It’s getting somewhat difficult to sort out the wheat from the chaff when it comes to low cost tablets now. For me, someone that has good devices knocking around, it’s even more difficult to find something that stands out.
One device that has piqued my interest over the last few weeks though has been the Archos 101. Personally I’m not too interested in it but it’s not me I’m thinking about. I’m thinking about the family coffee table, parents and grandparents, maybe even the car. As I mentioned in my Sept 3rd hands-on, it’s a good value product that could work well as a gift. The iPad would look better on the coffee table of course but at a starting price of 499 Euros, it’s out of the ‘gift’ price range for many.
What are you going to use this coffee-table gadget for? Ignore email, Twitter, Facebook and anything else that needs an account because when you share a single-user Android device with the family, you’re at risk. What the family needs (possibly) is a flexible on/offline video player, image viewing, web browsing and gaming, a bus/train/flight timetable, holiday booking, Wikipedia and other casual activities. Pure entertainment. You won’t be worried about mobile use (although portability is important) so the low-cost 10 inch screen devices seem to be a perfect fit. Video codec support is will be needed for supporting all the different types of videos thrown at it and TV-Out support goes hand-in-hand with that. SD card or USB on-the-go is also useful. A stand, critical. A full applications market would be great but I think that many can live with a set-up phase that includes a bit of sideloading if it’s going to save them the money.
The Archos 101, at just 299 Euros, looks like the ideal device. It’s Archos which means you’ve got their history to take into account and late delivery of products, quality and upgrades is something that I got hit with on the Archos 5 Internet Tablet. As Froyo has already been released for the 101, at least the major upgrade has been delivered. The community is strong with this one too and hacks, tips and tricks will be freely available.
The Archos 101 is a device that a lot of people are looking at this holiday period. I’m getting a lot of queries about it and even after reading a review of the Advent Vega yesterday, I still see the 101 as being the most interesting of the low-cost 10 inch devices. Yes, the Toshiba Folio 100 has a content store for audio and video but its quite a bit more expensive.
The only thing that worries me about the 101 is the hardware. Tracy and Matt have a review that isn’t positive at all about the hardware. There are mentions of screen viewing angle problems and also other issues but I can’t see any general consensus that the Archos 101 is a bad product so right now I’m putting this one at the top of my 10 inch Android list and might even venture out soon to buy one.
While I wait for my (6 hour) delayed flight here in Frankfurt it’s probably worth putting some text down about how the Tab has performed today, a day of snow, cold and cancellations.
Unplugged at about 10am today the Tab was fully charged and performed its first duty by giving me the time of the next bus the the main station. From that point onvit’s been non-stop tabbing. My day has been turned upside down and the Tab has been the hub of my communications. Emails to family and customers to keep them up to date. Sms’ and tweet all the way, looking up my hotel details, phone numbers for the hotel, more train times and status updates, flight information and of course, keeping up with news and RSS feeds. It’s coming up to 2000hrs and that’s ten hours of work with wifi on, Bluetooth in use, 3g on and a bunch of apps (Facebook, email, twitter, wordpress, contacts) updating regularly in the background.
The experience has been great.
But I also had a phone with me! The old N82 was critical for calls to travel agents, hotels, family and customers. It was also my camera for the day.
The Tab is good but not 100% converged. I just couldn’t be bothered to plug in a headset and the camera, in comparison with the N82, just sucks.
So as I hot the last 10% of battery I’m pleased that I can send you all this little blog. Written on the Galaxy Tab portrait mode woth the on screen keyboard and the WordPress application!
Typing error left in so you can see how good/bad it is!
Customer satisfaction during product purchase and ownership is a complex science and I wouldn’t suggest for a moment that I know a lot about it. Personally I can get very upset if a product fails to deliver on marketing promises and wildly passionate if a product does more than expected. That’s something I keep out of my reviews though and I always aim to project my thoughts from various target customer scenarios. On a personal note though, the Galaxy Tab experience has been extremely positive for me and I’ve spoken to many others that are happy too. If you go to the UMPCPortal sub-forum for the Galaxy Tab it doesn’t take too much effort to find a happy customer. I plan to keep using the Galaxy Tab and expect to be using it well into 2011 but as always, there are people out there for which the Tab will be a total misfit and a total disappointment.
In this article and video I want to highlight the limitations and issues of the Galaxy Tab and bring in a few people that have already bought and sold their Tab. Why weren’t they happy?
In the video below you’ll see me talk about a number of issues. I’ve listed them here:
Camera and Video
DLNA
Video output
Reading newspapers and magazines
Printing
Web
Multitasking
User interface
The last three in that list have something in common wild users and wild operating systems creating an unstable and unpredictable experience.
By wild users, I mean almost everyone because we have a natural tendency to try things we find exciting and to push the limits of a device. This means, just like on the PC, you end up with too much running at the same time. Android makes it easy to try software and does very little to control the use of the system resources. What you end up with is an experience that can vary from excellent (when you first use the device) to flakey (I’m just 6 weeks into ownership and I’m seeing this problem.)
