Archos 101 Update : Design Flaws

I recently showed a friend my Archos 101 (pretty outdated now, what with all the new Android 3 tablets that have been introduced into the market), and so the conversation naturally flowed to whether I would buy a new tablet with Honeycomb, and whether I would get the next generation of the Archos tablet that is to be released sometime this month: the Archos 101 G9.

Although I love gadgets, most of the gadgets I buy have to serve some kind of purpose. For me, I bought the Archos 101 primarily as an e-reader, and for that, the Archos 101 has fulfilled its purpose most admirably. In fact, I love browsing the internet on the tablet, so much in fact that I actually spent more time with the Dolphin browser application than the ezPDF application.

However, no matter how I love reading on the tablet, the tablet is still not a very good appliance for writing. As some internet pundit remarked, the tablet is a "consumption" device, and not a "production" device. The tablet on-screen keyboard is not good for writing anything, including this blog post (which I am doing from my notebook by the way). Thus, if you are on a tight budget, and am undecided between choosing a notebook or a tablet, I will always recommend buying a notebook if you intend to use the computer mainly for producing stuff. Tablets are not very ergonomic for writing articles, emails, spreadsheets. Notebooks are much more versatile.

That is why I will not be buying a new tablet anytime soon, as my current Archos 101 is working just fine. In fact, I am more likely to buy another notebook computer (despite the fact that I already own a Core i7 notebook already) than to buy another tablet. As a producer, a notebook is a more useful purchase to me than another tablet.

Archos Tablet Design Problems
Also, there are several "flaws" in the Archos tablet pertaining to its hardware, and to the Android operating system that drives it. I can live with these flaws as I wasn't expecting much from my budget purchase when I acquired my Archos 101 back in December. These may or may not be fixed by new models of Android tablets (whether from Archos or other manufacturers), but I have decided to list them down just for the record.

1. Glossy Screen and not Matte Screen

If you are using a computer - be it a notebook, netbook, or a tablet - primarily for reading, a matte screen is a must. Glossy screens - being highly reflective - creates a "glare" problem, which greatly diminishes the reading experience.

Unfortunately, the public at large love "shiny" things, and for this reason, the majority of consumers prefer to buy computers with glossy screens. When you are at the shop, the movies that are being demo-ed on the computer will look much better on a glossy screen than on a matte screen. Because of that, consumers are tricked into thinking that glossy screens are "superior" to matte screens. And unfortunately, this creates an artificial demand spike for glossy screens. To satisfy this majority demand, manufacturers produced more computers with glossy screens, and this results in a lower manufacturing cost for producing glossy screens versus matte screens. And at the end of the day, everything in manufacturing is about bring costs down. As such, almost all computers in the market now comes only with glossy screens.

Even the Apple iPad comes with a glossy screen. Steve Jobs may be a god in aesthetics, but all too often, he has let his vision of beauty override pragmatics. I believe that the "glare" from glossy screens are spoiling the eyesight of users, and this is particularly so for young users. But why should Steve Jobs care about saving the eyesight of young children when glossy screens look so much prettier? If Steve Jobs had chosen matte screens to protect the vision of his users, the cost price of matte screens would have fallen instead, and all other manufacturers would have followed.

Since manufacturers of Android tablets are particularly sensitive about cost, they will go with glossy screens as these are cheaper than matte screens. I don't expect tablets to come with matte screens any time soon.


2. Archos 101 Screen has a Small Viewing Angle

Because the Archos 101 is a budget device, its LCD screen has a very small viewing angle. The screen is usually viewable by only one person, who is facing it directly at a 90° angle. If there are several persons trying to watch the same screen on the Archos, the people who are seeing the screen at an angle side will see a darkened screen and not see the image clearly.

I have seen noticed that other tablets like the ones from Apple or Samsung do not have this problem. Those tablets come with more expensive LCD screens that sport a wide viewing angle (almost 170° ) which allow several people to crowd around the same screen and still be able to all watch the action on the screen.

