Archos 101 XS 10.1in Android tablet review Archos has built a decent business making budget Android tablets, so I suspect the word 'merde' echoed loudly around the Igny HQ when Google pulled the rug asunder with its low Nexus 7 pricing. Archos hasn’t given up though and has now released a new device pitched as a budget alternative to the Asus Transformer Pad. Archos …
That's a shame. Its a failing of every separate bluetooth keyboard I've seen elsewhere too, and makes them essentially pointless. If you're going to carry around something that you need to unfold and put on a surface or lap to use, you might as well get a netbook. For my iPad, I've got a leather case with built in keyboard that folds round the back, so I can use it as a tablet, then switch to the keyboard mode if I need to enter lots of text, but its heavy, bulky and ugly. Its particularly a shame since they're releasing this in a rare 4:3 version. A reasonably priced 4:3 android tablet with proper fold-away keyboard would be something that might finally tempt me off of Apple. Not yet, though, sadly.
>you might as well get a netbook
I can see your point, but I just find browsing webpages on a standard netbook a PIT due to the 16:9 ratio and usually poor resolution. I have found myself wishing the display would auto-rotate 90º when I pick it up so I could read more than half a paragraph of text without scrolling.
You can always leave the keyboard in your briefcase or glovebox when you're not using it.
I'd drive to the shops this minute and buy one if it were £50 cheaper. It's not badly priced at £299 but when I can have a Galaxy Tab 2 for the same money why would I buy the Archos, certainly thats what the average punter will think. The keyboard really doesnt make it good enough for the price.
Depsite some people seeming to have mixed experiences, I've had an Archos 80 G9 for a while now and it's pretty good especially for the price, £200 at the time. Not the best built or highest spec tablet for the money but it works pretty well with the only slight fault being too little RAM.
The 101XS has got the right hardware specs, they just need to bring the price down a little to compete with the bigger brands.
And I'd get on public transport and go to the shops this minute and buy one if I knew I could install my preferred version of linux on it, even if it were £50 more expensive.
I couldn't care less about android, apps, and other bollocks - I just want a tabletty computer thingy which I can carry about which is configured just like all my other computers.
Archos have been pretty decent in the past offering an SDE (Special Developer Edition) firmware which unlocks the device and allows you to put Linux on it.
http://www.archos.com/support/support_tech/updates_dev.html?country=us&lang=en
Granted it probably isn't your preferred version of Linux but it is a start nontheless.
Thanks for the down votes, but any chance of a commentary? What in particular didn't you like about my opinion?It's a bit hard to appreciate the value of your feedback when I don't know the motivation.
If it's my price comment, I just think paying +£50 to save hours of hardware/driver research and interminable mucking about with configuration is worth the price.
There's nothing wrong with the Android onscreen keyboard except for the fact that you're typing on glass / plastic and 40% of your screen is consumed by it. Same as any tablet. You can tweak the settings and replace the default keyboard in Android if you don't like it and there are many others to choose from but it's still dead flat glass.
Physical keyboards are essential for any amount of typing. I would find typing this comment to be intolerable with the on screen keyboard. I already make enough typos and missing words without the onscreen keyboard and autocorrect bunging more in. Just having cursor keys is a blessing.
I still think that keyboard support in Android is lacking at least on the Asus Transformer I own. Apps usually just implement the default behaviour of the OS and the default behaviour leaves something to be desired. E.g. extended key actions like ctrl+shift+cursor sometimes work and sometimes they don't. No obvious reason for it but it's annoying. Some bundled apps for the Transformer like Polaris Office don't even support the key combos at all. For some reason my tablet also occasionally asks me which input device to use - in the middle of typing.
Windows RT might suck for a lot of reasons but I reckon Microsoft will nail the keyboard support and for professional use, in businesses and whatnot that may make a huge difference to the amount of sales it gets.
"Physical keyboards are essential for any amount of typing"
Did you miss the part where I said I write large documents on my iPad keyboard? I'm talking 50+ page technical manuals and proposals for customers.
"I already make enough typos and missing words without the onscreen keyboard and autocorrect bunging more in"
This just backs up what I was saying - it's not that the OSK is a problem, it's that you can't type very well.
"This just backs up what I was saying - it's not that the OSK is a problem, it's that you can't type very well."