One of the problems is the size of the Galaxy Tab. Because it’s bigger than a smartphone, you expect more but in reality, it’s just a smartphone. Memory size, speed, storage speed, CPU and GPU performance are not ‘PC-class’ and if you treat the Tab like a PC, it won’t return any favors. This problem is going to catch out a lot of people in the coming weeks.
Aside from technical limitations there are the inherent limitations of the Galaxy Tab. The size and weight of the device mean it’s not pocketable. The performance won’t be anything more than what you get on some smartphones that do fit in the pocket. It doesn’t have a big enough screen to be able to run two applications in two windows. The performance isn’t anything like what you get on a PC. Printing is limited. There’s no USB port, no multi-user support and so-on and so-on. People looking to replace a laptop will have a problem, even when the keyboard dock ships!
I’ve been in contact with a couple of people recently that have ditched their Galaxy Tab and gone back to planning for the next device. There isn’t a huge number of people in this boat but it’s important to know why didn’t it work for them? Fabrizio, an ex Galaxy Tab owner has this to say…
…basically I think the Galaxy Tab is a good device. While being it a powerful and feature rich device, it’s somehow an oversized smartphone and does not really offer more. Yes, it has a bigger screen and higher resolution, but Android does not take advantage of that. You can read information easier since the screen is bigger, but while I love Android, it is NOT a desktop OS replacement, thus, you won’t be able to do really more than on a smartphone. With more I mean, serious productivity (writing, encoding etc.), not entertainment (listen music, watch videos). In short, the Galaxy Tab is a great device to “consume” content and not to create. But even when consuming, it is limited by the OS which is – in my opinion – not a desktop replacement OS and so it does not offer more than a smartphone –
‘EC’ another ex-Galaxy Tab user said this…
“…it was among the hardest decisions I’ve ever done on a gadget any time recently.”
But he had problems with the browser…
“The native browser, that is not a native Android browser but another Samsung custom job, will render most websites in the mobile format (when there is such a version) and while in some cases you can click on the normal website option on that website it not only doesn’t stay that way for the next time it also won’t affect any other websites you might visit in the same browsing”
EC also told us that he couldn’t get to grips with the on-screen keyboard and summarises as follows…
I was ready to accept a few lacks here and there like most of us did with the first generation of netbooks, but with the HW really lacking next to nothing I think my expectations for the OS were even higher. Yes the $600 does make a difference. If it was $200 even without any 3G I would still have it, but right now it doesn’t live up to it’s price tag for me personally. I am convinced that anyone perfectly content with Android but wanting a tablet that’s portable will love this device, for anyone coming from an iOS environment I would say get more familiar with Android before you get the Tab or you might not be too pleased.
There’s a huge huge problem here with overlap. Early adopters of the Tab invariably have a selection of other devices available to them. High-end smartphones and netbooks mean that there’s a huge overlap which removes some of the reasons you’d use to justify buying the tab in the first place. Others simply don’t like the quality of the UI or software stack. This UI issue is probably the most important issue facing Android devices right now and if people want to compete with the iPad in this respect, it seems like a hard problem to solve on Android. Stability and ‘self-control’ from a device perspective is also an issue. The wild operating system lets you do some wild things but don’t expect everything else to remain constant while you push the limits.
Have you got a Galaxy Tab? Are you happy? We’d love to hear your thoughts below.
Is there an answer to the problems of the leading Android tablet? Either Android implements a ‘restricted’ mode which preserves the user experience (limiting the number of concurrently running apps, memory usage, cpu usage etc. or it waits for much more powerful platforms. CPU, memory and storage speed need to increase at least two-fold and that means waiting for the next-generation of ARM-based platforms. Dual-core is coming and that will help but it’s not the only solution needed. With Android version 2.3 on its way we might see some of these issues solved if the Galaxy Tab gets an upgrade but by that time, the bar might have been raised even higher by iPad 2 or other tablet device.
In the meantime, Android tablet users will need to limit their expectations.
Well if you’re on an even tighter budget you may want to look at the identically spec’d Linx Commtiva N700 which is a full £100 cheaper than the £400 Viewpad 7. It still comes with the same lowly Qualcomm MSM7227 600 Mhz CPU and 7 inch 800 x 480 resolution capacitive touch display, but it also has Android 2.2, 3G connectivity and the all important access to the Android market.
The reason it looks so much like Viewpad 7?, well it is. Its the same reference design used by Viewsonic on the Viewpad.
If you’re in the UK the N700 is available at Tesco Direct, meaning you can cash those clubcard vouchers for even more discount, the same applies to the Galaxy Tab which they also stock.
Are you the adventurous type? Paul O’Brien has you covered over at MoDaCo with a whole host of various hacks, tips and tricks on the Commtiva N700 / Spice Mi700 / ViewSonic ViewPad 7 / Camangi FM600.
Acer announced a set of Android tablets this afternoon that are sure to make people pause before they put an order in for the holiday season. The 7 inch Tablet looks like a belter and you can be sure that Acer will compete heavily on price.