The small viewing angle is not a problem for me because the tablet is only used by one person - me - most of the time. However, when I want to play a YouTube video or to show some photos for friends, the small viewing angle is very annoying.


3. Landscape instead of Portrait orientation

Apple got it right when they designed their tablet with a Portrait orientation. Google chose to go for Landscape orientation for the Android tablet, which might have been done to avoid being labelled as "copying" Apple's design. But I think it is a wrong decision.

The reason is ergonomics. If I hold the tablet with my left hand, and use the fingers on my right hand to do the swiping and clicking, it is much easier to hold the tablet in a portrait orientation than in a landscape orientation.

The only time I would want to use landscape orientation is when I am watching a movie on the tablet. But hey, a movie is typically 90 minutes long, and I don't think I want to hold the tablet (with either one or with both hands) for one and a half hours. I would lay the tablet on the table, probably standing it at an angle facing me, and watched it without making my arms tired.

(This is why the Archos 101 built-in stand is marvellous for watching videos on the Archos tablet).

In typical usage (browsing, reading, replying short emails), I contend that the tablet will be easier to use, and less tiring to hold, in portrait orientation than in landscape orientation.

Perhaps Google's engineers decided that as most notebooks screens are landscape orientation, making the tablet screen landscape is more natural. I think this is not a valid comparison because we don't use notebooks and tablets in the same way. A notebook uses a keyboard and a mouse, whereas a tablet doesn't. A tablet is like a sheet of A4 paper. We normally generate documents on A4 paper in portrait mode. The tablet default orientation should have been portrait too. 


4. Landscape / Portrait - Android Auto Rotation Switch Flaw

I use the Archos tablet in portrait mode almost 99% of the time. As such, I like to lock the display to Portrait orientation - instead of enabling Auto-Rotation and allowing the tablet to switch between Portrait and Landscape. I don't like Auto-Rotation because I like to read in  bed, and it is very annoying if the text on the screen keeps flipping its orientation when I turn from my right side to my left side, or vice versa.

However, the Android operating system  has a flaw of omission. In the Settings > Display > Auto Rotate Screen option, I can choose to enable or disable Auto Rotation. However, there is no setting to lock the display permanently to Portrait mode!

When Auto Rotate Screen is enabled, the tablet can switch between Portrait and Landscape modes. However, when Auto Rotate Screen is disabled, the tablet is simply set to Landscape mode. There is no way for me to disable Auto Rotate Screen and to set the tablet to Portrait mode, my preferred orientation!

Luckily, the ezPDF, Dolphin browser, and FBReader apps have internal settings that allow the app to lock to Portrait or Landscape orientation. However, there are many other apps like Wikidroid, Pulse, News and Weather etc that don't have these internal app setting, and thus rely on the Android system setting, which only allows either the Landscape orientation or an Auto-Rotate orientation. Thus, when I am lying on my side on the bed holding the tablet in Portrait orientation, I cannot use these other apps properly!
This is an Android 2 flaw (the Archos 101 currently runs Android 2.2). It would be sad if Android 3.x carries over this same flaw.


5. 300 MB System Storage Partition - Archos Flaw

My Archos 101 has 8GB (or 8000MB) storage. However, Archos has decided to partition it such that 300MB is used for System Storage, while the remaining 7700 MB is partitioned as Internal Storage.

This is really a foolish design!

Although programs can be installed in either the System Storage partition or the Internal Storage partition, the fact is that for every program installed, a little bit of space must be allocated in the System Storage partition for the program, even if the program is installed in Internal Storage.

There are thousands of Android Apps in the Android Market, and most of these apps are less than 10MB. With 7700 MB in the Internal Storage partition, and assuming 10 MB average sized apps, I should be able to install at least 770 apps in the Internal Storage partition..

But I can't because of the stupid 300 MB System Storage limit imposed by Archos!

First of all, many system programs cannot be stored in the Internal Storage partition. For example, Google Docs, or Adobe Flash 10.3, must be installed in the System Storage partion. After installing some crucial stuff, the amount of System Storage space is typically reduced from 300MB to a mere 90 MB!

