Archos PMA430 vs. Nokia 770
 

Just to let you know: I bought a PMA430, which should arrive next week. As I have at the moment not much else to do but sit around and sul^H^H^H revalidate, I'm probably going to compare it to my 770.

If y'all are very nice, I might even write about it... :)

This is a very premature first inkling of a comparison: I got my Archos PMA430 three hours ago, so don't expect indepth stuff yet.

First impressions:

- Well, the screens are obviously no comparison: Nokillo has this gorgeous 800x480 pearly white screen while poor Archie (yes, I name my gadgets. I admit it, I am thàt sad) has to get by with a simple 320x240 QVGA thingie. Archie's screen is nevertheless quite good, with clever adjustment options (some of which I don't understand, but they obviously do something). For movie playback, Archie's screen is quite acceptable, although Nokillo (OK, it's like this: "Nokia" + the "leet" version of "770". Got it?) has the advantage of that wide screen. I prefer not to letterbox my movies, so there's bound to be less black on Nokillo.

- Wireless option appears to be a clear victory for Nokillo. Although Archie has (surprisingly) WiFi on board, it's only the slow and less glamourous version of it. Archie's reception is also a lot worse than Nokillo's, giving up when the 770 -- like the bunny -- is still sucking up those waves from the ether. No Bluetooth is to be found on Archie's person either, although see below...

-Wired connections. Here Archie clearly wins, but that was to be expected: Archie is supposed to be able to record video and audio directly from a non-computer source, for which it has a very clever connector on board (unfortunately, the connector comes standard only on Archie's humongous docking cradle. A "travel cable" has to be purchased separately for around 30 euros). Next to that, Archie has not one, but two (!) USB-connectors (both of the mini-variety, but adapters are in the box): one is a USB 2.0 device port (for connecting Archie to a pc and pump movies at an amazing rate through the pipeline) and secondly a fully functional USB host port (only 1.1, but it works out of the box! I plugged a USB keyboard in it and could start typing immediately). This USB port is reputedly also capable of accepting a Bluetooth dongle, so BT is not completely out of the picture.
I'm told Archie will even accept a USB-to-Ethernet plug, so there it beats Nokillo hands down (I have had the opportunity to really pine for such an easy option on Nokillo, when having to haul around a relatively big tablet just to set up a pc-fobic friends wireless router).

- Storage. I'm on two legs here. Obviously Archie wins, with that 30 GB hard disk under the hood, but I'm not discounting Nokillo completely: Archie has no slot for removable media (although there is of course that USB host port again) so, provided someone invents a 40 GB RS-MMC card, Nokillo could still win this one.

- Operating system. Hmmm... Archie has Linux, Nokillo has Linux. Archie runs an older (and reputedly stabler) version of QTopia, Nokillo runs the Hildon environment we've all learned to love and loathe. Both try to hide as much as possible of their innards from the unsuspecting user, but Nokillo wins here, because Archie was set up in such a way that, whatever a user tries to change (other than the obvious, like adding software), a reboot will bring Archie back to its factory state. Even the date is set back to some where in 2005!
OTOH, since april this year, Archie can be flashed with an OpenPMA variant of the OpenZaurus distro, while Nokillo has only Nokia's idea of an operating system. So again I'm kinda undecided in which of the two sucks most.

-PDA functionality. Archie has almost all of the standard QTopia PDA applets on board, and there's even a (highly unofficial and most likely illegal) version of HanCom Office floating around on an Internet near you. Nokillo, as we all know, has nothing and is even denying categorically it has anything to do with PDAs.
But.
There's that hard disk on Archie. It's great for storing video and music and stuff, but it really sucks for PDA things: it's like a Palm Lifedrive, only worse. Applications take serious amounts of time to start up, opening and saving files is really noticeable. Well, it's like having a pc in your hand, actually, with all the good (storage) and bad (lagging) that goes with it. As a "keep-it-with-you-for-looking-up-stuff" device, for my money Nokillo wins here, regardless what I wrote before.

That's it for now. I'll be back with more if I can be bothered, but as a general conclusion seems to be the way to round of these kinds of things, here's mine:

Archie is a great multimedia device and I'm already committed to using it as such (I've been decoding "From Russia With Love", with PocketDivXEncoder, as I wrote this article), but after a short test run I decided there's no way José I'm going to use Archie as an Internet tablet. Not after having been exposed to Nokillo. No sir.

Woops! I forgot: a very good place to get started if you want to learn more about this Archos PMA430 is this one:

http://www.pointlisse.com/PMA430/

It's really quite good.

