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So if not the Archos 10.1 or the Toshiba Folio 100, which internet tablet do you buy?

Posted by Paul Hanley

Ok so everybody is really excited about tablet computing at the moment, especially us here at Cleverboxes.com

After many false starts over the years, Apple finally raised the bar with the launch of the iPad back at the start of 2010. Selling over 3m units in the first 80 days of being available, the iPad really was another massively successful launch for Apple and the iPad really defined what customers expected from a tablet computer. The iPad isn't without its faults though, there is no Flash support for instance limiting the availability of "the entire web in your hand" with Apple citing security and battery performance issues as the main protagonists. There is no way of expanding the memory of the unit from the standard 16Gb, 32Gb or 64Gb that comes with the unit when you purchase. Also there is no video output to connect to a larger screen and no direct USB support. What the iPad does well is the user experience. Switch the unit on and everything is "Apple" slick and stylish. And as Apples advertising says, "It the computer you already know how to use!" due to the OS being pretty much the same as the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Due to the massive success of the Apple iPad of course many other companies have since jumped on the tablet bandwagon. Samsung announced in Spring 2010 that they would launch the Galaxy Tab by the end of 2010 which would be a 7" Andorid 2.2 based device. Archos and Toshiba both announced 10.1" Android based tablets at IFA, Germany in September 2010. HP have also recently launched their Slate 500 8.9" product in the US and Blackberry have announced their PlayBook 7" tablet will ship Q1 2011. Microsoft have also spoken about a tablet optimised version of their Windows 7 OS being released early 2011 so expect a glut of Windows based tablets to be announced at CES 2011.

Around the beginning of November both Archos and Toshiba shipped their Android based tablets. Cleverboxes.com shipped the first UK units of the Archos 10.1 Internet Tablet and PC World/Currys had a UK exclusive on the Toshiba Folio 100. Whilst both units sold well initially, Cleverboxes.com even sold out their initial allocation of Archos 10.1" Internet Tablets and had a healthy back order list from customers both units had serious problems which led to most of the units being returned for refunds.

The Archos 10.1 Internet Tablet suffered from not shipping with the Android 2.2 operating system even though Archos advertised the unit did ship with this version. Android 2.1 is far more limited when compared to Android 2.2 especially as there is no Flash support built in to the operating system. The shipped operating system version on the Archos 10.2 Internet Tablet wasn't really a surprise though as it was widely reported on the forums that this was going to be the case. Another worry for Archos 10.1 Internet Tablet owners was the fact that the unit only ships with 256Mb of main system RAM and Andorid 2.2 really requires 512Mb to run smoothly. There have been also quality control issues with the Archos 10.1 Internet Tablet such as screen issues, the metal arm on the back of the unit being loose and the unit saying "Archos 10.1 Internet Table" on the front of it - we hadn't received any PR from Archos informing us of their move in to Ikea's territory! The Toshiba Folio 100 from PC World/Currys hasn't fared much better either. Based on similar hardware (the Toshiba Folio 100 does use a Tegra chipset and has 512Mb of RAM though which gives the unit a lot more potential to run the Android 2.2 OS much better) to the Archos 10.1 Internet Tablet, this unit does ship with the Android 2.2 OS BUT doesn't support Flash playback out of the box - this update is rumoured to be coming mid-November from Toshiba but as this article is being written it hasn't been released. Because of the Flash issue and build quality issues (not usually associated with Toshiba products) PC World/Dixons decided to withdraw the product from sale until the issues have been sorted. To be fair to both products, the main reason for people returning the units seems to have been down to the Android 2.1 OS shipping on the Archos 10.1" Internet Tablet instead of the expect 2.2 version and no Flash compatibility on the Toshiba Folio 100 - both issues will be fixed with software updates and respective manufacturers have promised to make the updates available as soon and as quickly as possible.

So if you want a tablet PC before Christmas what do you purchase? Well if you like the slick but "wall gardened" experience of the Apple iPad then you can't go far wrong. There is literally hundreds of thousands of apps available for the unit as well as books, music, video and games - just remember there are limitations but we think these are outweighed by the overall quality of the product, the OS and the user experience.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab is also shipping now and is widely available. This great unit runs Android 2.2 and supports Flash out of the box. But with only a 7" screen the unit feels like an oversized phone (so much so you can put your SIM card in it for 3G data and voice). It is a quality product however and isn't limited like other Android based products by having limited accessibility to the Android App Store.

Viewsonic are shipping their 10.1" ViewPad tablet which has both Android 1.6 and Windows 7 installed on it (the reason for this unit shipping with Android 1.6 is that the Viewsonic Viewpad uses an Intel x86 CPU and Google don't support this CPU in versions of Android above 1.6 i.e 2.1 and 2.2 - this will however be rectified when Google ship Andorid 3.0 and above sometime in 2011). Windows 7 has support for touch screen built in but we think that it will really only come into its own as a tablet OS when they release their tablet optimised version of the OS early 2011.

Cleverboxes.com will be retailing the Apple iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab and Viewsonic Viewpad shortly and we hope to resume sales of the Archos 10.1 Internet Tablet once the OS has been upgraded and the Flash support enabled.

Whichever way you look at tablet computing, 2011 is going to be the year of the tablet and a very exciting time for this technology and cloud computing.