Also, every app that is installed on the Internal Storage partition also requires some space in the System Storage partition.  After downloading and installing 20 or 30 apps in Internal Storage, the Archos complains that the free space in System Storage partition has dropped to less than 30 MB, and displays a "Storage Space Low" notification. When this happens, activities such a app updates will be suspended, which prevents me from installing new apps. The browser will also take a performance hit (I think some cache files are saved in the System Storage).

I have no idea why Archos used such a small 300 MB partition for such a critical System Storage partition. Wouldn't it be better to just use the entire 8 GB as System Storage? Or why not partition  4GB as System Storage and 4 GB as Internal Storage? Heck, even if they use 1 GB for System Storage, it is still better than the ridiculous 300MB System Storage that they have provided.

Because of the silly 300 MB System Storage limit, there is no way for me to install lots and lots of apps, even when I have plenty of free storage space left. I think that with the 300MB System Storage limit, the Archos 101 can at most install  30 apps into the Internal Storage when the tablet will run out of System Storage space. I have to uninstall a lot of dormant programs so that I can download and try new ones.


6. 256 MB RAM Only - Archos Flaw

This is another cost-cutting design decision from Archos which hampers the Archos 101.

Tablet programs are on the ascendancy, and because of the large 10.1" screen size, tablet apps can be more complex than their smartphone cousins, and are bigger than the smartphone apps.

It is also more natural to multi-task programs on tablets than phones with a smallish 3.5" or 4" screen. 

But because the Archos has only 256 MB RAM,  multi-tasking is not really effective. Even when using the Dolphin browser, which permits the opening of many tabs simultaneously, a browser with many tabs consumes more RAM, and thus the tiny 256 MB RAM  has a crippling effect on the browser's performance.

It has been argued that a tablet with more RAM memory consumes more electricity. Currently, Archos is able to boast of a 10-hour usage on a single charge. If the RAM is not a small 256 MB, but 1024MB instead, a single battery charge may only provide 7 to 8 hours of usage, and not the 10-hours usage with the 256 MB RAM..

256 MB RAM is simply not adequate for tablets. Even my Samsung Galaxy SL phone has 512 MB RAM. Personally, I think tablets should have at least 1024 MB RAM. This low RAM specs of the Archos 101 is a real downer.

The tiny 256 MB RAM means that the Archos 101 cannot effectively run Android 3.0 (Honeycomb). Although Android 3.0 can run on a device with only 256 MB RAM, the lack of RAM will throttle the performance tremendously, and rendering it pointless to update the operating system. If Archos had only been far-sighted enough to put in 1024 MB of RAM initially, the Archos 101 would not have any problems being updated to Android 3 today, and perhaps even Android 4 next year. The low RAM means the Archos 101 is not future-proof, and is permanently relegated to the Android 2.2 operating system.

I am afraid Archos is repeating the same cost-cutting measure in their new Archos 101 G9 model. If you examine the technical specifications published by Archos for their new Archos 101 G9 tablet, you will see that once again, Archos did not list the RAM size (Archos only lists the Storage size - 8GB/16GB Flash memory, or 250GB hard disk). However, other manufactures such as Samsung, Motorola etc have no such qualms, and publicly list the RAM specifications for their Android 3 tablets. The fact that Archos needs to suppress this information speaks volumes about their cost cutting intents.


7. Tablet cannot be charged via USB - requires proprietary power supply

The Archos101  must be charged via its proprietary power supply / connector. It cannot be charged through USB unlike my Samsung Galaxy SL phone.

This is probably because of the batteries used by the tablet. USB charging is a kind of trickle charge, and this may not be optimal for charging the tablet's high capacity batteries.

I think Google should have created a standard power connector for tablets, so that the same power supply / connector can be used by every Android tablet. Now, we are stuck with the manufacturer's proprietary power supply / connector for each device from different manufacturers. This is the same problem faced by phones previously, until the handset association got together and standardised on using the Micro-USB cable for charging. I wish the same had been done for Android tablets.