Dell's Windows 8.1, quad-core tablet now on sale for $299
Intel's quad-core Bay Trail processor powers Dell's new 8-inch tablet -- one of the first devices up for sale with the chip.
On Friday, Dell began selling one of the first tablets with Intel's Bay Trail processor, as small Windows 8.1 devices go quad core.
The $299 Dell Venue 8 Pro can be ordered online starting Friday with an estimated shipment date of October 25.
The tablet sports a quad-core Intel Atom Z3740D "Bay Trail" processor rated at speeds of up to 1.8GHz, a 32GB flash drive, and 2GB Single Channel DDR3L-RS 1600MHz RAM.
Dell is one of the first out of the gate with a soon-to-ship tablet packing Intel's redesigned, higher-performance Atom processor.
Bay Trail offers performance that approaches Intel's lower-end mainstream Core processors and benchmarks seem to bear that out.
The Venue 8 Pro boasts an 8-inch IPS display with 1,280x800 resolution -- that's a respectable 189 pixels per inch (PPI). By comparison, the iPad Mini has a PPI of 162.
Dell also begun selling Android tablets online starting Friday. The Venue 7 starts at $149.99 with an older Intel Atom Z2560 processor, and the Venue 8 starts at $179.99 with a previous-generation Intel Z2580 Atom processor.
Finally, Dell launched sales of its XPS 15 Touch Windows 8.1 laptop with an Apple-Retina-busting optional QHD+ 3,200x1,800 15.6-inch touch display.
The 0.7-inch thick, 4.4-pound design is also equipped with Intel 4th Generation Core "Haswell" processors, Intel HD 4400 graphics, and storage ranging up to a 512GB solid-state drive.
Pricing is high, however, starting at $1,499.
Editors' note: This post was originally published on October 18, 2013 at 3:26 P.M. PDT. It has been updated with the XPS 15 Touch launch discussion.