Tweet
AP reviews Archos 9 Windows tablet: Sluggish and lethargic, the Windows tablet experience is poor
Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 02:44 PM EST
"It will be a couple of months before Apple brings out its tablet computer, the iPad, but other companies are already preparing a new batch of tablets running Windows," Peter Svensson reports for The Associated Press. "Judging by a model that's already out, the $550 Archos 9, the Windows tablets have a rough road ahead."
MacDailyNews Note: Apple's iPad will begin shipping in late March, which, by our iCal, is next month.
Svensson continues, "Windows just doesn't seem at home when squeezed into this 1.8-pound (0.8-kilogram) slab, with a touch-sensitive screen that is 8.9 inches (22 centimeters) on the diagonal. It's sluggish, and the controls aren't adapted to the size of the screen or the fact that there's no real keyboard or mouse. On-screen keyboards kept popping up in the wrong places, blocking the fields where I wanted to enter text and the buttons I wanted to push. I struggled to hit the little 'x' in the corner of the window to close it."
"Archos 9 is lethargic because it runs Windows 7 on a processor that's even slower than those used in netbooks," Svensson reports. "How slow is it? Windows rates computers from 1.0 to 7.9 based on how fast the hardware is, and places the Archos 9 at a 1.3 -- the lowest I've seen. It takes nearly two minutes to boot up. TV shows on Hulu.com stutter so badly they're like slide shows with a soundtrack."
"Perhaps the best feature is a fold-out stand, so you can prop the tablet up on a table," Svensson reports. "Still, it's hard to imagine what the tablet is really for. It's not good for playing games, taking notes or writing e-mail...[and] It plays online video so poorly."
"It's a little disconcerting that the Windows tablet experience is so poor, nine years after Microsoft made a big push for its Tablet PC version of Windows XP," Svensson reports. "Clearly, Microsoft hasn't really adapted Windows properly for this type of device... It's not designed for vertical use, so forget about flipping it around... You could go into the settings and change the screen to a vertical orientation, but all the hardware buttons will end up in the wrong places. Also, the screen's image quality is not very good."
Svensson reports, "If tablet computers are ever going to be a mainstream product, they'll probably need a complete rethinking of the software. That's what Apple will be providing with the iPad."
Full article here.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 02:44 PM EST
"It will be a couple of months before Apple brings out its tablet computer, the iPad, but other companies are already preparing a new batch of tablets running Windows," Peter Svensson reports for The Associated Press. "Judging by a model that's already out, the $550 Archos 9, the Windows tablets have a rough road ahead."
MacDailyNews Note: Apple's iPad will begin shipping in late March, which, by our iCal, is next month.
Svensson continues, "Windows just doesn't seem at home when squeezed into this 1.8-pound (0.8-kilogram) slab, with a touch-sensitive screen that is 8.9 inches (22 centimeters) on the diagonal. It's sluggish, and the controls aren't adapted to the size of the screen or the fact that there's no real keyboard or mouse. On-screen keyboards kept popping up in the wrong places, blocking the fields where I wanted to enter text and the buttons I wanted to push. I struggled to hit the little 'x' in the corner of the window to close it."
"Archos 9 is lethargic because it runs Windows 7 on a processor that's even slower than those used in netbooks," Svensson reports. "How slow is it? Windows rates computers from 1.0 to 7.9 based on how fast the hardware is, and places the Archos 9 at a 1.3 -- the lowest I've seen. It takes nearly two minutes to boot up. TV shows on Hulu.com stutter so badly they're like slide shows with a soundtrack."
"Perhaps the best feature is a fold-out stand, so you can prop the tablet up on a table," Svensson reports. "Still, it's hard to imagine what the tablet is really for. It's not good for playing games, taking notes or writing e-mail...[and] It plays online video so poorly."
"It's a little disconcerting that the Windows tablet experience is so poor, nine years after Microsoft made a big push for its Tablet PC version of Windows XP," Svensson reports. "Clearly, Microsoft hasn't really adapted Windows properly for this type of device... It's not designed for vertical use, so forget about flipping it around... You could go into the settings and change the screen to a vertical orientation, but all the hardware buttons will end up in the wrong places. Also, the screen's image quality is not very good."
Svensson reports, "If tablet computers are ever going to be a mainstream product, they'll probably need a complete rethinking of the software. That's what Apple will be providing with the iPad."
Full article here.