The Archos Android Tablet 101 is just waiting for me to pull out the credit card:
If you are an Android addict like me, then you have probably been following the latest news about the Android tablets hitting the market in the next few months. First, you have the Samsung Galaxy Tab, which, impressively, will be sold by all four major networks here in the United States, similar to the Samsung Galaxy S phone. Unfortunately, it appears that Samsung's tablet will be somewhat expensive, unless it is purchased subsidized through a wireless carrier. If you don't have an endless budget for gadgets, then you probably don't want to sign up for another expensive data plan. The problem is, we have no firm release date for the wifi only version of Samsung's tablet, which hopefully won't be more expensive than Apple's iPad, its only competitor at this point.
Another problem is that Google has come out and said that Android 2.2 (aka Froyo), is not optimized for Tablet use. Samsung is circumventing this inconvenience by only releasing a 7" tablet at this time, and essentially marketing it as a very large Android phone. That way, Samsung's Galaxy Tab has access to the Android Market.
There are two other Android tablets that have also caught my eye: the Toshiba Folio 100, and the Archos 101 (I guess Archos literally wanted to "one up" Toshiba). Archos is also releasing 4 other Android tablets in smaller sizes (the 7" tablet is also intriguing). Both of these tablets come in 10" sizes, matching the iPad, and both are also running Android 2.2. This is where the difficulty comes in with Google's position against Tablets running Froyo. Neither of these tablets has access to the Android Market. So Archos and Toshiba have each created their own individual app markets so that users of their tablets will have access to applications.
The Toshiba Folio 100 looks pretty sexy:
One other question mark with the current crop of tablets is whether they will be updated to the next versions of Android (Gingerbread and Honeycomb), which will be optimized for tablet use. From what I've read, it looks like the next crop of Android tablets that will be running Gingerbread won't be released until Q1 of 2011, one of them being Motorola's Android tablet. I think that's a dangerous tactic to wait until after the Christmas season to start releasing valid competitors to the iPad.
Now I don't want Google to release something half-baked, but the iPad was released back in April. Google has had 6 months to include tablet support into the Android OS, which is an eternity in this age where most gadgets only have a one year life-cycle.
So my question is, should I wait until early next year to buy me some Android Tablet sweetness? Or do I jump on the Archos 101 and enjoy it for the next six months?
I'm also interested in the Archos 101 but I'll wait for a good review before to decide.
ReplyDeleteLike you said one of the most important thing to be cleared is the possibility to update to at least to Gingerbread that hopefully will be release at november/december.
Also the ram amount is rumored to be only 256mb ...this could be decent but seems that will require Gingerbread run better with 512mb. (again just rumors)
Having the full market should not be a problem ( i hope!) since on the older archos android tablet this was already done.