Archos 101 XS Pro Reviews

Sure, we docked the Archos 101 XS for a few key issues -- the uncomfortable keyboard being the primary one -- but you know us: we only gripe because we love. The fact is we got a bit starry-eyed when we first met this tablet. The Coverboard design is smart, even if the plastic feels cheap, and we can't give Archos enough kudos for taking the keyboard beyond accessory status to an important part of the device. The layout isn't the most ergonomically sound, which defeats the purpose of having a built-in keyboard in the first place, but we hope the company can refine this concept to get better results. Is that an endorsement of any kind? Not exactly. If you have a $400 tablet budget, there's a wealth of smarter choices out there and many comparably priced options provide better performance and a superior display to the 101 XS. For the time being, we'd say if you want a productivity-minded slate, the best option is still to buy a Bluetooth keyboard case.

The Archos 101 XS offers good bang for the buck and does not sacrifice the look for the price.In fact, it is the most stylish 10-inch tablet under $400 we have seen. The tablet+keyboard combo offers one of the best solution for mobile productivity in an Android tablet. The virtual keyboard could be better, however, since the Coverboard can always be attached to the tablet, that feature might become less important. The display has good contrast, the brightness level could be a bit better. Our battery test was done with a brightness level set at 50%, and you get a decent image quality and a comfortable viewing experience when indoors.

The best compliment I can pay the 101 XS is that it works far better than any Archos device I've tested in a long time, and that for the most part I genuinely enjoyed using it. It's a solid productivity device thanks to the keyboard, and the whole system is well-integrated and for the most part works well. On the other hand, though, this tablet reminds me a bit of the Toshiba Excite 10 LE. Design was clearly paramount in the company's plans for the device, and so Archos built a good-looking tablet that comes with a few too many build quality problems and performance quirks. Fortunately, the 101's issues are neither as pervasive nor as crippling as the Excite's, but they still make the tablet nicer to look at than it is to use.

Hey I like the Archos 101 XS. Yet, I can’t recommend users pull the trigger now. The price just isn’t competitive enough to offset its shortcomings. One of which is the battery life, in addition to what is stated above. The battery averages 4-hrs! That’s a significant handicap for travel use. But this and the video chat issues could and should be touched up with firmware updates and such. Still, it does much of what I want from a tablet and does it well. The UI is clean and intuitive, but not worth writing home. Browsing the internet should be like turning pages at this point and the Archos 101 XS offers one of the quickest browsers around. Wifi was flawless with no recognized connection losses. It handles the ubiquitous keyboard issue with useful innovation, if not style. All buttons and functions are easily accessible and responsive. But is it Early-Adopter worthy? You could definitely do worse. Fence-riders watch that wind, see which way it blows and keep your eye out for better solutions or a worthy price drop.

After a week with the Archos 101 XS I find myself rather fond of it. This is thanks mainly to the clever and well executed coverboard design and the keyboard which is impressive for something so thin and light. The tablet part won’t keep the engineers at Asus awake at night, but remember for the price of a Transformer Pad, you can buy an Archos 101 XS and two-thirds of an 8GB Nexus 7.

A keen price and plenty of power, but the poor integrated keyboard and plasticky build taint the experience

There's no doubt that the 101 XS is Archos' best tablet to date and it's a decent attempt to undercut rivals, notably Asus Transformer Pad 300. It's £100 cheaper and the keyboard dock is far less fiddly. However, the dock was reliable only when on a desk in our tests, and other build quality issues surrounding the buttons and screen mean we can't recommend the 101 XS unequivocal

A slender, capable and cleverly-designed tablet for those who also want a physical keyboard

This device presents a rather interesting – and certainly unique – offering to the Android tablet universe. Compared to the ASUS Transformer Prime with keyboard dock, this device doesn’t quite seem as high quality a final product – but it’s a lot less expensive at the same time at $399, dock included. We’re also thinking about how this device is currently set for a November release: this doesn’t bode well for a tablet that’s already slightly behind the times for specifications when compared to devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, for example. If the Archos 101 XS is released in November sporting Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and essentially the same build we’re seeing here, it might be worth $399. It’s still a slightly surprising combination though now that the 7-inch wave is upon us.

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.