Introduction and design
You could be forgiven for not having heard of Schenker Technologies, since until now, the company has been better known in its native Germany. But you might have heard of high-end gaming laptops sold in the UK under the name XMG, which is a subdivision of Schenker.
The company therefore knows how to build mobile PC hardware, but has taken this expertise in a slightly different direction with the Element 10.1 tablet, which is powered by Intel's Bay Trail hardware platform, and runs the 32-bit version of full Windows 8.1, rather than the less useful Windows RT. Just like Microsoft's Surface Pro 2 tablet, it can be used in both tablet-friendly Modern UI and legacy desktop modes, and run any Windows software.
As with Acer's Aspire Switch, but unlike XMG laptops, the Element won't make a hefty dent in your wallet. It costs £239 (around US$400, AU$430) for the 32GB version, less than an iPad Mini, Samsung Galaxy Tab S, or either variant of Microsoft's Surface 2. That's excellent value, especially if you have a strong desire to use desktop PC software on your tablet, which isn't possible with the aforementioned Android, iOS or Windows RT offerings. Schenker bundles a 12-month Office 365 subscription in the box too.
Dock option
It just about fits into the hybrid tablet category, since it can be ordered with a dock (which costs £39, around US$65, AU$70) with a trackpad at the front and physical keyboard. Although the tablet and dock snap together with magnets, this dock isn't like the one on Acer's Aspire Switch, since it also has a thin cover that wraps around the back, covered in a micro-fibre material, which seals shut. Paying homage to the art of origami, the cover also neatly folds backwards into the shape of a sturdy but rigid stand for the tablet.
The connection between the two isn't especially strong. With the stand folded back the tablet sits in place fine, in the correct position for typing, but a fairly light tug disconnects them.
The Element's design has a glossy black bezel surrounding the 10.1-inch display, and a rubber coating on the back. The isolated-style keyboard is reasonable, although as with all keyboards of this size, people with Hodor-like fingers will find it a tad on the small side. Volume controls are unusually positioned at the top, with the power button at the side. There are 2 megapixel cameras at the front and back.
Sipping power
On the inside, the Element is no supercomputer. Rather than laptop-like performance, Bay Trail was designed with low power consumption and heat output in mind, to maximise battery life, which has been the Achilles heel for Intel processors, an issue that has so far pushed them out of the market for smartphones and tablets.
A 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z3740D processor drives the system, with 2GB of DDR3 memory. You can have either 32GB or 64GB of internal storage, expandable with a microSD card slot on the side. 3G is present on the £299 (around US$500, AU$535) 64GB model, and there are both Micro-HDMI and Mini-USB ports for connectivity. The dock doesn't have any additional USB ports, but Schenker has popped a pair of cables into the box that convert full-sized HDMI and USB to their Mini and Micro versions.
The screen has a fairly paltry resolution of 1280 x 800, which is nothing special in the face of high-DPI displays on the iPad and top-of-the-range Android tablets. But as I've found before, the Windows 8 desktop does not always play nicely on smaller screens at super-high resolutions when using certain software, even with the DPI setting increased, so a low-resolution screen is acceptable on Windows tablets, especially at this price.
Performance
Of the 2GB of memory which is on board, only 1.46GB is available for the system. That's really pushing it, given that 4GB is really the minimum for guaranteed smooth performance in all aspects of Windows from Vista onward. But scrolling is perfectly smooth in the Modern UI interface. It's with desktop software you'll notice the lack of memory, restricting the Element to more lightweight tasks.
There are really three separate products under scrutiny with low-priced Windows 8.1 tablets – the product itself, the software and the hardware platform. As with iOS and Android, Windows has both its fans and detractors. Windows 8 has been criticised for shoehorning a tablet OS onto desktop PCs, but it works well here, on a super-affordable tablet, especially when that tablet can run desktop software too.
