Archos Gen10 101 XS review: Archos Gen10 101 XS

Given the myriad high-quality tablet choices out there, I've found it difficult to recommend previous Archos tablets.

6.3

Archos Gen10 101 XS

The Good

The <b>Archos 101 XS</b> includes a full QWERTY keyboard, memory expansion, Mini-HDMI, and great games performance.

The Bad

The tablet never feels like it's safely attached to the keyboard, and unless you have small hands, typing on the keyboard feels cramped. The tablet also features shoddy build quality and at $400 is too expensive for what's offered.

The Bottom Line

The Archos 101 XS makes performance improvements from the previous generation and includes a full keyboard, but doesn't offer enough to warrant its high price.

Unfortunately, its new 101 XS (also known as the Gen10) does little to change my opinion of the company's tablet-making abilities. While Archos is definitely starting to take performance more seriously, it still has a long way to go to breaking its habit of seemingly tacking on features without fully thinking them out and then charging too much for the package. While the tablet comes with a keyboard accessory, it still fails to be worthy of its $400 price.

A keyboard, a stand, and an Archos 101XS (pictures)

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Design
The Archos 101 XS sports a 10.1-inch screen and ships with both the tablet slate and an additional keyboard accessory, known as the coverboard. The coverboard will not be sold separately, and as of now, buying the tablet is the only way to get one. When on the go, you can attach the slate and coverboard to each other magnetically, with the keyboard facing the tablet's screen. While in this mode, the package stays together securely and can be easily transported, but it can also be difficult to separate them without getting a fingernail into the mix. A small cavity or "lip" along the edge would have solved this.

The tablet itself is one of the thinnest 10-inchers on the market, measuring a thin 0.31 inch and weighing 1.4 pounds. The coverboard is 0.2 inch thick and weighs 0.6 pound.

On the left edge, from top to bottom are the microSD slot (supporting up 64GB-capacity cards), Micro-USB, a headphone jack, and a Mini-HDMI port. On the right edge, toward the bottom is the power/sleep button and volume rocker. On the G9 series, the power button was too sharp and stuck out too far to make the tablet comfortable to hold. Archos addressed this with the 101 XS, but may have overcompensated as the now duller power button is a bit too flush with the edge of the tablet, making it difficult to find with your fingers.

On the left side bezel is a front-facing camera and on the opposite bezel is a 2.5-inch-long speaker aligned vertically. The included power adapter plugs into either the Micro-USB port on the slate or the coverboard. Unfortunately, the cable doesn't lock into the port and easily falls out if touched or if the tablet is moved just a little. When swiping your finger across the screen, a metal edge can be felt where the screen meets the bezel. While I doubt you'd be in danger of injuring yourself while swiping, it's an annoyance that points to an overall build-quality issue that Archos tablets can't seem to shake. A metal plate covers most of the back of the tablet, but thanks to the shoddiness of its implementation (you can easily get a fingernail under the plate and lift it up a bit), it feels less like a well-thought-out addition and more like a last-minute tack-on.

The coverboard
To connect the tablet to the coverboard, lay the coverboard down flat, flip up its built-in stand, line up the small metal plates on the bottom of the tablet to the magnets on the coverboard's surface, and attach the slate horizontally to the coverboard so that it leans slightly back against the stand. I don't mean to make it sound complicated; it's actually a very simple procedure. So, how strongly is it attached? Well, as long as both pieces are securely connected, you can pick up the tablet and the coverboard will remain attached to it (as long as you aren't jerking it around).

The flip side, however, is a different story. Since the tablet only leans against the stand and isn't held together by the strongest magnets in the world, tilt it forward just a little and the slate detaches, falling to whatever fate awaits it. This can be a problem when attempting to balance it on your lap as well. Unless you prefer large cracks in your tablet's screen, it's best to use the combo on a flat, stable surface. If Archos had included some type of locking mechanism, even if optional, the tablet could have proved a much more versatile device.