Thx for the initial review! I seriously contemplated the PMA430 but the price held me back. Finally, the N770 showed up and saved the day - and some $$. I'm still very curious though and like I said, if the price of the PMA430 were more attractive, I'd be inclined to play. So keep the comparative write-ups coming. Who knows what could happen...(anybody have those winning lotto numbers???)

Just to make you even more depressed: I got my brand-spanking-new Archie off eBay for (shipping included)... <drumroll>... 386.50 euros!

I actually paid more for my 770.

Have you guys heard of the Archos 604 wi-fi? 30 GB HD media player + wi-fi with Opera browser. It's got touch screen too, though the resolution is only 480 x 272. Expected price is $450 US.

http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/t...-wi-fi-preview
http://www.archos.com

I have indeed heard of it. It's still not here, though (the "regular" 604 barely is) and, cool as it may be, I have a soft spot for complete computers in as small a package as possible, even if I'm only going to use them to play movies. What can I say? I'm a kook with too much pocket money.

:eek: Yes, that's why there is a thread in this very same sub-forum named "Next Generation Archos 604". :eek:

I've heard about it now - thanks. Looks like a cool media player. Not sure about the computer side of things though, and the cost is too high to just be a media player. That market is very saturated. What's needed are more N770's and the like.

A very minor addition to my comparative deathmatch between Nokillo and Archie:

One point where Archie clearly wins: it's USB host port. All I had to do to watch the pictures on my camera's CF card, was to hook up my USB cardreader to Archie (after having opened its file manager first, a minor quirk that nevertheless had me baffled for several minutes) and click on the first picture file. Archie's picture viewer opened and I could zoom through the pictures as if there was no tomorrow.

I previously tried this on Sammy, my Siemens SL4 SimPad (for the curious, a Wince 4.1 really big diskless notepad), where I inserted the CF card in the PCCard slot (with an adapter). Although Sammy recognized the card without problems, it seems Wince has no picture viewer that can effortlessly process 800x600 pictures, let alone the full-scale 2048x1536 versions (they literally took minutes to come up, this with a CPU that is not significantly different from Archie's. But then, we all knew that Windows sucks, right?).

So, Yay Linux! and Yay Archie!

I'm not booing Nokillo, but admittedly, as a camera picture viewer for on-the-road, it just doesn't work (unless I make myself one of those battery-powered hubs and can find the instructions on how to enable USB host mode on Nokillo, that is. But I couldn't be bothered really).

Someone *really* needs to make a soap-on-a-rope USB power injector, and sell it in a nice package, a la:

http://www.pulster.de/images/big/3link-3.jpg

Unfortunately the after-sales accessories market for the 770 doesn't really seem to have taken off.

Maybe because there isn't much need and/or not much money to be made by this ?

Your picture isn't much different from this one :

http://www.ppccool.com/images/bebaer...70-USBHost.jpg

This setup is easy, simple, light and works well. Both accessories are standard and available for about 5 euro each. So why bother ?

I'd like to see Nokia-specific accessories for other needs such as keyboards, stands and cases, but the power injector is so easy... Furthermore, as long as Nokia doesn't officially support powered USB host on the tablet and there is a risk of voiding warranties by doing this, I very much doubt any third party is going to market something for this very purpose.

True.

I'd not seen that image before, is there anywhere online selling the requisite parts, and more info on the battery?

It's not really a battery, just a small case for 4 AAA cells or rechargeables, with a convenient USB connector for output. The cable is a regular USB cable with a second plug for more power, for those external disks that require more than the standard 500 mW. You can use the set as pictured for one peripheral, or to power an unmodified USB hub for more.

I (and the guy who posted this picture, and some others around here) got these parts from a German mail-order store that specializes in gadgets and accessories, generally cheap, mostly tacky but sometimes useful and/or hard to find : http://www.pearl.de

There is also a French site (http://www.pearl.fr), but AFAIK nothing in English.

This is interesting, because I find I already have all the components lying around, save the "double" USB cable, although I find the converter plugged into your 770 so much smarter looking. I wonder how hard to find they would be.

Addendum: I just went to the Pearl site, but I'm rather a n00b when it comes to USB designations: which version of the "USB 3D adapter" is actually needed for the 770?

http://www.pearl.de/product.jsp?pdid=PE4476 seems to be the battery box.
http://www.pearl.de/product.jsp?pdid=PE5619 seems to be the cable.

A better cable would seem to be:

http://www.usbtech.co.uk/catalog/pro...roducts_id/215

This should mean fewer adapters, but 1m long is a bit hefty.

http://www.revealcable.co.uk/acatalog/USB_Couplers.html is a female-to-female coupler.