Thanks but I can type very well on a keyboard. On a keyboard my thumb rests lightly against the long space bar. This gives me a point of reference to position my other fingers. Since my keyboard requires some travel I don't have to hold my fingers away from the buttons for fear of accidentally pushing a key I did not mean to. This combined with the feel of the keyboard (recesses, gaps, texture etc.) gives me a reasonable level of precision and speed. I still make mistakes but nowhere near as many as for a screen keyboard. I also benefit from cursor keys so I can rapidly correct errors, cut and paste sentences around and so on.
On screen keyboards suck balls regardless of the OS underneath. They're better than nothing but they're overzealous with the auto correct, far less accurate and waste a large chunk of the screen. It's no wonder that keyboard accessories are so popular and virtually essential for any amount of typing.
I find my TF101 keyboard is fine. I have not seen any strange behaviour since the ICS unpgrade.
However, I prefer to use a stylus ( the poundland one - two for a pound!) seems to work the best.
I also use Swype, which has a half-width option, which makes for easier stylus use.
Also, the Palm Graffiti also works well, if I'm feeling nostalgic.
At least, with Android, you can pick and choose the onscreen keyboard you're happiest with.
I, for one, do not like using onscreen full sized qwerty. just feels wrong...
As an aside, I'm finding the HDMI output to big screen really useful via my Transformer and our Xperia-S. Quickly transforms your Tv into a smart-ish TV!
I actually agree with you on this.
Personally, I prefer a physical keyboard - but that is because my fingers are fat and I am constantly having to correct myself on a 10" tablet.
However, on a 7" tablet, I dont have this problem.
Keyboards are an entirely personal and subjective preference, clearly noted by tablet makers who are ever increasingly offering an official keyboard add on for their devices.
'on screen' keyboards do not give any tactile feedback, thus for touch typists like me, they are useless!
I like to have a physical keyboard on both my phone (Xperia Pro) and Tablet, I'll be buying one of these.
I think tactile displays are a long way off from being main stream, that's still Sci-Fi tech at the moment.
"'on screen' keyboards do not give any tactile feedback, thus for touch typists like me, they are useless!"
And yet, for touch typists like me, they work just fine. Perhaps the one on Android is no good, but on screen keyboards are fine.
"I like to have a physical keyboard on both my phone (Xperia Pro) and Tablet, I'll be buying one of these."
You are in the tiny minority there. All the geeks used to say they "needed" a physical keyboard on their phone - now almost nobody even makes one. Nokia almost went under while pandering to this sort of nonsense feedback, and now the tablet manufacturers are following suit.
"I think tactile displays are a long way off from being main stream, that's still Sci-Fi tech at the moment."
That's because there is no demand for them apart from that generated by the companies peddling them.
I would say you were in the minority there, just a quick look on Amazon at the vertiable cornucopia of Bluetooth keyboards available for the iPad and other tablets tells me there are a few people out there who don't like typing on an OSK.
You may have enough spare time to type a 50 page document on an iPad, however the rest of us have more important things to be getting on with.
"I would say you were in the minority there, just a quick look on Amazon at the vertiable cornucopia of Bluetooth keyboards available for the iPad and other tablets tells me there are a few people out there who don't like typing on an OSK."
Just because they are available doesn't mean people buy them. Apple have sold tend of millions of iPads, and these keyboards probably sell in the tens of thousands. Even sold keyboards don't mean they are in use - I've been tempted to buy one myself, but I can't imagine when I'd use it. If I'm at home or the office I'll use a computer with keyboard. If I'm out and about then I don't want to carry a keyboard - that's the whole point of the tablet!
I've never seen an iPad user with a keyboard on a train, in a cafe or anywhere out in public. That said, I've never seen an Android tablet in use in any of the above situations either...
I've used swype and similar keyboards for a couple of years now on phones and it greatly increases my typing speed, but what I found on a 10inch tablet is the distance to move your hand around is too great and the keyboard takes up ~40% of the screen.
I would like a phone-sized floating keyboard that has swype capabilities, I'm sure that it would make typing while holding the tablet with your other hand much better, any thoughts?
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"And yet, for touch typists like me, they work just fine. Perhaps the one on Android is no good, but on screen keyboards are fine."
Ok, try using the on screen keyboard, with your eyes shut, see how you get on then? No guide keys, no feed back, this is what I have to do, well I have no choice, I can't see well enough to use the on screen ones, its why I need a 10 inch tablet, anything smaller is too small for me to use, and even then I have to root it to fiddle with the screen (dpi) to get a size that I can use.
"You are in the tiny minority there."
Yep tell me about it! disabled people usually are in the minority.
The Xperia Pro is the only keyboard (landscape) phone in the UK, but hop across the pond to the US there is 100's of them, its just the UK who fails to make/sell them, I do not understand why, if they sell well enough in the US why not here?
