Visual Studio (2013) on it and it doesn’t actually run too bad!
What’s with moronic statements about NOT installing things like Photoshop or Visual Studio- I see this exact same dribble with most reviews for the new Win8 Baytrail tablets.
Get a clue, Dixon. This tablet has specs as good as a GOOD desktop or laptop PC from only a handful of years back. As a result, using an older version of Photoshop or an older version of Visual Studio would run like smoke on this device. Please spare me the dribble about ‘old’ versions being ‘out-of-date’ and ‘useless’. Proper Windows programs reached excellent maturity long before the PC hardware had reached the standard of Baytrail (CPU, GPU and RAM), and each of these programs is VASTLY more powerful and useful than the best-of-class of similar apps on Android or iOS.
Run Mafia2, for instance, on this tablet, and its makes a joke of ANY game available for iOS or Android. Yet Mafia 2 will be available for pennies, given its age.
As Baytrail and better tablets appear in the Wintel space (incluidng, hopefully, devices built with AMD APUs), there will be a renaissance of the use of older PC titles that were designed for PCs with only 2 or 1 CPU cores, <1GB or RAM, and far less GPU functionality.
Better, coders will again begin to create EFFICIENT Windows code, not bloated .Net rubbish that wastes 90%+ of the resources of a modern PC, in order to assist Microsoft and Intel sell 'upgrades' to people every two years or so.
PS is there a reason you failed to point out that this 'tablet' can be connected to a real monitor, real keyboard and real mouse, and therefore transform itself into a perfectly good desktop system? No Android or IOS tablet in existence can do this.
PS a few years back I completely assumed Google, Android and ARM would finally bring down the House of Wintel – I'm a fan of the best solution, not any particular 'brand'. But Google, once again, has proven its vicious incompetence in any field beyond search, ads and assisting the NSA to develop full surveillance hardware and software. These Baytrail tablets revolutionise the entire set of tablet possibilities, simply by removing the synthetic control Google and Apple hold over app-space.
Why did Wintel win in the first place?
So just to clear, this thing is running full fat Windows 8.1. So theoretically I could install Steam on it, plug in my Xbox controller adaptor then stream games to it via my desktop? Can anyone think of a reason this couldn’t happen?
It can happen, there is also a list of games supported by the Dell Venues, which are almost identical hardware wise. Google around and you will see there are a ton of games that work perfectly fine.
You would install the games like on a desktop though, I don’t know what you mean by stream them
I also purchased one of these and am equally impressed. I echo the sentiments about battery life being a bit disappointing, but as it can be charged over USB that’s not too much of an issue. Good to have the HDMI out and the micro SD slot too.
Wireless is n only & drops 2 meters away from an AP. OTG USB is charge OR data at any time (less then helpful – use keyboard or have it on main, but NOT both!!!). Windows 8.1 is unusable as tablet OS (it behaves best with mouse/keyboard), on-screen keyboard is far cry from iPad one.
I’m using Win 8.1 in an 8 inch Lynx tablet and the OS is fine – please enlighten us about any problems you’ve experienced? The on-screen keyboard is as good as any smart phone keyboard I’ve used (is the iPad keyboard worth another £400?) and the general performance is distinctly ‘peppy’. In short, while agreeing with the other comments re. battery life, I’m very happy with this purchase (£79 in August 2015).
8 inch tables is NOT the same as 7 inch tablet. I did comment on the one that review is for. You have different hardware, hence the opinion will be different!
Thanks for the review, but there is something that everyone in the other reviews are missing as well: connecting this tablet to an external monitor via HDMI
That’s what I’m trying to find and I can’t find anywhere!
I have s linx 7 tablet and even though I had a 32gb micro sdhc card inserted but found I soon ran out of memory space. I am planning to purchase a 64gb or even slightly bigger memory card, so please advise whether these are compatible with my tablet.
MM