Archos 10

The netbook market is so crowded that even companies that have never made computers before are jumping on the bandwagon. Exhibit A: Archos, a brand known primarily for its portable media players. The Archos 10, its first netbook, offers a fast hard drive and a well-rounded software stack. Unfortunately, these perks aren’t enough to excuse its cramped keyboard and short battery life, especially when there are other $399 netbooks that look and perform better.

Dated Design

Considering the attention to aesthetics Archos puts into its other products, we were somewhat surprised at the pedestrian looks of the Archos 10. Although it costs $399—not inexpensive for a netbook with a three-cell battery—it looks cheap next to the competition. The matte black lid has Archos’ logo stamped on it; everything inside—the keyboard, palm rest, and thick bezel—is plain black, too. With the lid open, an awkward gap separates the display and the hinge; although not as pronounced as on the decidedly ugly Everex CloudBook, it still is unappealing. The area above the keyboard has thin horizontal grooves, which look chintzy.

Cramped Keyboard

The worst aspect of the Archos 10’s design is its keyboard, which is so cramped it makes other netbooks feel like ThinkPads. We’ve seen plenty of 10-inch models recently, including the ASUS Eee PC 1000HE and the HP Mini 2140 which make good use of their keyboard decks. Archos left 0.7 inches on either side of the keyboard, when it should have extended the keys from edge to edge.

Moreover, the palm rest is unnecessarily wide, which means, again, that the keys are more squashed than they should be, and also that you have to crane your hands over lots of blank space to get hands-on.

As for the keys themselves, several are misplaced: the Backslash key is in the lower left (not upper right) corner, and the right-hand Shift key is to the right of the up arrow. The Backspace key, shoved all the way up in the upper right hand corner, is more difficult to reach while touch typing than it is on other keyboards.

While we typed, the keyboard panel showed visible flex and didn’t feel sturdy. In the end, we scored an abysmal 43 words per minute (wpm) on the Ten Thumbs Typing Test, whereas we scored 83 wpm on the 10-inch Lenovo IdeaPad S10e and 88 wpm on our desktop.

On the plus side, we enjoyed the large touchpad, which measures 2.6 x 1.6 inches, and had just the right amount of friction. The two touch buttons were easy to press, too.