Ecosystem Android Be Productive Proc

Published on November 6th, 2010 | by Kyith

12

I tested the Archos GEN8 101 and 70 and am disappointed by the experience

I got a chance to go down to the local store to test out the Archos GEN8 101 and 70 extensively.

Let me just say that its not as bad as what the guy faced in this article here, but its not very complete yet.

The touch experience

On the whole my experience navigating is not very good. Particularly, I think its highly attributable to the screen protector they lay across that is making it not very sensitive. We need to re-evaluate this one.

When the touch experience is not there, it impedes my overall user experience

Live Wallpaper needs to be turn off

The live wallpaper makes the 2 devices laggy, turning it off makes a marked improvement.

Essentially if you have an android phone, you should always turn off live wallpaper if you are a productive user like me.

The weight of the device

Much Much lighter than the iPad. It makes it more portable. But I get the feeling after prolong holding typing I will still get tired.

7 inch vs 10 inch

Ah the size comparison. Which is better?

Because the 10 inch is 1024 x 600, it looks like an elongated 7 inch.

Now I understand why the iPAd is 1024×768 because reading magazines on a wider device makes so much more sense.

I can view comfortably on 7 inch or 10 inch. That is not a problem.

But the 7 inch is so much portable. In fact for portability  is the right size.

But if I were to use it as a reader, I would prefer the 10 inch.

In terms of value for money I think the 10 inch is more value than the 7 inch.

Reading PDF books

This is something that I would like to test and sadly the device does not come with a PDF reader. However I was able to download one from the AppLib.

I tested with 3 books

  1. 66 MB Magazine – takes a long time to render. It renders by 4 squares for 1 page
  2. 7 MB Magazine -  faster than the 66 MB but still slow
  3. 5 MB Technical book – same speed but the good thing is that you can view it without needing to zoom in zoom out.

One thing to note is that I played them off a microSD card which my friend says is slow speed.

A better test would be to move it to the flash disk which would be faster.

Also the reader is questionable as it kept crashing. Adobe Reader or Repligo would be much better.

AppLib

A very limited marketplace, but it still has tons of things. I believe a lot of people can make do with it, but there is always an official Android Marketplace hack.

Overall Assessment

After seeing this, I went to Sim Lim to take a look at the China tablets and comparatively the ARchos is so so so much better than them.

But when I was using it, I kept thinking why the touch sensitivity lacks so much of what the iPad can achieve. I can stand waiting and lagginess. But I really don’t like touching the same thing twice to select.

I will keep my options open. There is still the Creative resistive device and likely more release according to my reader here so it pays to wait.

I am not discounting the iPAD at SGD728 as well.

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About the Author

Kyith is a blogger with interest in all things on Wealth Mastery, Technology, Business and Productivity.


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  • Greg Tan

    I was kinda thinking you would get down to the stores and check them out.. hehe.. I was right.. :)

    Glad you can give a first hand account here.. much appreciated input from your experience playing with it.

    Was kinda disappointed from your feedback on the responsiveness of the touch screen. I was hoping it would do better with a 1GHz cpu (althot the CPU speed do not have a direct impact on this matter).. I am gonna hope that this negative point is down to the lousy screen film that comes with the unit..

    Think i’m gonna head down to the stores and check out myself too..

    I agree price wise, it makes more sense with the 10″.. but then, i dun like the look of lugging around a 10″ tablet on an afternoon shopping trip with the missus..

    Thanks for the review..

    • Kyith

      no probs. but u better try it out. its not reallly bad. but its not complete. thats the picture i wanna paint.

  • Joe

    I got one of the Archos 101. It is very touch sensitive. U got to remove the protective screen. Perform well as an Android, which is currently at 2.1. Heard that 2.2 have tons of improvement. Only letdown would probably be the screen quality (TN vs IPS).

    • Kyith

      thanks for the reply joe. i am glad you are able to clear things up. its not slow on 2.1 at all. the touch and slow pdf performance is what turns me off more. i hope it really gets addressed.

  • Greg Tan

    Thanks Joe!

    Glad that the protective film is the culprit here.. hehe..

    When the Gen8 machine get the 2.2 update, i hope that the improved in performances is gonna be at least equal to the upgrade of the Android phones from 2.1 to 2.2!

    *Hands getting itchy..*

  • Kyith

    lets not put too much trust there. see more reviews then take the plunge. no point buying substandard stuff.

    cheers.

  • cliff

    Okay. My new Archos 70 came in yesterday. It’s really just great! This is my third attempt with Android Tablets and the first that really has what it takes. Screen looks great, wifi is excellent, the Market Hack worked fabulously and my apps are now just like my EVO.

    I did find the gyro was a bit wonky. I may need to calibrate it or something, but somehow got Kindle to work in portrait and landscape.

    Everything just works very well – even the stereo speakers are good.

    I’m going to try and tether and try host mode out, but I’m very happy. It’s light and 1/3 to 1/2 of the “other” tablets.

    Very happy with my new ATab!!

  • matthew

    Hello guys,
    Cliff, you stated that you got the market place to work on the archos 70? How did you achieve that? I just got mine and have been trying with no luck. Any help would be great. Thanks.

  • Jimmy Wong

    Hi Guys,

    Can anyone let me know which is the best Buy out of the following 3 Brands/Models:

    Samsung Galaxy Tablet
    Toshiba AS 100
    Arcose 70 or 101

    Would appreciate the feedback since you guys had already tested the devices.

    Thanks
    Jimmy

  • Colin McDurmot

    I would go for the archos 101 or 70 because they provide much more accessibility than that of the ipad with the kick stand they stand out a lot.

  • Chucho_2414

    So which one would you recommend 101 or 70?

    • http://www.productiveorganizer.com Kyith

      i do recommend the 70 for its form factor really

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