The first two links are right, those are what I got. The picture for the cable is misleading, the one we all actually received was the (much nicer) one above.

And yes, at first I was a bit miffed not to find a "Y-cable" already fitted with a mini-B USB plug, as they do exist. OTOH, this one is very short, which is a quality for use with the 770, and harder to come across. Moreover, those Pearl USB adapters that bend every which way are actually more practical than a cable that sticks straight out of the tablet's bottom connector, especially when sitting in the desk stand...

Karel, this is the one you need (male A to male mini-B) :
http://www.pearl.de/product.jsp?pdid=PE3324

Andrew, I don't think female-to-female couplers will do in this case.

A bit off-topic, but another fun "solve-all-your-USB-problems" gizmo at Pearl's (they do have a wealth of connectivity stuff) :
http://www.pearl.de/product.jsp?pdid=PE1386

Haven't you got an F-to-F coupler at the end of the 'Y' which is floating, to give you a socket into which you can plug stuff?

Edit: My German's pretty bad - do they ship within the EU, i.e. to the UK?

This is a short reviewlet I'm only adding because it's my pet psychosis:

Handwriting recognition. (everybody duck now)

Well, it's official: both Archie and Nokillo suck at it big time.

Both use that dark-age HWR paradigm of a seperate input box (which is sooo Palm-nineties, BTW). Nokillo's implementation is marginally better, as its box pops up on its own, while Archie expects the user to click on an icon to make it appear and go away again.

Both have character recognition rather than full handwriting recognition (although both try to hide it with mentally deficient word recognition algorythms). I found that Nokillo's "system" easily drops the odd entered letter or, if I space the letters more, will insert random spaces; a fine line indeed. Archie is better in this respect in that it won't even try to recognize spaces (a good idea in a character recognizer IMO), but relies on the user to insert the desired space manually. As a result, Archie at least doesn't drop letters.

Archie's virtual keyboard is somewhat braindead: if you want a different key layout, you need to change the entire desktop language. (in fairness, this is QTopia's stupidity).

Almost forgot: Archie has a third input option: T9 predictive text. I really don't know who thought of adding that option, but I'm sure they belong in the high security ward of a mental institution. T9 must be the universe's worst option to enter text; it's only marginally suicide-inducing when used on a phone with a tiny screen and only nine keys to tap on, but who in their right minds would prefer it to even a virtual full keyboard is beyond me. Still, if you're masochistic and you know it, it's all there...

Thanks for the research and review. Is the PMA430 unable to retrieve images from a Windows PC via Wifi? This was touted as one of the advantages (and distinction over the 770) of the next-gen Archos I posted here, but maybe that feature was only for the 604?

Looks like Eur 19.90 shipping to UK, and they don't seem to take credit cards, as far as I can see. Pity, they have some nice stuff.

There is a Samba package for the PMA430. I haven't tried it myself, but apparently it's quite good. However, no video or image streaming exists for it and there is only a very rudimentary audio streaming package. But that's actually not bad: I need my 770 to have the edge in some fields. :D

Don't ask about the 604; I only "do" real computers, not glorified VCRs. :rolleyes:

The 770 cannot access Windows PC files (that I know of). I am more interested in computers myself than PSP type devices.

There are several entries in the Wiki-howto's devoted to accessing Windows shared folders from a 770:

https://maemo.org/maemowiki/HowTo
(see the "Networking" section)

The French site definitely takes cred cards, dunno if they'll ship abroad though. Germans seem to be more into money transfers, but I've already ordered from German sites this way.

The floating plug at the upper left of the picture is a female A plug, so for most practical uses you shouldn't need anything else, that's the beauty of it :-)

Thanks, but I meant doing it without voiding the warranty.

How does doing any of this void your warranty ?

I'm curious about that as well.

Sorry I wasn't specific. It's not accessing image files on a Windows PC that voids the warranty, it is the prerequisite step of hacking the 770 to gain root access that voids the warranty. I believe the topic was discussed here or on maemo. :confused:

Bollocks, IMHO :-)

OK, warranty maybe intact after all. I've spent the last hour looking back over this stuff trying to figure out where I heard that hacking to gain root violated the warranty. It was back at the time of the original product release, and it seems from Maemo that a hack is no longer necessary in light of the flasher utility and 2006OS. So I am excited now that this can be done.

Back more squarely on topic of competition, especially in the business user/IT purchasing and support space rather individual enthusiast, it is important what a device can do without extensive user modification and I look forward to exploring my new found freedom.

You don't even need the flasher. BecomeRoot is your friend, quick and painless.