Egad. We had such high hopes for the
Camangi WebStation, but as with
a few other non-phone devices that have
attempted to use Android, it seems as if this 7-inch slate falls a bit short in practice. The gang over at
Laptop was able to corral a unit for a brief sit-down, and while they admired the exceptionally light and portable hardware, they kvetched about the lowly 800 x 480 screen resolution, sluggish performance when opening applications and the limited / confined feel of the Camangi Marketplace. They also barked about the resistive screen's inability to accurately recognize finger presses, and while they're still holding out some hope that this thing could be useful in at least a few scenarios, it's fairly clear this piece isn't for everyone. Peek the source link for the full skinny.
Update: GearDiary
got their hands on one as well, and they've belted out similar impressions.
posted December 29th 2009 8:22AM
It looks nice though...
get on our knees and bow to Archos
@aarofloyd **your
@aarofloyd every time I've gone to best buy, their archos android tablet is totally frozen. It's depressing, because I would really like to try one out :(
@freekyfrogy
I've experienced the exact same thing, across multiple Best Buys. I've never seen one that wasn't frozen, and I've checked literally dozens of times.
In Archos's defense, the Best Buy employees clearly don't care and will leave it frozen on the exact same screen for weeks at a times before finally pulling the battery to restart it, so it's not necessarily freezing every day.
@Chefgon There's a little reset button, too. But you have to have a pin in order to push it, and I didn't have one lol. but yeah, I wish they would hire me, at least I would care...
But does it do phone and audio? Will it Skype? Will it VOIP?
why am I displayed as unverified? It's so frustrating because I love this new comment system, but it's not loving me back haha
Yoy just have to log out and log back in. Everybody needs to login once post-redesign to confirm their username.
@Chefgon ok cool, thanks :)
Strangely enough, it was showing me your username as the "replying to" link even when your posts were listed as Unverified. I have no idea why they require you to verify it when they clearly already know it.
"Let’s take a quick look at what this tablet has to offer and check it out on video." - Where's the video... SOB made me read the entire article, come to find out in the end of the article the video is not out yet. Grrr....
Well here's a video review if anyone else was looking for one.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PcJocpPfXk
@badweasel wow that is a harsh review but well deserved for such a crappy piece of crapness.Who buys these things? Furthermore, why make them if they suck? And by extension, perpetuate the idea that something designed for the web, can't realistically or reliably deliver it ... and so on...
Yikes, was mildly interested until I saw the price (and poor reviews). Who would have thought such a device would be so difficult to develop?
Ouch. That's a bummer that it sucks at the things that it's designed to do.
Answer me this, though, do you know if you can install random apks on it? I'm mainly interested in it for the hardware; I want to replace its entire interface with a custom-designed one that I'm writing and use the thing for note-taking. I mainly just want a 7-inch stylus compatible screen that can keep up with the speed of handwriting, everything else I will provide myself in the form of homemade software. What are the chances this would meet my needs?
In 6-9 months, it will cost $150, and hackers will have put every OS imaginable on it. The Clarion Mind was $650 when it first hit. I bought one last month for $130. By this time next year, the market will have self adjusted, and the early adopter geeks and nerds will have had time to debug these type products. Thank you beneficial tech geeks!
What a nightmare this thing turned out to be. I'm on a waiting list and now trying to get a full refund :(