Decided to experiment a bit, so no I’m waiting post package to arrive for this cool sounding device.
Interesting points:
– Only 10 mm thick (yes, 8 GB version)
– Only 300 grams
– 7″ should be practically pocketable
– Unlike most of those tablets out there, these Archos devices have possibility to connect to net over bluetooth in your 3.xG capable phone. So I’m assuming I can simply connect device to either my wireless router, or when elsewhere, simply kick bluetooth on, and still get access to net (withoout need to have extra SIM card nor UMTS modem for this device).
Well, need to wait and see if device lives upto expectations.
Update: 2.8.2011
Device arrived yesterday (delivery time from this company was indeed a bit slow).
- Bluetooth connection worked (well most of time, occasionally for unknown reason not, and after that reboot was needed).
- Didn’t have any problems with WLAN
- Battery life seems acceptable
- For some reason initial charging didn’t charge more than 95% (but most recent firmware seems to have some fixes related to that, so we shall see tomorrow)
- Screen isn’t really readable in bright sunlight (so, no competion for E-ink on that area), however otherwise ebook reading works fine (i.e. holding device with one hand)
- Saw some semi-random looking crashes of some apps
- Half of pre-installed apps are worthless (=> uninstall)
- Opera Mini and Dolphin appear to be best combination of browsers to use
- System Storage is indeed rather very limited, dropped almost immediately to 130MB. And sadly all big apps cannot be moved to SD card (especially conserning few pre-installed apps)
More info:
Archos 70 … Suggested First Things to DO?
Archos 70 disassembled (Unless you know Chinese try Google Translator)
Update: 5.8.2011
Some updates,
(1) DO NOT plan to use tablet for writing information into net, like updating blog like this one. I tried to write this entry via device, and actually lost all editing due to some quirck of web browser. Ouch! (so now retyping again from the memory, with real computer)
(2) Battery: So far charging has always stopped at max 95%, which sounds really strange. On the other hand battery life has been so far reasonable in semilight usage. However, I’ve vague feeling that battery is discharging faster today. Today or tomorrow I shall try redoing some initial ”setup wizard” recalibration (suggested by some Archos forum thread).
(3) Piss poor localization: This is not the fault of Archos by itself, but the fault of Google Android. When we were reaching finally era when proper localization was starting to appear on desktops, we are going back to piss poor US arrogance of completely ignoring internalization customers. Thus say good bye into proper calendar (Wake up, weeks start with Monday, in the rest of the world), and date formatting (yes, remember US arrogance of enforcing using just ”/” for date separator, and shuffling only DMY values), yes say welcome for arrogance of pushing US only date formatting (when you’re getting it? Rest of the world is NOT using ”/” as date separator). Due to these issues, calendar on device is useless. And DON’T bind localization into UI language selection. Get it, those two are 100% separate issues, binding them together just pisses off users. As side note, same ”language == localization” binding problem exists in all Google products, so you’re warned: Google haven’t been able to do it properly, and it sounds unlikely that they ever will.
(4) Screen get fingerprints and is unresponsive in some areas: Fingerprints aren’t so big deal, since they pose issues primarily in bright sunshine, and as earlier stated, screen isn’t really usable in such condition anyway. But biggest problem is small inresponsive areas in the screen. I’ve noticed that there is small area in bottom right side, when holding device vertically (with powerbutton down). Area next to P and L keys isn’t registering any touches, so typing those letters is a bit challenging. To add into insult, this makes usage of Scandinavian keyboard impossible, since Ä and Ö keys fall completely inside dead zone (P and L do so only partially). Occasionally P and L keys are completely dead, and when pressing P you actually get O. Strangely enough, when this occurs, turning device briefly to horizontal and back to vertical restores partial access. So issue seems to be somekind of touchscreen calibration problem.
(5) For book reading device has worked very well. Weight is reasonably low, so holding device with one hand haven’t been big issue (so if you aim to read ebooks with tablet, 7″ is way to go, forget bigger devices, also forget smaller devices than 7″).