Some of by blind friends tried to us an Iphone for a while with their accessibly feature, but turned to either the Xperia pro or Mini Pro, there is just no substitute for a physical keyboard!
The default Android keyboard is fine, SwiftKey (with amazing prediction) and FlexT9 (with swipe input and good voice recognition) are even better.
But still a physical keyboard is, for most people, still a better option. You can decide for yourself what version of special it makes you that you do not agree.
The Asus Transformer Pad has a full size USB connector at the back of its keyboard base, which will drive wired mice and wireless mice (at least the two particular species of mice which I possess). It will also drive a USB keyboard, which is useful if you want to do lots of typing and prefer a full sized 'proper' keyboard, as I'm doing right now.
I'd be happy to have a tablet (screen only) device that had two USB connectors (probably small or micro size) so that I could use a 'proper' keyboard and mouse (via connector adaptors) when I felt the need to do so. Has any tablet manufacturer done that?
Not built in but the M009s (from Amazon, via Wendy Lou, for about £50) has a port adaptor that provides three full-sized USB ports and an ethernet port and I have had keyboard and mouse working on that. However, it is also a resistive screen and is very slow. Mine gets used just as a Kindle now, having been usurped by a 1.2GHz/Capacitive jobby.
>I'd be happy to have a tablet (screen only) device that had two USB connectors (probably small or micro size) so that I could use a 'proper' keyboard and mouse (via connector adaptors) when I felt the need to do so. Has any tablet manufacturer done that?
Yes. A fair few tablets and phones already support this... Google USB OTG. Supported by both Galaxy and Xperia phones, and probably more. You can get the cable (Male Micro USB > Female USB A) online for a couple of quid, or else see it as a test of your soldering skills: http://tech2.in.com/how-to/accessories/how-to-make-your-own-usb-otg-cable-for-an-android-smartphone/319982
(in this guide, the diagrams show a blue cable in place of the white cable you will actually find in the plug)
The front looks fine but I've never been a fan of free-folding hinges. Doesn't it look a little bit too weak to withhold any pressure if pushed against by accident? Ah well, this will please a few hundred people who are desperate for a keytab clone that does far less than a laptop. What's wrong with seperate bluetooth keyboard for occasional use..? Jees.
You can get a Transformer Infinity with double the storage for the same price. You'll need to order it from the US, but mine still arrived in 3 days so that's not exactly a big deal. The Nexus and Kindle Fire work because they're actually cheaper. Why the hell would anyone waste their money on this thing?
cuddles made the same claim in the thread about the Transformer. I challenged it. Response there was none.
I have an iPad and am on my third google phone, this time a Samsung Note
I have done a lot of serious work on the iPad, but being used to keys with a lot of travel, my initial work featured me hammering the screen until my hands got sore, so adopt a lighter touch. All in all though, I got a bluetootch keyboard and am retirning the iPad as a writing devicce for a second hand Acet 3690 that I just bought a replacement battery for.
Google keyboards are no worse than the Apple one, some incarnations are better. I wish I could use the IAWriter keyboard with the rest fo the Apple apps, but no dice. It's typing on screeen that bothers me about tablets, which is why I was waiting fo rthe ASus Transform and Slider. I wish I had been a bit more patient
if only that clam shell designer bloke was able to get his designs light enough so that they could be carried around. we could have screens with attached keyboards, we could even perch them on top of our laps. Great Scott we can call them laptops, quick to the patent office!
Want a lightweight media/browser machine = tablet
Need more power/flexibility = laptop
Both together is a bit like buying a trike all the disadvantages of a motorcycle with none of the benefits of a car
..that the makers of most, if not all, of these ruddy Tablets are NOT explicit as to WHAT Wi-Fi Channels they will accept?
I do NOT want to waste my do$h AGAIN on a Tablet that has restricted Wi-Fi channels - probably due to Yankee Hegemony - as I will want to use it in Japan - which has Channels 12 *&* 13 !!
I can be cut off from a valid channel there because my Tablet of the moment [TF101] is totally incapable of even "seeing" such channels!
Whilst router makers can usually be found to specify WHICH channels they cover, it is a downright disgrace that Tablet makers are so conniving as to fail to even mention the channel range in their specifications.
I found out "the hard way" when I set one of my routers to Channel 13, and it couldn't be seen by my Asus TF101, nor by my IBM (Hegemony strikes again) more ancient T60p's.
However, my Lenovo S10-2's cover ALL the 2.4Ghz band - no problem at all.
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