I have been debating on purchasing an Archos 101 (or Viewsonic G Tab) and have some questions now that it has been out for a while.
I have had the 101 since it came out. First week of november and proof that Archos did achieve their shipping deadline. I assuming that the first batch didn't reach the US because americans will likely return theirs because of the missing 't'. Thus the rest of us that didn't mind getting an Archos "Table" got shipped theirs instead =P
So that would mean i've had it for over five months now.
How durable is it? If you have had one for a while you have carried it around from place to place, is it still holding well together? Is there a case to help protect it?
Can't help you there much unfortunately since i use it mostly indoors, it's too big to carry around outside when you're commuting. I have the iPod touch for that. In trips that include my car tho, i actually have it tracking my car with the GPS tether. Helped us get through detours quite a few times.
I also don't have butter fingers. I stub my toe a lot, but rarely let anything slip.
How are the software upgrades since it came out? I am not sure I want to void the warranty if there becomes a hardware problem.
They come out pretty regularly. The first Froyo update was a mess, but they fixed that a week later, the current firmware is pretty stable.
How is the USB port? I read lots of problems on it. Can you stick a 500 gig hard drive to it?
Only on the 101. The power rating on it is enough to support USB devices, the unit lasted five hours when i played HD anime on it from my WD Passport. It was during a trip so i had the screen dimmed and the wifi turned off.
On the 70, the USB doesn't have enough juice, so it can only support low power peripherals, like keyboards and thumbdrives. It's still compatible with external harddrives, but you'll need an external power source.
Some external drives have dual USB heads, maybe you can stick one of them to an AC->USB adapter?
Also, 101 has two USB ports, a micro usb for connecting to the PC (Same way you connect your gadgets to your PC), and a standard USB host port (so you can stick your gadgets to it). The 70 has a shared usb port, and you'll need a special cable to get it to turn into host more, otherwise it's just a client.
What megapixel is the camera? I read .3 someplace is that true?
Camera is rather low quality. About the same as my laptops, only more obvious since it's now stretched across a large screen. Imagine a picture taken off your webcam and stretched to 1024x600. It may not be adequate on cellphones, but on a 10" screen, it's pretty bad.
Any other info would be good as well but I have read many reviews and videos so I have a basic idea.
I want something that I can use office products, watch movies, good WiFi, internet, Bible software (I am a chaplain) and some games. I have a computer for really awesome games (or will have with Star Wars Old Republic comes out and I purchase a new computer) so I am not looking for some uber game system but rather something useful for work type scenarios (like in a hospital but we know games are good for meetings).
Thanks
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Be sure the sound is muted when you're in a meeting because the speakers are *loud*. Everyone in the next room will know playing angry birds.
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Video playback is beyond what my iPod can do. No need for iTunes or spend hours converting videos. I just drop my MKV's on it and instantly play them. Contrary to popular believe, the iPod *CANNOT* run any of your h264 videos without converting them first. Which kinda negates the claim of 720p.
Video streaming is okay if you're too lazy to even copy, just browse your network and play directly off your shared folders. Just note that 720p with 4.1 profiles will tend to choke when streamed, it's best to copy them on the unit. My anime's below that tho stream fine.
I watch a lot of videos so being able to support my multi terabyte library is a requirement.
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The network function is a big plus because now *ALL* of my apps can browse the network. If you were using windows and wanted your application to open a text file on another PC, you enter this in the address bar.
\\RemotePCName\SharedFolderName\myfile.xls
On the Archos, *ALL* your apps can browse the network, even the ones that aren't designed for it. Your network is treated as one big folder and completely transparent to the apps. They still think they're browsing your local files.
\Storage\Network\SMB\WORKGROUP\RemotePCName\SharedFolderName\myfile.xls
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Battery is amazing. My china gadgets would have batteries that would be down to less than an hour after a few months. But i just tried playing a video until the battery ran down last week (five months old), and the 101 lasted Eight hours and Thirty Three Minutes!!! CPU set to max, screen dimmed, and wifi off. Of course, web browsing with brightness on max will eat your battery pretty fast too.
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GPS is a neat feature. I'm tethering to the internet through my phone anyway, might as well tether the GPS as well. Helps when i'm going through unknown areas. The phone does have a mapping app, but it's easier to navigate on the tablets bigger screen.
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An actual file system is a big benefit. It's what allows it to share files with your PC. You can browse your sdcard, external drive, thumbdrive, and even the network, and access files from other devices. Heck i actually use the 101 to access my phone camera and copy files from that over bluetooth. If you have a digital camera with a USB cable, you can stick that into
There are some issues however:
Screen
-If you open your laptop all the way, and try looking at it from below, it will start to solarize (The colors reverse). The archos has the same screen and the optimal viewing angle when watching videos is limited to just the front (then again, you don't actually watch movies with your head tilted to the side right?)
-The good news is that it doesn't happen to ebook apps. Ebooks are usually black and white, so there's nothing to solarize. I read manga on it all the time (You read the bible before bed? I read Naruto.)
-Certain apps also have issues with the screen. Lets say your desktop monitor is 1680x1050. That doesn't actually mean your applications can use the full screen tho, because that taskbar is taking about 50 pixels off the bottom, leaving around 1680x1000 for the actual app. When i make an applications, i take my dimension from the Window size, not the monitor resolution. The same thing applies on the Archos. Some apps take the screens resolution rather than the 'window' size and end up making their interface too big. It's a very simply fix, but apparently easy to overlook. This won't be an issue in future apps tho, because Honeycomb uses virtual buttons like the archos, so future applications will have to get their parameters properly.
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Stability
-Unfortunately, it isn't completely stable and you can tell the limitations of putting a phone OS on a tablet. It will crash at times and you have to do a forced reset. HTML sites with poorly written javascript can make the browser stop responding.
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Storage
-This is where the phone OS becomes glaringly obvious. Android has no drive letters, and there are no specs in the apps to address this. When you stick in several storage devices (ie. Passport and/or sd card) the apps will always default to the internal memory. It's like having several harddrives on your PC, but can only access Drive C and MyDocuments. They patched in the other storages by turning them into virtual folders. So it's like, to access Drive D, you go to C:\My Documents\Drive D, C:\My Documents\DVD Drive, etc. On the archos, the internal storage is "/sdcard", the Micro SD Slot is "/sdcard/sdcard", and the external drive is "/sdcard/usb_host". It's a mess.
-I'm hoping Honeycomb would have a better storage layout. Froyo apps do access other storage devices and network folders, but they always default to the internal one.
Wow, this got kinda long.
Anyway, if you need a phone, get the Galaxy Tab. If you need a multimedia device, get the Archos.
If you need something more stable, wait for Honeycomb.