The coverboard itself is smaller than the $150 keyboard/dock attachment for the Asus Transformer line, and feels more cramped as a result. Also, while the Transformer dock includes a touch pad, mouse buttons, a panel to rest your palms, a full-size USB input, full-size SD card slot, and a built-in battery, the coverboard includes only a Micro-USB connection in the back for charging. The lack of a touch pad was probably the most noticeable omission, as having to tap the screen to open links or make selections feels awkward. Thankfully, Archos took at least one page from Asus' Transformer book of success, by including shortcut keys like back, home, search, a Wi-fi on-off toggle, and brightness, among others.

As I indicated, typing on the coverboard feels cramped compared with on the Transformer board because of the limited space and lack of a palm rest. That being said, I have large hands; according to some CNET-ers with smaller appendages, typing on the coverboard didn't feel cramped at all. One thing we did agree on, though, was that the coverboard keys don't achieve the same high level of tactile response the Transformer's keys do. They're just a bit too soft and don't depress as satisfyingly.

The coverboard is a thoughtful addition held back by the lack of a secure attachment mechanism and a touch pad. Also, a larger typing space would have made this more appealing to those of us with larger hands.

Hardware features
The 101 XS houses a 1.5GHz OMAP 4470 CPU, with a PowerVR SGX544 GPU, 16GB of storage, and 1GB of RAM. Tablet mainstays like 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi support, Bluetooth 4.0, and GPS are included as well as gyroscope, accelerometer, and a digital compass.

Performance
The Archos 101 XS houses an MVA (multidomain vertical alignment) panel and sports a resolution of 1,280x800 pixels and is very susceptible to fingerprint ruin. It's responsive to touch and swipe, but possibly could use just a bit more sensitivity calibration, as some of my swipes would only half-take.

The 101 XS runs Android 4.0.4, but Archos says we should expect see a Jelly Bean update sometime in 2012. Navigating the OS felt speedy with less lag than what I've experienced with the Archos Gen 9 tablets. Riptide GP launched as fast on the 101 XS as it did on the Nexus 7. However, actually loading a level from the game took almost three times as long as it did on the Nexus 7.

Riptide GP is one of the best real-world graphics benchmarks. It's available on both iOS and Android; the resolution can be adjusted with a noticeable change in performance, and depending on the speed of the GPU, the game's frame rate will noticeably increase or decrease. After cranking the game's resolution to its highest possible, the Archos 101 XS still delivered a smooth, high-frame-rate experience. By comparison, the game on the Nexus 7 ran at a noticeably lower frame rate, but with the extra Tegra 3 graphical effects not available on the 101 XS.

Most movie files ran smoothly through Dice Player, but a 1080p trailer copied from a PC and converted to a type of file the 101 XS was compatible with ran as if it were being played back at half speed. However, the same file played smoothly through Archos' own Video app. Movie clarity was high, and in low-light environments, viewing from off angles wasn't a problem. However, in a room with lots of ambient light, the picture tended to get washed out quite easily unless viewed straight on.

The front-facing camera is one of the lowest quality I've ever seen on a tablet, with grainy images and heavily dithered color.

Here are our official CNET Labs-tested battery life results. More tablet testing results can be found here.

Final thoughts
I'll get right to the point. At $400, the 101 XS is too expensive to recommend. While the full keyboard is a great addition, it's not well-implemented enough to warrant that price. Also, this is probably the most stable Archos tablet I've seen, but that's not really anything to write home about. I do appreciate the surprisingly fast gaming performance, though.

While the Transformer TF300T with keyboard will run you about $520 or so, it also has a quad-core CPU, great cameras, an extra battery, multiple storage expansion options, and is already being updated to Android 4.1. Archos tablets are known to be heavily discounted from their initial MSRP a few weeks after launch, so if you can find it for $50 (or better yet, $100) less, it may be worth taking a look at if having a tactile keyboard is important to your tablet experience.