DailyTech - Archos 101 XS Tablet Looks Great, But Suffers From Quality Issues

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Gadgets Archos 101 XS Tablet Looks Great, But Suffers From Quality Issues
Jason Mick (Blog) - August 22, 2012 5:01 PM

15 comment(s) - last by Tony Swash.. on Aug 23 at 1:30 PM

(Source: Archos)

New tablet is almost as thin and light as a Transformer Prime

Priced at $400 USD, the keyboard-equipped Android 4.0.4 ("Ice Cream Sandwich") powered Archos 101 XS presents an intriguing option for buyers who might be unwilling to pay the extra for a Transformer Prime (going price on Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN): $490, plus $150 for the keyboard/dock) and who want a bigger tablet than the only tablet to currently pack Android 4.1 JellyBean, ASUTek Computer Inc. (TPE:2357) and Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Nexus 7.

France-based Archos S.A. (EPA:JXR) has been making Android tablets for some time now, but most of them have had the cheap look and feel of the Chinese clones that you'll find literring Amazon. The new tablet changes that in a big way.

Reviewers at both Engadget and The Verge were drooling over the tablet's crisp white finish, thin (0.31-inch without keyboard; 0.51-inch with keyboard) profile, and slick CoverPad. Very similar to the cover/keyboard in Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) upcoming Surface, the CoverPad offers both a magnet cover and a keyboard that's easier to install than the Transformer/Transformer Prime's sliding mechanism, according tot he sites (although Engadget criticized the cramped keyboard).

_{(click to enlarge) [Image Source: Archos]}

The device comes with:

1280x800 5-finger multitouch display
1.5 GHz dual-core OMAP 4470 from Texas Instruments, Inc. (TXN)
1 GB DRAM
16 GB NAND flash memory (internal)
microSD expansion (up to 64 GB)
720p front-facing camera
mini HDMI
USB 2.0 via proprietary connector
6,800 mAh battery
Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.0
Mono speaker
OfficeSuite Pro.

Both sites praised the overall look and price of device, but then quickly turned to attacking its build quality which had some issues. Both sites blasted the camera as "kind of terrible", to quote one of the reviews.

The reports varied slightly on some of the other features -- while both agreed that the screen's lower resolution was a byproduct of the bargain pricing, The Verge reported serious temporary black spot issues, which the Endgadget review did not, inidicating that the former perhaps received a unit with a faulty display. The Verge took issue with the tinny-sounding speaker, while Engadget criticized the short (5.5 hours during intense video playback) battery life.

_{(click to enlarge) [Image Source: Archos]}

If Archos can clean up the quality issues in some of the initial units, it could have a winner on its hands, despite the inherent downsides of this budget-crafted design.

A step up from a bare-bones tablet like the Kindle Fire (from Amazon), the Archos will compete most directly with Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd.'s (KSC:005930) Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 ($400 USD) and the ASUSTek Transformer Pad TF300 ($379 USD). The latter has a quad-core processor, while the former has a much better battery life -- nearly twice the life of the Archos design.

_{(click to enlarge) [Image Source: Archos]}

In other words, Archos' biggest asset is its keyboard and its looks, but it's not the only bargain out there, and its hardware is not the best either at this price point, though not that bad either.

Sources: Archos, Engadget, The Verge

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A dead parrot

By Tony Swash on 8/22/12, Rating: -1

RE: A dead parrot

By amanojaku on 8/22/2012 7:00:57 PM , Rating: 2

I'm going to be rated down for being a grammar Nazi, but I just can't let this slide any more. Apple IS a singular entity, and would would trembling in ITS boots. I don't expect you to be objective when Apple is the subject, but at least use the English language correctly.

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RE: A dead parrot

By amanojaku on 8/22/2012 7:08:15 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
Apple IS a singular entity, and would would trembling in ITS boots.

I should should use the English language correctly, as well. ;-)

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RE: A dead parrot

By AMDftw on 8/23/2012 7:38:13 AM , Rating: 2

I see what you did there :P

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RE: A dead parrot

By foolsgambit11 on 8/22/2012 7:15:37 PM , Rating: 2

I think you can get away with Apple "are". For instance, Rolling Stone's editorial policy is to use the plural with bands - "Green Day are a terrible band" (not really a quote from them, but you get the point). Of course, if you go in for the whole "corporations are people" argument, maybe you should limit yourself to the singular when talking about Apple.

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RE: A dead parrot

By amanojaku on 8/22/2012 8:00:03 PM , Rating: 2

I believe Tony is British, and it is more common for British English to use plural verbs with group nouns. However, the key here is the fact that Apple is not a conglomerate.

For example, Sony, WERE famous for the movie, music and video game business units being at odds with the electronics business unit. I think it was because the media units felt the electronics unit didn't do enough to stop piracy. They all fell under the Sony umbrella, but they had different management structures, and probably still do. I haven't worked there in about 10 years, so I don't know what goes on there any more.

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RE: A dead parrot

By Tony Swash on 8/22/12, Rating: -1

RE: A dead parrot

By amanojaku on 8/22/2012 8:09:10 PM , Rating: 2

It's about as rewarding as discussing Apple vs. everyone else, as you always do.

