Dell advertises a bundle with both the Venue 7 and 8 that includes a Targus brand stylus. Dell sells it separately or you can get one through Amazon or at Staples or Office Depot.

Thank you for your reply!  When I ordered the Venue 8 I ordered the whole package with the stylus and the 32gb memory card.  It shipped as the tablet only and when I called Dell I was told that their is no such package!  Guess they can't read their own website ads.  If you look up the stylus on the Dell site, it says for Windows only.  Why?  I guess I don't understand the stylus operation or something.  Should any stylus work with an Andriod tablet?  Does a stylus need a driver to work?  Again, I guess I don't understand.

Tom

A stylus is nothing more than a substitute for your finger when tapping on the screen. Should work with any capacitive device including smartphones.

Their bundle that you describe is still on the website. I ordered the one they had with just the tablet and the 32GB card on a Cyber Monday deal. The card came about 3 days later than the tablet. Just fyi - I ordered the stylus separately in the same order and when I went to do the final checkout it had disappeared. I don't know what that's all about. But I intend to pick one up at the store either today or tomorrow.

Thanks for the info, 45!  Which stylus are you going to purchase?  Interested in doing this right the first time and not get stuck with a problem.  Let us know how it works.

Tom

The reason that the stylus is advertised as a Windows only product is that is has several "active" features that enable it to work with the Windows 8 OS. I used a similar stylus with an electronic work pad while working with AutoCAD. An active stylus will react to how much pressure you use, allowing you to control the thickness of the line that you are drawing, just like a regular ink pen.  This is very useful if you are using a drawing/graphic arts program, an editing program like Photoshop or for using a natural writing program like OneTouch or Papyrus.

I believe the Dell Active Stylus also has an auto detect feature so that your tablet knows when you are using the stylus vs your finger as well as the stylus' relative location to the tablet, helping to make sure that the tip lands in the right spot. Some programs might even open option windows when the stylus is in use.   It also should have a button or two on the side to allow for basic "click" funtionality for function access like changing from writing to highlighting, erasing or other similar actions, etc, on the fly. Another "active vs passive' benefit is that the stylus should have an internal sensor that helps to prevent random clicks and/or accidental lines when drawing or writing by turning on Palm Block which allows your hand or wrist to rest on the screen while writing or drawing but only registering what the tip of the stylus is doing. Usually runs on a small watch type battery or AAA if not rechargeable. (Sorry, I skimmed the basic description and got the basics while ordering a case for my Venue 8 today but did not delve that deep and decided to pick up a less expensive regular, not  active, stylus on  Amazon  since my tablet is not a Windows device and won't use most of the feature set of the Active Stylus) Sales rep said-Dell part #750-AADH is compatible with the Venue 8 and 8 Pro.

FunctionFunction (mathematics), an abstract entity that associates an input to a corresponding output according to some rule →

Thanks you Mazer!  That is what I learned from a buddy of mine who has a Windows Surface tablet.  The Venue has no need for the active stylus.

Tom