The 7 inch model on the left (neither model has a name yet) will come with a dual-core 1.2Ghz Snapdragon CPU, 1280×800 resolution screen, 3G, Wi-FI and we hear, Android 2.2 with Flash 10.1. With front and rear cameras it looks like it will be suitable for Google application certification so we should see the Market and Google applications on this.
The 10 inch tablet on the right above, looks to be aimed at the home market and will also be a dual-core device. HDMI-out, dual-cams and ten-point multi-touch, indicate a high-end experience. Interestingly, reports are saying that this one has a dual-core Tegra 2 CPU at 1Ghz. Maybe there’s a gaming slant here.
There’s also a 4.8 inch super-wide-screen device with 1024×480 resolution on the cards. The strange resolution might be very good for landscape browsing.
Without full specs and pricing it’s difficult to position the devices but it looks like Acer is taking the tablet market seriously because Windows Tablets were announced too. I can’t believe all these devices are going to make it to the same markets but CeBit in March will certainly be interesting!
Acer announced a set of Android tablets this afternoon that are sure to make people pause before they put an order in for the holiday season. The 7” Tablet looks like a belter and you can be sure that Acer will compete heavily on price.
The 7” model on the left (neither model has a name yet) will come with a dual-core 1.2Ghz Snapdragon CPU, a 1280×800 resolution screen, 3G, Wi-FI and we hear, Android 2.2 with Flash 10.1. With front and rear cameras it looks like it will be suitable for Google application certification so we should see the Market and Google applications on this.
The 10”er on the right above, looks to be aimed at the home market and will also be a dual-core device. HDMI-out, dual-cams and ten-point multitouch, indicate a high-end experience. Interestingly, reports are saying that this one has a dual-core Tegra 2 CPU at 1Ghz. Maybe there’s a gaming slant here.
There’s also a 4.8” super-wide-screen device with 1024×480 on the cards. The strange resolution might be very good for landscape browsing.
Without full specs and pricing it’s difficult to position the devices but it looks like Acer is taking the tablet market seriously because Windows Tablets were announced too. I can’t believe all these devices are going to make it to the same markets but CeBIT in March will certainly be interesting!
Update: Ben has already posted some U.S.-related news along with some interesting thoughts on the design. Check out his post here.
Information coming though from a couple of German blogs over the last hour indicate that the Duo is going to launch for 549 Euro with the N550 CPU, 2GB RAM and a Broadcom video accelerator.
Over at NDevil we get hands-on from a press conference. Comparison with the Samsung N350 shows that it’s much bigger and thicker. There’s a video too:
NewGadgetsDe also this one is in German have a video up. Launch date is said to be within the next four weeks. Obviously this news is from Dells German marketing team.
Our tracking page is here and we’re looking to analyse this one soon. Initial feeling is that it might be too heavy for any consumer-style tablet work and that as a netbook, there are better options. Looks good though!
For one, I think they have a very interesting take on the convertible form-factor. It’s novel and will definitely get the attention it’s looking for from consumers. I can see people looking at it next to a typical (boring) netbook and opting for the Duo because of its neat design (given that they are similarly priced). The issue is that when the screen is flipped to put the device into slate mode, the user loses access to the trackpad and keyboard.
On the other hand, I’ve long exclaimed my hatred for touchscreen “shells inch that sit on top of Windows. We’ve been using and testing UMPCs for years and this is definitely nothing new. After lots of testing, what have we found? The best UMPCs were those that don’t compromise on controls and then try to make up for it with a poorly designed touchscreen shell. The best ones have usable keyboards and mice intact, and allow users to interact with Windows the way that it was designed to be interacted with using a keyboard and mouse.
Trying to drop a shell on top of Windows 7 and then claiming it a “touchscreen computer inch doesn’t make it useful. Users need to do more than play a slideshow, play a track from their music library, or use some proprietary touchscreen app. They need to be able to control the applications that they use on a daily basis, in an efficient way.
All of this begs the question: will people actually use the touchscreen mode on the Dell Duo? Or will it quickly fade from a neat idea to a rarely used feature?
I have a convertible HP Tablet. I love it and use it as my full time computer. The only time that I utilize the touchscreen is when it’s in slate mode and when I’m using it for digital ink input. I’ve actually disabled the finger touch input because it interferes with the handwriting, and it rarely, if ever, offers any benefit over a mouse and keyboard (remember, we’re talking Windows here).
The issue with the Dell Duo is that it lacks digital ink input (or I should say good digital ink input) because it uses a capacitive touchscreen which is incapable of tracking a pen unless it’s contacting the screen.. For me, this would make the Duo relatively useless in convertible its slate mode.
But different people use computers in different ways. Will users find useful ways to use the Duo in it’s keyboardless and mouseless slate mode? Let’s hear from the readers, how would you use it?
It’s getting somewhat difficult to sort out the wheat from the chaff when it comes to low cost tablets now. For me, someone that has good devices knocking around, it’s even more difficult to find something that stands out.
