Archos 101 Home Tablet at CES 2011

[Charbax]

Rockchip RK29xx ARM Cortex-A8 based 10.1" capacitive Android 2.3 Gingerbread tablet. It may cost something like $199 at retail, price is to be confirmed by Archos once this product is ready to be released. Release depends approximately on Rockchip being able to mass manufacture and deliver their new RK2918 ARM Cortex-A8 high performance yet affordable processor.

Watch the video here: http://archosfans.com/2011/01/07/archos ... -ces-2011/

I'll try to get some of your questions from the other CES thread answered by the Archos staff tomorrow.

[elmerohueso]

The price you mention is $100 less than the 101IT, yet it comes with Android 2.3 and will support future versions of Android according to the sign in the video. What differences are there between the 101HT and the 101IT?

[AllenPapapetrou]

Was the 101HT HW and SW developed in house by Archos?

The 7HT wasn't and there's only been one .img update in 7 months.

What about the 7HTv2 we keep hearing about and some folks have?

Allen

[glowcohen]

This will certainly be confusing when (if?) it comes out!

[AllenPapapetrou]

This will certainly be confusing when (if?) it comes out!

For people who don't read, perhaps?

For people who count the 101HT at a lower price will end the confusion.

Allen

[Charbax]

A7HTv2 is resistive now 129 euros in Europe, might be below 149 dollars in US, A7HTv3 is coming also with capacitive screen. Archos develops HT line with their cool partners in China. Know that Archos also has several engineers based in China to be quicker at fixing hardware bugs at the factory to release more products faster.

[Hajile_Ibushi]

Can it play full h264? (1080p and/or 16 ref. frames)

[mrshark]

even better: can we expect gingerbread ported even to standard archos 101???

[loganss]

Did I notice a 512 number on the box? Ram upgrade?
How on earth is this $100 cheaper than the 101IT?

[cajl]

more information for the chipset

http://www.jbmm.fr/2011/01/07/la-nouvel ... et-rk29xx/

[ashram]

any eta on this? if it's 2nd - 4th quarter, then i have no problem. but if its in the next 3 months then i'd be a bit bummed that they are relasing a possibly higher speced tablet less than 6 months after relasing the gen 8's.

also, announcing it a little over a month after the the 70 and 101's were finally released does suck.

[Bouldergeek]

After having been in a pre-order waiting list for the 101 for four months, and finally settling for an A70 because it was the only thing available, I will be seriously upset if this thing ships at that price point.

Of course, with Archos' problems getting Gen8 out the door, we probably won't see this device being delivered at under $200 until 2012.

[Johnny921]

Trust me, I would be more then upset if this comes in at that price. I paid $300 plus tax and shipping
for my 101, for for this to maybe come in at $200, would suck. Even more so, if it has way better
specs then ours.....

[Rockstar]

What I would like to know is what type of screen it will be using? will it have sharper images?, deeper color?, higher resolution?, or is it the same as the A101 uses, and also what type of build quality will it have? Don't get me wrong I love my A101, but the build quality is not that great IMO. We are already hearing about, speakers going out, headphone jacks not working, dead spots on the screen, bezels lifting away from the screen, charging plugs not working because they are very sensitive, poor wifi connection due to internal antenna, not to mention the software issues that still need to be worked out with 2.2! It kinda of scares me that this new tablet is reportedly to be $100.00 cheaper than the A101.

[Johnny921]

What I would like to know is what type of screen it will be using? will it have sharper images?, deeper color?, higher resolution?, or is it the same as the A101 uses, and also what type of build quality will it have? Don't get me wrong I love my A101, but the build quality is not that great IMO. We are already hearing about, speakers going out, headphone jacks not working, dead spots on the screen, bezels lifting away from the screen, charging plugs not working because they are very sensitive, not to mention the software issues that still need to be worked out with 2.2! It kinda of scares me that this new tablet is reportedly to be $100.00 cheaper than the A101.

I would also like to know all you mentioned.

[camhostage]

So Charbax, you seem to have gotten the only Archos news from the Rockchip booth. (Nothing on Engadget or any other site I've seen, though there's SO much in Vegas that it's plenty likely that it's out there.) Is Archos not present for press at CES this year? Their company page says that they're there but I'm not sure if this is only for bizdev (and they don't list any new products on that page.) Have you found their booth yet?

http://www.archos.com/corporate/company ... ca&lang=en

[mke73]

I don't think any of us should be upset. One of the risks of being an early adopter is that a manufacturer may tweak products fairly quickly, in terms of specs and price. It's something that happens and if it bothers you tremendously, I would advise against being an early adopter.

I suspect the final price of this new table will be higher. I'm happy to see more RAM and Ethernet connectivity being possible. (Charbax, will this be through an Ethernet port or an optional docking station?) From the brief video that Charbax posted, it looks like the back of the unit will no longer sport an aluminum plate but be solid plastic. Interesting. I wish it would have a removable battery. I, for one, am worried about how long a life my two internal batteries will have. I've never had the runtime that some have reported, which makes me think that the two internal batteries in my unit weren't well matched and that one is much weaker than the other. I wouldn't be surprised if they start loosing significant capacity within 6-8 months.

On a personal level, I'm not sure that the tablet format centered around a stripped down OS like the current crop of Android tablets or the iPad is the answer for me. My second tablet may be a Windows 7 based unit with a digitizer for pen input (and hopefully removable batteries). I know that the battery life of Windows tables is limited, but they've got a lot more applications available that I use already and, more importantly, are more secure since you can encrypt at the device level.

[sequitur]

Home tablets are generally lower spec, but the new chip looks interesting. It has more capabilities in what it can do like 1080p, which is really nominally useful unless you have large data storage and are going HDMI out or just want to stream high bandwidth video. How it works otherwise, who knows right now. Releasing a 10 inch tablet at this price point is intriguing. To others like me who have the A70 and the A101 take heart. You can tack $100 on a new A101 and sell it for a profit on ebay. Go see.

What really gets me is that I expected Archos to have production up to where there was general availability for gen 8 by now. At some point you go from overloaded by demand to real questions about your supply chain. If there is anything I'd like to know it is what is going on. If I refer a friend to Archos should I just act stuck up like I was one of the lucky ones to buy them or can I tell people they will be able to get one. I no longer even see notifications from Archos on Twitter when they are in stock. I know people are buying these but at some point they need to have serious stock. Newer tablets that actually look interesting are coming up. I actually think Archos could release a new generation sooner they way they are expanding, or they could fail to get enough product to market to remain relevant. Currently I'm hoping for one and dreading the other.

[d00b]

Hey Charbax, thanks as always for the awesome ARM/CES coverage on armdevices.net. Any chance for an interview with Archos peeps and find out their 2011 plans, and where does the Home Tablet line fit in with the IT line?

And the most important question, when will Honeycomb support appear? I'm assuming at this point it'll be Gen9 that gets it, so it's the same as asking what's in store for Gen9 (release dates, etc). But since they won't answer that, asking for Honey support should be more productive.

[GeoD]

I'll try to get some of your questions from the other CES thread answered by the Archos staff tomorrow.

Hey Charbax. Maybe you can get some answers from Archos regarding what the hell is going one with the 43's!! It seems like you show up on the forum when new Archos products are about to be released then you disappear from the scene. Are you some sort of Archos insider? If so, what is going on with this stinkin company!?

Any chance for an interview with Archos peeps and find out their 2011 plans

Hopefully they plan on making good on their 2010 products that were released in November.