Archos 101 XS review

RESOLUTION CONFLICT

The display itself is probably the least impressive thing about this tablet. It’s not bad, just not particularly inspiring. Archos makes no claims about fancy panel technology, such as IPS, and it’s not particularly bright, so colours lack punch. There’s a reasonable amount of contrast, but the relatively low 1,280×800 resolution means Android looks a little soft compared to more recent tablets with Full HD screens.

The tablet also doesn’t have an outward facing camera, either – just a 720p webcam for video chat or quick self-portraits. We’ve never really seen cameras on tablets as essential, so it’s no great loss.

The tablet does have plenty of ports and slots, though, all of which are easily accessible on the left-hand edge. A microSD card slot allows you to add up to 32GB of additional storage for less than £15. The USB port can be used as a USB host (with the correct cable, sold separately) so you can transfer files to and from the tablet without a PC. The mini HDMI port is an odd choice as micro HDMI is more common on tablets, but both types of cable are available cheaply.

DUAL WIELDING

Inside the Archos 101 XS is a Texas Instruments OMAP4470 chipset. This contains a dual-core processor running at a quick 1.5GHz. If you look a little more closely, you can see that there are additional sub-processors for dealing with media playback. The chipset proved very fast in the SunSpider JavaScript test, managing an incredibly rapid 1,552ms. That’s one of the quickest scores we’ve ever seen, and is faster than any Tegra 3-based tablet.

We also ran the popular Quadrant benchmark to compare the chipset with Nvidia Tegra 3-equipped devices, such as the Google Nexus 7 and Transformer Infinity. The 101 XS scored 3,853 overall, compared to 3,368 for the Nexus 7. These raw numbers are difficult to translate into everyday performance, but it’s interesting to note that the Archos 101 XS makes up for having half the cores of the Nexus 7 with its quicker memory and strong 3D performance. At present the Nexus 7 feels smoother to use, thanks to the interface improvements in Android 4.1, but that advantage won’t last for long.

Despite being essentially dual-core the Archos 101 XS was very fast in benchmarks

Archos has released the 101 XS with Android 4.0, but it’s an unaltered version of the operating system, which means an update to Android 4.1 shouldn’t be far off. Archos claims a November release date for 4.1, and it has hit its targets for software updates in the past. Another advantage is that you can uninstall any application you want on the tablet, so if you don’t like anything Archos has pre-installed you can get rid of it – this is sadly not the case on most tablets. Archos also supplies OfficeSuite Pro 6 for free, so you can create, open and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files.

Archos’s experience in making portable media players is evident in some of the preinstalled apps. A comprehensive media player app comes preinstalled with a carousel-style selection of content pulled from IMDB. There’s also a remote control app for your smartphone, so you can sit back to watch, either using the Coverboard as a stand for the tablet or connecting the Archos 101 XS to an HD TV.

There are also a couple of third-party docking stations available. The Boombox has a built-in speaker for playing your music, while the Cradle provides USB ports for attaching external drives and audio outputs to connect to a separate speaker or Hi-Fi system.