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Dell's Surface Pro 2 rival appears at Microsoft Store

The Microsoft Store is selling a high-end Dell Venue 11 Pro tablet that competes with the Surface Pro 2.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers
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Dell Venue 11 Pro with optional keyboard.
Dell Venue 11 Pro with optional keyboard. Brooke Crothers

The Microsoft store has begun selling an Intel Core i5-based Dell tablet that competes with the Surface Pro 2.

Microsoft has added an Intel Core i5 4210Y-based Venue 11 Pro to its lineup of Dell tablets, which already includes an Atom-based Venue 11 Pro and the Venue 8 Pro.

The i5-based Venue 11 Pro differs from the Intel "Bay Trail" Atom model in some important respects, performance and price being the most salient. The Core i5 variant is faster and more expensive than its Atom counterpart. The i5 model is priced at $899, compared with $499 for the Atom-based model.

That gets you a 128GB solid-state drive (SSD) and 4GB of RAM. The $499 Venue comes with 64GB of storage and 2GB of RAM.

Comparing the Venue 11 to the Surface Pro 2, for $899, the Surface Pro comes with only a 64GB SSD. Bump the Surface up to 128GB like the Venue, and it jumps to $999.

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The Surface does come, however, with a faster 1.9GHz Core i5 4300U processor.

Other specs for the i5 Venue 11 Pro include a weight of about 1.75 pounds (the Surface Pro 2 weighs in at 2 pounds) and a chassis that is slightly thicker than the Atom-based Venue but thinner, at 0.48 inches, than the Surface Pro 2 (0.53-inches).

Both Venue 11 models have a 10.8-inch 1,920x1,080 display, which is the same resolution as the Surface Pro 2 but with a slightly larger display (the Surface as a 10.6-inch display).

The i5 Venue 11 Pro has been available at Dell's online store since last year but the estimated ship date, as of Wednesday, is February 14.

Dell Venue 11 Pro i5-7130BK :

  • Processor: Intel Core i5-4210Y 1.50GHz
  • Storage: 128GB SSD
  • RAM: 4GB
  • Display: 10.8-inch IPS (1,920x1,080)
  • Media drive: Micro SD card reader
  • Ports: 1 USB 3.0, Mini HDMI
  • Weight: 1.75 pounds
  • OS: Windows 8.1 64-bit
  • Price: $899


Microsoft Surface Pro 2:

  • Processor: Core i5 4300U, 1.9GHz
  • Storage: 64GB SSD
  • RAM: 4GB
  • Display: 10.6-inch (1,920x1,080)
  • Media drive: Micro SD card reader
  • Ports: 1 USB 3.0, Mini DisplayPort
  • Weight: 2.0 pounds
  • OS: Windows 8.1 64-bit
  • Price: $899


See video here of optional Dell Venue 11 Pro keyboard.