Oh no! All is not Peachy in ASUS Tablet Land

As noted yesterday, I ordered a shiny new ASUS VivoTab Note 8 Windows tablet, which includes a Wacom stylus. A first for the small form factor Windows tablet. I have had an obsession with handwriting to text devices ever since I mastered Graffitti with my Palm Pilots (my accuracy was near perfect) in the 90s. So it’s safe to say that the Wacom stylus is the killer feature for me.

Well, while checking the shipping status for my new toy every few minutes today I decided to browse for any new reviews of the VivoTab Note, still wondering why there hasn’t been any big news about its availability. I ran across an article at Softpedia where several users are having an issue with their Wacom stylus failing to work after a short period of time. Frustrated VivoTab Note owners have resorted to reloading drivers, installing firmware updates provided by ASUS, and even refreshing Windows 8 (which appears to work for a short period). One user tried an older Acer stylus and it seems to work fine, almost better than the Wacom stylus provided with the VivoTab Note, which is designed to stow away within the bezel. So hopefully, but unfortunately, this problem is related to the stylus and not an issue with the screen or something else that may be unfixable. Guess I will find out for myself on Monday (my new baby just left Edison, NJ, heading South). Now I think we know why the launch of this tablet has been guarded.

To be safe I ordered a Wacom Bamboo Feel stylus (the same one used with the Surface 2) as a backup. I was planning on getting a spare stylus anyway so it’s not that big a deal. Once I have had a chance to test it with the VivoTab Note I will be sure to share my impressions.

Ah, the joys of being the first on the block with something new.

You can read the full Softpedia article & comments here.