But, why not?

quote:
Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10.1 is thinner than the new iPad and not a nightmare to fix

See, Apple (AAPL)? It is possible to make a super-thin tablet that can be repaired by mere mortals after all. The repair gurus iFixit have torn down the Samsung (005930) Galaxy Note 10.1 and have found that the device is not only thinner than the Apple iPad but also vastly easier to repair. Unlike the newest iPad, which scored a dismal 2 out of 10 on iFixit’s repairability scale, the Note 10.1 scored a strong 8 out of 10 and iFixit in particular praised the tablet for using only Phillips screws and for not using complicated ribbon cables that hinder repairers’ efforts to replace parts. iFixit says that the Note 10.1 was able to retain its repairability despite packing a quad-core processor and 32GB of internal storage into a frame that measures just 8.9 millimeters thin.

http://news.yahoo.com/ifixit-samsung-galaxy-note-1...
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Samsung-Galaxy-Note...

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RE: A dead parrot

By Tony Swash on 8/23/2012 5:59:36 AM , Rating: 1

Spec lists are meaningless on their own.

What does Ron Amadeo at Android Police ("Looking At All Things Android") have to say? Well the article's title gives a clue "Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 Review: An Embarrassing, Lazy, Arrogant Money Grab"

http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/08/21/samsung-ga...

A few takeway quotes from his article:

quote:
On paper, it all sounds very good. Reality, however, is an entirely different story. It's not enough to just have a good idea, you have to actually make it real, you need to build it.

quote:
If you've read some of the early reviews floating around out there, you've probably heard mixed things about the performance. Out of the box, this thing runs like crap. I mean it. I'm talking slower than a Xoom.

Perhaps the bundled apps save the day - noooooo

quote:
So, did you catch the theme here? This idea, and even the execution, is great, the problem is all these apps suck. Most of this is just useless. A clock app with no timer or stopwatch, an email app that can't look at emails, a redundant music app that takes up half the screen, a note app that doesn't respect data - this isn't well thought out.

For the sake of brevity I will skip the very detailed stuff - worth a look though as it made me laugh out loud - and jump to his conclusions.

quote:
On the software side: Samsung desperately wants to develop the next version of Android themselves, but they lack the technical ability, vision, ecosystem support, and design chops to make it happen. They want to add features, and maybe even have a good idea or two, but they just can't execute those ideas in a way that makes them good.

You see the sort of trouble Samsung gets into when they stop copying Apple?

quote:
Floating apps have got to be the most frustrating thing in the world for Samsung. You try for years to differentiate yourselves with Android. You finally come up with a good idea, and you build it, and it works, and the UI is even almost-good, but it still doesn't matter because you don't control the right parts of Android to innovate in any meaningful ways.

But dammit - Android is open!! Or maybe gaping. Perhaps yawning.

Finally here is the the last sentence.

quote:
The overall impression I get from this is arrogance. "We're Samsung. You slobs will buy anything we crap out. We don't have to try, we don't even need the latest components. You'll buy it no matter what."

So there you have it the Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10.1 is crap, it's a thin piece of crap, but still crap. It will sell in pathetic numbers, there will be many returns from dissatisfied customers, many will regret buying this awful piece of shite, and most will move on to an iPad for their next tablet purchase.

What about the android tablet which is the the subject of this DT article?

Another piece of Android crap.

In the article pithily entitled "Archos Gen10: Tablet Productivity Done Wrong", it is summarised as a 'Standout Fail"

http://mashable.com/2012/08/22/archos-gen10-review...

There is no tablet market, there is a just a huge iPad market and a few other brands scrambling for a few crumbs. The Nexus will die out after the iPad mini (of whatever it is called ) arrives in a couple of weeks, same with the Kindle although Amazons ecosystem will keep its lungs pumping. The Surface family of devices will never get any significant traction in the market though it might initially have modest sales to the brain dead corporate IT dimwits but as Microsoft is killing that market with their risible and useless desktop version of Windows 8, that won't mean much in the long term.

The iPad market in the next year will grow strongly.

Life is, indeed, very good.

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RE: A dead parrot

By tamalero on 8/23/2012 11:21:40 AM , Rating: 2

so.. relying on moving goalposts now tony?

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RE: A dead parrot

By momorere on 8/22/2012 9:23:38 PM , Rating: 2

I'm suprised that crApple hasn't sued you guys yet claiming that they "invented" the english language as they invented EVERYTHING else and use the language as well.

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RE: A dead parrot

By Tony Swash on 8/23/2012 6:04:23 AM , Rating: 1

quote:
I'm suprised that crApple hasn't sued you guys yet claiming that they "invented" the english language as they invented EVERYTHING else and use the language as well.

Not a chance. Steve Jobs was actually born in London not far from the Arsenal football stadium, he spoke in a broad cockney accent which he hid all his life in order to get ahead in Silicon Valley, his mum and dad were actually a Pearly King and Queen. Here is a photo of them.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02258/...

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