Archos 101 XS review

French technical school manufacturer Archos are banging out tablets since before you were in pants, sonny boy Jim - though back within the early noughties, the likes of its Av series were merely thought-about massive screen moveable media players.

So the company has lots of expertise to draw on and, with its latest pill vary - the info ten XS series - it's done simply that, mix some completely different type factors to bring America 3 new hybrid android devices.

The flagship device, the Archos a hundred and one XS, sits aboard the Archos ninety seven XS and therefore the Archos eighty XS, that area unit each listed as coming back shortly.

The 10.1-inch, keyboard-boasting Archos associate degreed one|a hundred and one|one zero one} XS is owing to launch within the middle of Gregorian calendar month with an RRP of £299.99/$360.

It's a tag that creates it a little cheaper than its direct hybrid rival, the Asus electrical device Pad three hundred, less expensive than the hybrid king - the Asus electrical device Pad eternity - and additionally easier on your bank balance than mid-range robot rivals like the magnoliopsid genus Iconia Tab A510 and therefore the Toshiba AT300.

Unlike those tablets, however, this can be not a quad-core Tegra 3-touting machine. Instead, it's power-driven by a multi-core Lone-Star State Instruments OMAP4470 processor. This multi-core setup equates to a dual-core Cortex-A9 computer hardware clocked at one.5GHz, in conjunction with 2 a lot of slower Cortex-M3 cores.

Throw in a PowerVR SGX544 GPU and you've got Associate in Nursing room additional on a par with the mid-range Samsung Galaxy Tab two ten.1 than the robot heavy-hitters.

Running robot four.0 frozen dessert Sandwich, Archos is promising a Jelly Bean-flavoured update shortly. therefore for robot fans craving for a less expensive price ticket to the party, in conjunction with some physical QWERTY fun on the approach, Archos hopes it's giving up a viable choice. Has it succeeded.

Physical keyboard-packing tablets have become {increasingly|progressively|more and additional} more in style and, with Windows eight on the terribly close to horizon, we have a tendency to expect to visualize more android devices packing a QWERTY punch.

The Archos a hundred and one XS, just like the Asus Eee Pad Slider, Asus Eee Pad electrical device et al. that have gone before it, could be a pill that tries to resolve the puzzle of the way to create a pill additional user friendly.

Like those Asus efforts, Archos has planned that the solution lies within the use of a physical keyboard that attaches itself to the slate.

You can, of course, team any robot (or iOS) device with a keyboard victimization Bluetooth property, however Archos has chosen the arrival keyboard choice for the a hundred and one XS. Its physical keyboard comes combined as a part of what it calls the "coverboard", and is essentially a lid that sits flush with the tablet's screen, victimization magnets, making a netbook-like result.

A very skinny netbook that's, since the pill a part of the Archos a hundred and one XS is simply 8mm thick, with the coverboard solely adding an additional 5mm. once you contemplate that its direct rival, the Asus electrical device Pad three hundred, measures a combined twenty.1mm, its 13mm area is all the additional appealing.

At virtually 400g (0.88lbs) lighter than the budget Asus machine in addition, it's positively a far additional moveable friendly setup. On its own, the Archos a hundred and one XS pill weighs 630g (1.39lbs), and therefore the coverboard solely adds an additional 270g (0.60lbs) to the combo.

But in contrast to Asus's hybrid tabs, which provide clever keyboard docks that expand property and enhance battery life, the coverboard is pretty poor as compared. Its solely port could be a small USB one, that is employed for charging the pill once docked. once not connected to the mains, the Archos a hundred and one XS's keyboard drains power from the tablet's battery.

And the build quality, not simply of the dock, however of the full device, is obscurity close to on par with its competitors. beginning with the dock, its thinness works against it, feeling terribly weak, with lots of flex and unbelievably plasticy.

The keyboard keys have Associate in Nursing unbelievably shallow travel, therefore writing for long periods of your time is not too comfy. and therefore the kick-stand, that pops up to carry the pill in situ for writing sessions, is unbelievably feeble.

In its most upright position it'll hold the pill in situ - simply - however try and regulate the angle (although we're not entirely certain you are supposed to) and you may run into hassle, with it giving approach below the burden of the slate.

The method accustomed hold the coverboard and therefore the pill along, victimization magnets, is additionally pretty basic. Sure, the twist motion that Asus suggests to separate the 2 pulls them apart simply enough however, on quite one occasion, we have a tendency to force the Archos a hundred and one XS out of our luggage solely to seek out the pill wasn't sitting flush with its partner.

The tab itself additionally suffers from showing 'cheap'. The white plastic edges do not precisely mix into the mock (plastic, of course) brushed metal end, and therefore the lip between the silver trim and therefore the ten.1-inch show is pretty sharp. it is a build that's additionally massively vulnerable to scuffs and scratches - ours was a little of a multitude when solely a brief whereas of normal use and transportation.

The volume rocker and therefore the power button, positioned on the bottom-right corner, area unit unbelievably skinny and fiddly to use, and therefore the speaker grill up front is pretty ironic.

On the left-hand facet is your port activity. you will find a mini HDMI port, a 3.5mm earphone jack, a small USB port and a microSD slot awkwardly positioned here. very cheap edge contains the dock connexion and some of magnets.

The show could be a TFT (MVA) one with a decent 1280 x 800 resolution. Although, whereas the constituent count is on a par with its equally priced rivals, the standard falls alittle short. Even on full brightness the show is pretty lifeless, and therefore the shiny end makes it unbelievably vulnerable to fingerprints and smudges.

There's no auto-brightness perform, that could be a very little odd for Associate in Nursing robot pill, however you may presumably need the lights on full anyway.

Onboard storage is 16GB, and you'll expand this by up to 128GB victimization the microSD choice. repetition and pasting from microSD card to internal storage, and contrariwise, could be a piece of pie, due to the good File Manager app that Archos has pre-installed. information property is Wi-Fi only; there's no 3G version of the Archos a hundred and one XS.

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