(6) I dont’ have any GPS, but seemingly I manage to get semi-accurate location info from my phone, thus allowing to pinpoint current location with 40 meter accuracy, based into GSM tower info only. Surely accuracy will be much poorer when going outside of city area.
(7) Memory is indeed very limited in device. Yes, system RAM is limited causing some issues, but actual issue is separate FLASH memory area called ”App Storage”. Seemingly it’s sometimes hard to keep those two things separate when following online discussions….
It’s VERY irritating that you’ve to be thinking about ”App Storage” usage when installing any application. I thought that concerns about discspace where left behind years ago, but SMARTLY Google decided to bring back those same issues which existed tens of years ago (I very well remember era of Windows 3.11, and need to use drive compressors (stacker or doublespace or whatever what was the name) since discspace was so limited that fitting apps on ”C:” drive was causing problems). Yes, ”App to SD” logic of Android 2.2 is piss poor. First of all, it refuse to move any of ”google apps” into SD, and secondly, random other apps are also refused to be moved. I can only say that this ”app storage” logic in Android is REALLY poor.
Of course, partially quilty party here is Archos, since they made incredibly stupid decision of reserving only 270MB partition on disc for ”app storage”. And it’s 100% sure that there won’t be coming any fix for that (since otherwise Archos would have already releasesd firmware to fix issue).
So, it will be 100% sure that you cannot be holding any redundant apps on this device, and if some app is not absolutely needed, you’ve to uninstall it. Sadly, however, some duplication of apps will happen, for example, you need to have few different readers available, since all have some issues (i.e. file types what they support).
(8) Regardless of ranting, I still consider this device to be better than any Apple devices. For example, direct SMB share access from device is very nice thing. Also Micro SD slot works nicely. And after some time (when USB host cable arrives), I will know how well generic USB memory stick access works. And 3G over bluetooth phone has been also nice feature. Construction of device isn’t actually either so bad. Surely, I will soon also check how direct TV connection over HDMI will work (haven’t yet bought cable).
Update: 6.8.2011
Today I tried running device with ”powersave” mode, and since the morning, after taking device off the charger, total time is now 13+h and battery level is around 54%. ”Device Idle” has (based into stats shown by device itself, don’t know how trustworthy those are) consumed around 50% of time, meaning that actual usage time since the morning has been around 6.5+h (well, maybe incorrect interpretation since I don’t know what time ”Device Idle” is exactly counting). Anyway, I was unable to drain battery in my daily usage, which sounds reasonable. I would describe my habits as ”semi-light”, so mileage may vary. Anyhow, I haven’t sofar encountered piss-poor battery life problems what some users have reported.
Btw, I tried last night, ”Repair & Formatting -> Startup Wizard” trick, and actually after going through wizard this morning (no dataloss, since it was just re-run of setup wizard), I got 100% charge shown by device. Perhaps setup wizard is doing some special recalibration of battery gauge (who knows ?!?).
Related Info: Complete Guide to Maximizing Your Android Phone’s Battery Life
Update: 12.8.2011
Got cover case for device today (total price 4€). Looks nice, and fits device perfectly (found out from some Archos forum that this one would be fitting, and indeed it does so).
Update: 15.8.2011
Got also USB host cable for device. Thus in theory various USB devices can be attached directly to device. In practise usefullness is a bit limited. From 4 different memory sticks only 2 worked (1 GB sticks), 2GB stick almost worked, and for 4GB stick device stated that it requires too much power. However, reading 8GB SDHC card via small USB reader worked. I didn’t have USB keyboard available so couldn’t test if such would work also (I bet that it won’t). So in practise, for transferring files to device, I would put my pennies over (a) USB cable to computer, (b) microsd card, (c) Direct SMB share access.
Update: 16.8.2011
Got HDMI cable for device. Video playback seems to work nicely via TV. Should have just taken longer cable than 1.5m cable.