Not all desktop software, mind. The low price is a giveaway that this is not a system for high-end computing tasks. That's the main difference between the Surface Pro and these types of tablet – the Surface Pro (especially the third iteration) has enough horsepower to replace a laptop, happily running all desktop software, and even games. But Bay Trail tablets are very much a secondary device, certainly not powerful enough to be a true replacement for your full computing environment.
Sluggish results
The benchmark results confirm this, since in the case of the Element 10.1, performance is really bad. Watching the tests take forever to complete was a painful experience. Cinebench 11.5 yielded a CPU score of 0.9, lower than other Bay Trail tablets, with 3.39 in the OpenGL test, which is half the score achieved by Acer's Aspire Switch tablet.
3DMark was painful to watch. The Fire Strike test refused to run at all, then the rest of the scores were pitifully low. 216 in the Sky Diver test is half that achieved by Acer's Aspire Switch. The Ice Storm test was only 8,873, when even cheap laptops can achieve five figures.
After those two tests, I wasn't expecting much from PCMark08, and as expected, the score was really low – just 970, half what you get from a typical mid-range laptop, and a third less than Acer's Aspire Switch.
Not all bad news
The dire performance results are at least boosted by reasonable battery life figures. PCMark 08 reported a battery life of five hours six minutes, which really points to Schenker maximising both efficiency and affordability over high performance.
Despite the dismal performance, which I was somewhat expecting, the Schenker Element is a decent tablet. It's not as fast as other Bay Trail Windows 8.1 offerings, but for the particularly low price, its real value comes from the ability to run basic desktop software, rather than for the experience of the Modern UI alone.
Modern UI on Windows 8.1 is far better than it was when Windows 8 launched. But unfortunately, problems remain, such as a lack of real quality apps in the Windows Store. The iPad has a massive advantage in this area – developers seem to put most effort into the iOS versions of their apps.
This is less of a problem with a tablet that runs desktop software as well. There are dozens of applications which work far better on a desktop than any tablet. No mobile app is better for IRC then mIRC on Windows, and I've yet to find any iPad or Android app that beats desktop software for coding. A lightweight editor should run just fine on the Element, as long as it's used with the dock.
These two niche examples will most appeal to experts who likely know their way around Windows, rather than novice users, but there are other examples. You can run any desktop browser you like, and have a better choice of email clients. And here is where the Element is most useful, as a secondary device for people who want more flexibility than an iPad or Android tablet, but don't want to shell out for a Surface Pro.
Verdict
We liked
The Element 10.1 looks really good. Its glossy black bezel and rubberised rear panel are better than the typical design on cheaper Android tablets, and it feels great to hold.
Likewise, although the screen isn't particularly high resolution, it's bright and colourful, and responds to touch gestures within the Modern UI fluidly.
It's also great that the Element 10.1 runs full Windows 8.1, so all your favourite desktop apps can be installed. Whether they will run well is a different question though.
The battery life is also pretty good, perhaps not the longest of any portable device, but it's perfectly reasonable to expect the Element 10.1 to go for longer than five hours, which is better than previous generations of Windows tablets.
Finally, the pricing is more than competitive. An RRP of £239 (around US$400, AU$430) should send shivers up the spine of competing firms, since this tablet competes with every aspect of their offerings, with the bonus of running desktop Windows software as well.
We disliked
Compared with most laptops and even other Bay Trail tablets, the Schenker Element 10.1 is a poor performer. It may run desktop software, but the CPU and graphics performance is too low to expect it to be a full laptop replacement, as Microsoft's Surface is.
The dock isn't the best I've ever used – its weak magnets meant it kept falling off – and the trackpad and keyboard are portable, but not especially comfortable.
Final verdict
It's tough to decide my final thoughts about the Element 10.1, a sure-fire sign I wasn't entirely blown away by it. Although the dock connection could be stronger, the tablet is well built. Performance was really low, but it will work fine for basic tasks such as email and videoconferencing, as well as lightweight x86 software.
Windows tablets have improved in leaps and bounds since the first devices, as Intel's Bay Trail platform has made a big difference to battery life, and Windows 8.1 is now much improved.
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