Any reason not to get an Archos 101?

Masterdog

Masterdog

Masterdog

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I'm looking around at tablets atm and it seems to me that the Archos 101 meets my needs. I basically want a tablet that'll allow me to browse the net comfortably (with flash), hook up to my TV to allow me to watch HD movies and that's about it. I'm not at all fussed about apps really. The Archos seems to be a reasonably-powered device that is half the price of some of the newer tablets and, looking at the reviews, will do exactly what I want. Is this the case or is there some reason I should hold off and spend more on a Honeycomb device?

Cheers,

MD
 
The main reason not to get one is the Advent Vega for £199..

The Vega has the Nvidia Tegra 2 dual core 1Ghz processor (overclockable to 1.4-1.5Ghz), and a good amount of new customer super fast roms available..

Having also had (and returned) an Asus Transformer, I have got the missus to pick up another Vega for me this morning (I had one for a month over christmas), with a custom rom/launcher pro etc, it was a really smooth experience, and although Honeycomb in theory is a great step forward, the amount of incompatible apps, and not so fluid experience put me off enough to return it..

The Vega is fantastic once a custom ROM is on, it's only the screen that lets it down, but crucially, it's perfectly fine when viewed normally, and actually very sharp/bright, it's just that it's a standard netbook 10.1" LCD module, so viewing angles are noticeably poor, but the reality is as long as you point it at yourself, it's actually just right for a pick up and surf/game/chat device, and at £199, it's at the right price point.

[edit]^Beaten like the proverbial..
 
Hmm, does look like a no-brainer, that. I'm tempted by Archos' media credentials though - how's the Vega at playing full-length movies?
 
Masterdog said:
Hmm, does look like a no-brainer, that. I'm tempted by Archos' media credentials though - how's the Vega at playing full-length movies?
Click to expand...

Full length movies are no problems, I played 2 back to back (about 3.5 Hours) with the kids over christmas (720p h264 encoded) and there was still over 2 hours of surfing life left in the battery..

The key with any android device (Archos included) is getting stuff encoded correctly, if you do use the right h264 encoding (And free programs like Handbrake work well at this), then when it uses H/W acceleration features of the GPU's, the battery life is pretty decent indeed, when you fall back to software decoding, it drops quite appreciably, saying that, I've never had under 4 hours of battery life from the Vega, even when playing 1080p stuff..
 
Another vote for the Adent Vega, it's a very capable bit of kit at a good price and with a few easy mods, is even better value... go for it :)
 
Demon said:
The main reason not to get one is the Advent Vega for £199..

The Vega has the Nvidia Tegra 2 dual core 1Ghz processor (overclockable to 1.4-1.5Ghz), and a good amount of new customer super fast roms available..

Having also had (and returned) an Asus Transformer, I have got the missus to pick up another Vega for me this morning (I had one for a month over christmas), with a custom rom/launcher pro etc, it was a really smooth experience, and although Honeycomb in theory is a great step forward, the amount of incompatible apps, and not so fluid experience put me off enough to return it..

The Vega is fantastic once a custom ROM is on, it's only the screen that lets it down, but crucially, it's perfectly fine when viewed normally, and actually very sharp/bright, it's just that it's a standard netbook 10.1" LCD module, so viewing angles are noticeably poor, but the reality is as long as you point it at yourself, it's actually just right for a pick up and surf/game/chat device, and at £199, it's at the right price point.

[edit]^Beaten like the proverbial..
Click to expand...

May i ask the reason for returning the Transformer? I know you said the incompatible apps, but i would be able to cope i reckon.

Ive got my eye set on getting one before i go to uni, to couple as an interactive tablet and a small laptop for typing notes etc.

I firstly considered the Vega as i could get it much sooner for what it will cost, but as you've had both, do you care to share your opinion please :)
 
DefiantAsh said:
May i ask the reason for returning the Transformer? I know you said the incompatible apps, but i would be able to cope i reckon.

Ive got my eye set on getting one before i go to uni, to couple as an interactive tablet and a small laptop for typing notes etc.

I firstly considered the Vega as i could get it much sooner for what it will cost, but as you've had both, do you care to share your opinion please :)
Click to expand...

I loved most of the hardware, but...
- All the better android keyboards didn't quite work, or force closed, leaving you with what are adequate, but ultimately slightly gimped keyboards, and if you tend to do a lot of typing, e.g. replying on forums, it was quite annoying, especially as there was a lot of lag with the Asus keyboard far too often.
- The same goes for the browsers, Dolphin and Miren both had quirks and the odd force close.
- The audio was much louder out the left speaker.
- there was more then ideal backlight bleed.
- A lot of good Widgets/apps would force close.
- The desktop was not that smooth, especially opening the app drawer.


The Vega has the poor viewing angles, and a slightly overzealous touch screen, but with something like the corvusROM and LauncherPro, its extremely quick, smooth and stable, overclocked to 1.4ghz, its absolutely flying....

(I'm typing this on the Vega)
 
godinman said:
^^^^ Have you tried the screen calibration tool?
Click to expand...

Yep, don't get me wrong, it's more then usable compared to the early days of the Vega, it's just that it's clearly a bit poorly implemented, if you go to pinch and zoom in a web browser for example, and hold your fingers in the same position, you can see in some areas you get quite a lot of 'jitter' as if it's a bit low-resolution in it's detection and hops between two points.. for the price it's more then acceptable, but you do notice it sometimes (long pressing in some apps is hard as any movement negates the long press action)..

It's all stuff you can live with and considering how amazingly smooth/quick it is, especially overclocked, it's a real no-brainer for under £200
 
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